30 January 2009

Windfall!

On Tuesday, Daphne and I wrote of our impressions of Budget 2009, in terms of how it might help the poorest of low-income wage earners. We used two households (ours) as examples. In the comments section, others came forward with their own stories, which we appreciated.

Well, thanks to this handy dandy Tax Savings Calculator, we can see exactly by how much the budget will help "the most vulnerable."



All those minuses mean that a single person who earns less than $10,000 a year will get zilch. That's because the tax cuts are not refundable tax credits. They just reduce the income tax that people might pay. If you already earn too little to pay income tax, you'll benefit NOTHING from the new budget.

As Daphne mentioned in our original post, she owns her own home. But you can bet that she'll not be able to take advantage of the new Home Renovation Tax Credit either. Cuz, again, she doesn't earn enough to pay income tax. She hasn't a spare $1,000 lying around either.

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