Cowtown

Well thanks for the insult!

Take a look at the fed govs revised schedule one for 2005 - the "revised" form was issued because of late changes to the tax laws after the early version was printed last year. There are four bands of federal income tax namely 15%, 22%, 26% and 29%.

You will find that income of greater than $115,739 is taxed at 29%. Non refundable tax credits are then applied to calculate your actual tax payable.

Provincially you need to know which province you are talking about. Each is different so you cannt say "there are three bands for provincial tax" and make it a blanket statement for all of Canada.

Perhaps you should reconsider.

dbd33

tbh, I just hate the unfunny cartoon and the polymer representations of the cat; they lack the class and style of flock pictures of Elvis. Were that image not so awfully tacky I wouldn't have bothered with the tax issue.

Garfielduk

I wish people would read posts from top to bottom because I stated in my original post that I had based my data on Ontario

Cowtown

I did read that but it still does not get you away from the fact that there are four federal bands. I added the comment for completeness. I have also quoted myself here just in case you "forgot" what the issues were! Or perhaps you are because you dont want to accept your error.

Garfielduk

Well when I got the bands from a Canada website I only plugged in 3 bands to my spreadsheet as I was only doing it on salaries less than £115k, and the fact there are 4 still does not get away from the fact that my calculations on the income below the top rate band still shows that Canada has less income tax than the UK. If you had taken the time to check it out (if you can) you would see I am correct. And checking out $150k gross with allowances for personal and married person the effective rate is 29% and the UK rate for an equivalent income is 34.5%. So no I am not wrong still !

hudd

Garfielduk

Try this Canada tax calculator.

http://www.ey.com/global/content.nsf...5_Personal_Tax

Also I found you pay extra in Ontario such as extended health deduction, Life Insurance supplement,Long term disability It added about $1500 extra a year in deduction which I do not have to pay in the UK.

On $85.5k I paid 27.3 %Taxes (Income, CPP. EI) 2004/05 On ₤53K I paid 30.3%( Income tax+ NII) 2005/06.

I convert $85.5K into sterling which gave me ₤40.7K which you would paid 28.3% taxes in the UK. If I add the additional detectable on my pay in Ontario I would have 29% taxes+ insurance ,against 28.3% in the UK.

In my view its very little to argue about.

In Ontario we got $10/mth child benefit as in the UK we get ₤80/mth.

I did run my UK salary through this calculator total taxes would be 33.7% (income tax/EI/CPP ).

I found that our living costs in Ontario was $4500/mth in 2004/05 and Oxfordshire ₤2000/mth 2005/06.

We found out that our cost of living is not much different between living in rural Oxfordshire and rural Onatrio. most people will dispute that on this forum, but I check out what our monthly spending is in the UK and was previously in Canada.

I would advise to look for an equivalent salary i.e ₤35 k = $70k in Canada to maintain same or better living standard.

hudd

Garfielduk

I agree with your £53k tax nearly, it is 31% in 2006/07, £41k is 27.5% but $85k is only 22% after married allowance.

You say there is little to argue about, however your tax calculator only works for someone who is claiming their personal allowance only, as you well know a married man gets an extra tax break in Canada that they do not in the UK; and yes in the UK the married mans tax allowance has been replaced by family tax credit but someone on your salary of over £40k gets bugger all from that as its to help low earners.

My calculations were to make some comparison but everyone wants to make things more complicated by bringing in other factors and if you want to do that its fine; all I would say is that each individual ought to calculate from their own situation, its not what you earn here that matters at the end of the day, its what you can earn in your chosen country and what disposable income you have to buy all the things that you want in your new life.

And yes most people say that the Cost of Living is lower in Canada, I have compared figures with Iaink and it works out at between 75% - 80% (Come on Iain back me up on this one ), maybe not as low as some Uk emigrants think or would like. It really would have to be as wages are somewhat lower.

hudd

I have just checked my 2005 pay slips when I worked in Ontario. I paid 24% of my salary in income tax plus CPP + EI and did claim for my wife tax allowance.
I did live in Canada for 8 years, so I assume working for the federal govt is that they got my taxation correct. Also my wife did my tax returns and she is pretty astute at accountancy.

I agree with when you are looking at 75-80% salary needed in Canada if you compare cities such as Manchester and Toronto.
I found living 120 miles away from a major city we spent more than now living 12 miles away from Oxford.
I know our monthly food/house hold bills/property tax/petrol were triple in dollars than we spend it pounds. This is due to the climate, location and distance we travelled.

To be honest I rather take home £3000 a month than $4600, is gives us more free spending money.

Until you lived in both the UK and Canada will you know what income you really need to maintain the life style you are used to.

hudd

Garfielduk

The answer to your last question is "No", but an idea of what other people are paying is obviously good to know. Everyone must evaluate for themselves the financial implications as well as the social and other reasons for emigrating. I guess for a lot of Uk people it is attractive to go to some places due to property price differences, there are fo course places that are no cheaper in that sense like the Hot Spots of Calgary and a few other places. We are looking at the Niagara region so what do you think about living costs there, similar to yours I guess ?