If they want to pay it, who are we to stop them? At the very least, make it a voluntary tax then.
A group of Canadian doctors - who at present number around 50 and call themselves 'Doctors for Fair Taxation' - is calling on federal and provincial governments to raise income taxes levied on high-income Canadians.
They're so set on the idea that they've launched a campaign to get support calling it - "Tax us. Canada's worth it."
The docs are proposing new surtaxes that would tax any income over $100,000. It would mean people who earn between $100,000 and $170,000 would pay an extra one per cent on the income between those two figures and income between $170,000 and $640,000 would be subject to an extra two per cent levy. Income over $640,000 and less than $1.85 million would be hit with an additional three per cent and income over $1.85 million would be subject to an additional surtax of six per cent.
The group estimates that the federal government would earn an extra $3.5 billion a year.
That's a lot of money for the coffers and really, if you're making over a million a year would you really miss a measly six per cent? If you're upwards of $100,000, what's one per cent off the top?
Maybe I'd feel differently if it were me in that tax bracket, but I'd be willing to chance it and see how it felt if I ever got that kind of a pay hike!
"Our group considers higher taxes a small price to pay for a more civilized Canada," says Dr. Michael Rachlis, a public health physician and associate professor at the University of Toronto. "We're becoming a more economically unequal society and we feel this is bad for our country's health." Rachlis also says the goal of the campaign is to get Canadians who would be paying the higher taxes to indicate their willingness, saying the organizers feel it would carry more weight that way.
"We feel that this is a moral argument. We cannot talk about throwing people out of work and cutting needed programs for people... If the situation is that dire that governments are really feeling that that should be done, it seems to me that the only way to think of that is to tax higher-income earners who've seen their taxes fall a lot."
Here, here. If the average Joe is struggling to make ends meet and we have a group of high rollers ready and willing to help balance the scales, then by all means, let's hear what they have to say!
