Comments by "dlukton" (@dlukton) on "Canada’s New Tax" video.

There's a big, big difference between a situation where property taxes are rising.... while the tax RATE remains constant..... and a situation where property taxes are rising at least in part because of an increase in the tax RATE. One of those is a "good" problem to have; the other one isn't.
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@hs961 I'm not here to advocate for higher taxes; the best tax is zero, in my opinion. But the reality in most countries is that politicians like to spend a lot of money; and so the question is that of how to structure the taxes. And more specifically, how much would you like to increase property taxes in exchange for reducing income taxes; or how much would you like to increase income taxes in exchange for reducing property taxes? It's a question that governments all over the world have to grapple with.
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Plus, they've got a territorial tax system there; you can come out WAY ahead from a tax perspective. Not to mention that you won't have to suffer through any cold winters.
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@mrslcom OK fine; but in order for your tax proposal to be "revenue-neutral", taxes on income would have to rise considerably... or taxes on businesses. If someone were to "put a gun to my head" and force me to choose between "being punished" for earning money, or "being punished" for owning a house, I'd have to go with the latter.
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@consssf If you were put in charge of raising taxes for a given state, and you were given the task of raising "X" amount of money, how would you structure it between income taxes, property taxes and corporate taxes (and let's say that the sales tax had to be fixed at 8%).....? Would you take the property tax down to zero.... because if you did that, you'd have to have higher taxes on income and/or businesses.
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An increase in a property tax rate is a tax that is effectively RETROACTIVE; an increase in a property tax rate puts downward pressure on the value of the property. Many people argue over the question of whether taxes... in general.... constitute theft; my view is that taxes aren't really theft UNLESS they're retroactive in effect. And this proposed tax in Canada is retroactive in effect.
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@D33Lux I'm not here as an advocate for a higher tax burden; it's about the STRUCTURE of the tax burden. To underscore the point, consider the country of St. Kitts. That country has one of the lowest tax burdens in the entire world, and yet they still have a property tax. Their tax system is 1000 times better (from the perspective of the taxpayer) that what the US has or that Canada has. Despite the fact that St. Kitts imposes a tax on real estate, I'm an enthusiastic advocate of their tax system.
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