I owe, I owe, so off to work I go.

Grrr... I received a reminder as to my owing the Canada Revenue Agengy $1700 for last years taxes in the mail today! In all honesty I completely forgot about this debt, now to add that into my total of debts. So far my debt reduction is not going so well as it keeps increasing as opposed to decreasing.

I still have full intention of reducing our debt one way or another, I'm not going to let this get me down.

Is Middle Class Actually Better Off?

We commonly have this discussion at work regarding the middle class and are we actually any better off? I remember reading a news story earlier this year where it stated that if you earned $50,000 a year take home after all payroll taxes as well as GST and PST you actual take home is more in the range of $30,000! Now how I have to ask is a family of 5 suppose to live on an income of $30,000? That's only $6000 per person!

It's absolutely ridiculous! Now let's say my wife was to leave me and take with her our 3 children, based upon her earning of $6000 last year. Her child tax credit would jump from $220 a month to $780. Child support of $946 per month due to her. She would also receive a GST check paided out quarterly of $212 after filing her next year taxes. She would also fall under the low income bracket for taxes due to child tax credit not being taxable in Canada she would only have to pay taxes on the $6000 plus the child support of $11352 bring her total to $17352 after tax $14402

+ gst of $848 for the year
+ child tax credit of $9360
bring her total income after tax to $24610 for the year.

Without even figuring in probably a sizable tax return for the year and access to numerous government programs which are not available to us currently due to all programs looking at before tax income. She would actually be better off without me. Now in no way am I saying that single mothers or quote unquote low income families have it easy so please don't misinterpret it. I'm just showing how again the quote unquote middle class isn't always better off and maybe it's time for Canada to re-evaluate it's LICO.

$2000 Tax Credit

As of July 1st 2007 there is a new tax credit available on your TD1, you know the tax form that you fill out when you start a new job. Although maybe you did or didn't know this, you should fill out a new one each year and submit it to your employer in order to ensure your receiving the proper credits and try to avoid getting dinged at the end of the year for not submitting enough taxes.

This year in particular has been good for Canadian families as now there's a credit for $2000 per child under the age of 18 residing in your home. It can only be claimed by one member of the household so this year I received an additional $6000 tax credit which works out to approx. $990 per year increasing my take home pay by approx. $38 per pay. Here’s the link 2007 TD1 just print it off, fill it out and hand it into your employer.