Immigrants to Canada have no source of income and can receive a monthly living allowance.

Canada is a high welfare country. Education for the poor is free in the whole process, and social welfare expenditure accounts for 23. 1% of GDP. In Canada, if there is no source of income, a single person can receive a monthly living allowance of 500 to 700 Canadian dollars, and a family of three can receive a monthly living allowance of 1 100 to 1300 Canadian dollars. If you don't have a job, you can get the money until you die. Any citizen over the age of 65 can apply for a federal pension, regardless of whether he has worked in the past or not, and no matter how long he has worked. But you can't make a fortune in Canada. Not all countries with high welfare have become rich. Some people say that Canada is a country with tens of millions of taxes, which is of course a bit excessive, but Canada is indeed one of the countries with the heaviest tax burden in the world. It is a fact that high welfare comes from high taxes. Individuals pay taxes to the state, and the state guarantees the stability and prosperity of people's lives, which is a matter of course in a country like Canada.

Mr. Zeng, an IT person living in Toronto, Canada, moved to Canada for nearly half a year. He talked about Canada's tax system and welfare with his own personal experience.

The tax burden is really high.

In Canada, taxes are everywhere. In Ontario, where I live (hereinafter referred to as Ontario), GST (Goods and Services Tax) and HST (Harmonious Consumption Tax) add up to 13%, and almost all daily transactions need to be paid extra; Personal income tax is bloody on the monthly bill, and the tax rate is higher than that in China; As for business operations, there are countless types of taxes.

In Ontario, 13% GST and HST are value-added tax, and all transactions are levied except some duty-free goods and services. This method of controlling traded goods and merchants is clearer and easier than controlling collectors. In Canada, no matter how small a restaurant or even a taxi, there is a formal trading system or credit card service, because opening the door to do business will face tax supervision. Using standardized systems and services can reduce the financial burden of enterprises. Of course, there are always exceptions. Some people only charge cash for manual bookkeeping, but they still have to pay 13% tax.

For personal income tax, Canada and China adopt progressive tax rates, which are mainly composed of federal tax and provincial own tax, and the tax rates of the two parts are not the same. Simply estimate, if the annual income is 6.5438+10,000 Canadian dollars, the theoretical annual income tax is about 28.354 Canadian dollars.

Personal income tax shall be levied by the method of first levying and then retreating. Every individual's income (Canadian wages are mostly paid weekly or biweekly) will be taxed in proportion as long as it exceeds the threshold of the interval. As for whether the final annual income exceeds the threshold, whether it is necessary to pay taxes or refund taxes will be determined through the annual personal income declaration.

Judging from the above tax payment ratio, the tax burden of Canada is obviously higher than that of China. Are Canadians more tolerant than China? Or are these taxes nothing to the Canadian people? No. Why do people in China and Canadians have very different attitudes towards taxation? Personally, it is mainly reflected in three aspects:

First, the clarity of laws and regulations;

Second, the fairness of tax law;

Third, the purpose of taxation.

Objectively speaking, most people will not choose to violate laws and regulations. As long as the tax rate and scope of application are clearly stipulated in laws and regulations, people will not feel that paying taxes is unacceptable. The most terrible thing about the object of expropriation in China is that there are too many special cases and too many inapplicable areas, which leads many people to sharpen their heads and squeeze into this inapplicable area to enjoy all kinds of undeserved treatment.

The reward makes you feel embarrassed.

Give and you will get back. If you pay taxes, you will enjoy the benefits of paying taxes. Otherwise, no one will consciously pay taxes. What is Canada's return to taxpayers?

Regarding the use of taxes, the websites of the federal and provincial tax authorities have clear statements and explanations, telling people about the annual tax revenue and use. But I believe that most ordinary people don't care much about these things, and everyone will care more about the interests that really come to them.

In addition to the tax refund and various benefits mentioned above, the amount of tax paid will also affect personal credit, loan application and application for reunion of immigrant relatives and other aspects closely related to life.

When I first arrived in Canada, in the immigration service center, the service consultant took out a stack of forms and asked me to read them carefully before filling them out. It took me nearly a week to complete it, and I got a series of rewards after filling it out:

First of all, the government will never be stingy with children. As we all know, CCTB and UCCB are government subsidies for all families to raise babies. In Ontario, children under the age of 6 receive a fixed monthly allowance of 100 Canadian dollars, and then they can get nearly 380 Canadian dollars according to their family income, which means that the maximum monthly allowance is 480 Canadian dollars. So someone said with a smile, having more children is enough to support a family. In addition, each child can get a subsidy of about 500 Canadian dollars a year for extracurricular activities to cultivate children's various hobbies.

Secondly, the government will calculate a tax credit for individuals (families) every year according to the average income and consumption level of society. Some of these tax allowances are non-refundable and will be directly used to offset personal income tax, so there are some tax-free individuals (families). The other part of the tax refund amount is paid to the individual (family) account in the form of tax refund every month.

In addition, the government has a series of subsidy programs for low-income people and the unemployed. For example, unemployment insurance (EI), for those who have worked 900 hours in the past 52 weeks, when they are dismissed by their employers for non-personal reasons, they can get subsidies from the government for up to 45 weeks and up to 55% of the past average weekly salary.

medical treatment

In medical care, the Canadian government is also very generous. Every Ontario resident will have a health care card. With this card, they can find their own family doctor in Ontario. Every year, everyone has a free health check-up and a free tooth cleaning service. If misfortune really happens, as long as you go to the hospital, you don't have to pay for all the expenses incurred in the hospital. Of course, entering the hospital is not an easy task. Without a diagnosis from a family doctor or clinic, the hospital won't talk to you at all.

The happiest thing is OSAP (Ontario Student Financial Assistance Program). The program is open to all Ontario residents, regardless of age. As long as you meet the requirements, you can apply for a loan to study. The loan plan not only reduces tuition fees by 30%, but also exempts some loans from repayment according to the income of the applicant. All loans are interest-free. Therefore, when the economy is in recession, many people will choose loans for further study in order to seize better opportunities after the economic recovery.

Reasonable and legal tax avoidance and tax extension

In Canada, the government provides a series of methods and means for individuals to avoid or postpone taxes reasonably.

The so-called tax avoidance is to reduce the payment of income tax through legal channels. Deferred tax payment is to postpone the tax payable at the present stage to a certain period in the future, such as after retirement, so as to effectively reduce the current tax burden.

People living in Canada will be exposed to such things as TFSA (tax-free savings account), RRSP (registered retirement savings plan) and RESP (registered education savings plan). Perhaps it is related to the local people's consumption concept of spending money in the future, relying too much on loan life. In the past few years, the government has issued a series of storage plans to encourage individuals to save more money and think about the future.

How are these plans implemented? How to guide individual participation? First, the interest rate is relatively high, and more importantly, it can play the role of tax exemption or tax extension. These plans are personal. If one spouse has no income, or the income gap is particularly large, the one with high income can deposit money with the other spouse, thus reducing the taxable income of the whole family. Therefore, if the money is reasonably invested in different storage plans, there will be an opportunity to lower the family tax rate by one grade, which will virtually reduce the tax expenditure of the whole family by several percentage points. In the Chinese community, this is very attractive. Many people work as financial consultants for customers and choose different products such as storage plans, insurance and funds to avoid taxes or postpone taxes, which has increased many employment opportunities for this industry.

In addition, tax credits for buying new houses or decorating houses, property tax subsidies for the elderly, tax credits for political donations, etc. It's too strange for me.