A little more money in our pockets!
22 Mar 2019
Older workers, homeowners and parents with higher incomes will see the biggest tax benefits from the Coalition Avenir Québec government’s first budget — but there will be no income tax cuts.
“We’re going with specific measures. Those are the measures that we had promised, and we’re delivering on them. It is possible that in due time when we succeed in raising the potential growth, as we lower the debt level, there would be room to cut taxes for everybody,” Finance Minster Eric Girard said.
The biggest measure, in terms of its impact to government revenue, will be the gradual standardization of school taxes.
The government plans to reduce the school tax across the province to $0.10540 per $100 of a property’s assessed value, the rate currently paid in the Laurentians, which has the lowest rate in the province. The school tax rate is currently $0.17832 per $100 of assessed value in Montreal.
Thursday’s budget forecasts that the measure will reduce government revenue by more than $200 million a year over the next five years — a total of $1.2367 billion.
But that will grow: When school taxes are full standardized in July 2021, the full cost is expected to be around $800 million a year, the government said.
Liberal finance critic Carlos Leitão said the plan would only benefit homeowners.
“There’s nothing for renters,” he said.
The government is also moving forward with a plan to eliminate the additional contribution parents whose household income is over $52,220 pay for daycare.
This year, those payments will be reduced by 70 cents a day for all parents. For those whose annual income is between $52,220 and $78,320, that will end their additional payments, saving them $182 a year.
Over the next three years, higher-income parents will see further reductions. In 2022, when the additional payments are scheduled to be eliminated completely, parents with incomes over $170,000 will save $3,614 a year, and everyone regardless of income will pay the basic rate, currently $8.25 a day per child.
Asked about the fact that the two measures would benefit higher-income Quebecers the most, Girard brought up an expanded tax credit for older workers.
That credit, currently available to workers over 61, will have its minimum age lowered to 60. And workers age 60-64 will have $10,000 of income eligible for the credit (a maximum tax cut of $1,500), rather than a limit that ramps up with age. The limit for workers 65 and over will remain at $11,000.
“We think this is a missed opportunity for the Legault government,” said Renaud Brossard, the Quebec director at the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
“In the election campaign, François Legault promised to put money back in Quebecers’ pockets. There was no asterisk, no exception, and when we look at this budget, there’s a little bit of money for families, crumbs for seniors and nothing for the rest of Quebecers.”
With the surpluses left by the Liberals, Brossard said the government should have gone further.
