As you know, most of us become unemployed due to ageism by the time we pass 50 winters. We become "consultants" and self-employed workers with diminishing incomes and increasing expenses. In many cases our legitimate tax deductions exceed our incomes and we can't use them to reduce the taxes payable on our RRSP's we cashed in to keep our businesses alive or our pitiful OAS and CPP revenues. We have to pay these taxes even though we had negative incomes in the year.
If our spouse had some income, we can't even deduct our business expenses from their income to reduce their payable taxes. In fact, we may have a marginal tax rate below 20%, but our spouse may be taxed at 46%!!! . This is absolutely rapacious taxation regulations for seniors. Especially those of us who started second families in our forties and still have kids in university and a mortgage on the house we are still trying to buy for our second family.
When we look at an average family income tax rate of 32%, plus 5% of our income for property taxes, plus 13% HST on almost everything we buy, plus excise taxes on gas and beer and surcharges on energy and 7% GST on some services, we end up paying 60% of our income back to the Canadian governments. This huge bite out of our tails doesn't leave enough to pay the rising coats assessed by monoplistic price fixing by the communications industry, insurance industry, banking industry etc. etc. And this doesn't even address the 15% inflation on food and other essential items we buy from the foreign controlled retail sectors.
I keep hearing the media mice talking about seniors with $100,000 in net worth when in fact 2/3' rds of Canadian seniors have less. But this is till stupid logic, because the $100,000 is only earning $5000 a year at most. These funds are totally inadequate to support any kind of a dignified lifestyle. The fact is- we have been taxed so much for the past 45 years that we couldn't possibly accumulate adequate wealth to retire with adequate finances. We have been drained dry and left to die!
Our governments better get a Royal Commission launched immediately.
Baby Boomer seniors changed the existing paradigm of lifestyles as they grew up and matured. As seniors they are healthier and more pro-active than previous generations. They will not tolerate government directed impoverishment. It doesn't matter how many and how luxurious the new prisons will be. Ageing boomers will riot rather than dutifully pay ever increasing invisible taxes and inflated prices.
All beavers across Canada need to start asking our governments: "What tax breaks and price controls will you implement to help me sustain my lifestyle and dignity?"
Keep your tails above the surface.
Bob the Beaver
