raif’s random rants…

as a canadian, I’ve always been led to believe that we paid a lot more in income taxes than our counter parts in the US.

as I near my graduation and face the decision of staying in california vs going back to toronto, I decided that I should dig into this and see what the gap was…

well, it turns out that you do pay a little more in ontario, but not as much as everyone will have you believe… in british columbia, the difference in negligable…

this calculation does ignore the higher sales tax we pay in canada which is 12% in BC and 13% in ontario compared to 7.25-8.75% in California.

however, when you couple this data with better public education, universal health care (compared to the 45M americans that don’t have any) and the lower cost of living compared to US metros (NY, LA. SF, Chicago), Toronto or Vancouver seem like a steal…

Sources:
- US Federal Tax Estimation from Roscoe & Swanson Accountancy - Quick Income Tax Calculator - http://www.rscpa.com/cgi-bin/taxcomp.cgi
- California Tax Estimation from Franchise Tax Board of California (State of California) - http://www.ftb.ca.gov/individuals/tax_table/index.asp
- Canada Federal & Ontario Tax Estimation from Ernst&Young Tax Calculator - http://www.ey.com/GLOBAL/content.nsf/Canada/Tax_-_Calculators_-_2007_Personal_Tax