Everyone in Canada benefit from the things our governments use taxes to pay for.  That applies whether you actually pay taxes or not.  (For example an infant that probably has no income and does not directly purchase things)

Income Taxes

One of the major source of tax revenue in Canada is a percent of income.  This can be personal or Corporate income.  The tax also applies to virtually every type of income although lottery winnings and gifts are tax free in Canada (this is not an universal principal internationally).

One of my pet peeves is the taxing of some. benefit income.  Things like free or subsidized parking costs, insurance benefits, personal health funding.

I find taxes on money I never actually recieve (for example the value placed on parking at your workplace).  In these case tax is collected on the assessed value of the benefit allocated even though you never actually see the money but the tax amount is deducted from your earnings.

What about a head tax?

This type of deduction happened to me recently and it gets me thinking about tax reform.

I have long been a believer in a head tax to replace personal income tax.  Corporate, sales property and other existing tax methods could remain but the possibility to lower them would exist.

A head tax is very simple and exceedingly fair.  You take the unfunded government spending (after those other tax types I mentioned) divide it by the countries population and that is the tax due from everyone.  Simply put, every head in the country pays tax (whether you earn income or not) and every one pays an equal share.

Logistically the calculation is made following a fiscal year (so you know what the spending shortfall was).  Population wise the census numbers are used so they won’t be exact but close enough.  Collection wise, the government just grabs it from your accounts or wages if you don’t pay and there are penalties for not paying of course.