According to the Fraser Institute Tax Freedom Day for 2008 was Saturday June 14th. This alleged end of you earning money for taxes means you have the rest of the year to pay for all your other expenses. Speaking as a highly taxed individual (no matter how much I bitch about over spending in my household Taxes by far out strip all other spending we do).
The institute even has a fun little tool to figure out when your specific Tax Freedom Day which was kind of cool to play around with as well.
This artificial celebration really means very little, except that most Canadians pay over 50% of their income in various taxes (if you simply count the number of days until this happy day). How can things change? Less Government spending might help, smarter spending might be nice too (get more from all the money I give you). Given I haven’t had a raise in 5 years, it would be nice if the government was forced to do the same rethinking on spending that my household has had to do (I mean government in the Generic across the board sense, not just the Federal or Provincial folks).
Enjoy earning money for yourself now (figuratively, if not factually).
Mortgage Rates on the Rise?
Thanks to last week’s non-cut by the Bank of Canada most of the major banks are raising their Mortgage rates in reaction. Any debt vehicle that has a variable rate hasn’t changed that I can tell, but the banks seem to think rates will be going back up very soon, and they are reacting accordingly. TD Canada Trust’s rates can be found here, Scotiabank’s can be found here, but remember all these rates can be negotiated, and if you don’t want to do that, go to a Mortgage Broker and get a better rate there.
Funny no one has lowered the Credit Card rates lately 🙂 (sorry had to have a jab at one of my favorite topics).
No point in repeating myself, I started pointing out some criticisms of “tax freedom day” in response to Canadian Capitalist’s post on the subject. Check it out.
Credit card interest rates aren’t tied to the Bank of Canada Rate or even the prime rate. There tied to the HMSCA index, which kind of ties in with the consumer confidence index. It’s full name is the “How Much of a Sucker Consumers Are Index”.
Seriously, I don’t like the way they calculate tax freedom day. I don’t agree that EI and CPP should be included, only actual taxes. It’s not called ‘Taxes and Services Freedom Day’. They also don’t include things like the CCTB, UUCB, GST Credit and others. I guess it’s a good guide between years though, just not that useful otherwise.