Your points about Dual Income families deserving breaks for day care is fine by me, as you said we have made a choice to not have my spouse work (and have foregone a fair amount of things). By the way, she does a great deal of volunteer work and I think volunteers should get tax breaks or something because there are so few folks willing to help out in our communities (with ever dwindling funding of programs (both recreational and educational)).

I don’t think anyone needs to have their tax breaks rolled back or removed (given the government has an $11B surplus that is for sure), what I want to see is equity by having income splitting possible (before I turn 65).

I’d like to see more tax breaks for families in general actually (dual, or single income, single parent, etc.,), but maybe I’ll save that for another posting.

The main point is that if the taxation system had the concept of a flat household income tax the system would be more equitable to all involved.

Plus, like I said before the tax system is biased based on needs. You don’t need to drive kids all over the place in your huge SMV (I’d use SUV, but I think ’sport mom vehicle’ is much more fitting, I’ll apologize if your driving an 8 passenger ‘97 taurus wagon or something.) to play basketball when there are kids that can’t even afford to buy proper sneakers to play, even in dual income families. Your preschooler needs someone to take care of them, and you can because you don’t need to work. . . That’s a huge luxury. Someone else’s preschooler needs to be in a day care because both parents are working trying to bring home probably far less salary than your family is pulling in with just one income.

Also, I made it fairly clear that most stay at home parents are not volunteering, not all. Maybe I’m not understanding the request here because I can’t think of any fathomable purpose for allowing people who can take care of their kids themselves to deduct expenses for someone else taking care of them instead.

You get the UUCB, you get the CCTB, You get the child care credit, you just don’t get a tax deduction because you pay no tax . . . how is that unfair?

bigcajunwife

The tax system is biased based on needs. You have someone home to care for your children, why should you need to pay someone else to watch them other than you don’t want to. This will just reduce the spots available in care facilities that are already strained because of lack of space.

The only change I would agree to is allowing single income homes to deduct child care expenses to the high income earner for care paid during times that the ‘at home’ spouse is volunteering. This would be an acceptable change as it won’t reduce childcare spots for families that actually do need dual workers, since most of the ‘at homers’ will be sitting watching TV anyway. I doubt many more than 5% are volunteering regularly.

thebigcajunwife

And your final statement about Lazy spouses at home doing nothing?

Using your argument, why should disabled people get all the tax advantages they do. I mean, if I buy an electric wheelchair because I’m just too damn lazy to walk to the store I can’t deduct that . . . just cause they are disabled they get it as a deduction? I mean, how fair is that?

Though I don’t agree with that either, it’s basically the same argument. If you don’t like the way it works why not twist it to your advantage and enroll your spouse in school.

“The purpose of the legislative provisions regarding child care expenses is to provide some relief for taxpayers who incur child care expenses in order to work, carry on a business or undertake certain educational activities.”

The argument comes down to need. A disabled person may need medical expenses, so they get tax advantages. A dual income family needs to pay for childcare, so they get tax advantages. A single income family doesn’t need to pay for childcare, it’s a choice, so they get to pay the full amount. You guys get the spousal credit, which in the example above reduced the tax bill by 2100 bucks. Why should you get to claim a credit for your spouse just because they get to stay at home and not be a productive member of the workforce? I don’t get a credit for my spouse and I have one, yet my neighbour who has a spouse gets a credit for theirs . . . maybe the tax system loves single income families.