Tax Cuts Slice Surplus
by Bob Ewing.
Canada's accumulated budget surplus has shrunk by $2.7 billion largely because of the tax cuts that were introduced in the mini-budget o that was presented last October.
Ottawa, Canada: The federal government has reported that the retroactive tax cuts that were introduced by the federal government last October have reduced the accumulated budget surplus by $2.7 billion.
A Canadian Press report
states that the government surplus for this fiscal year has shrunk to $6.6 billion for the first seven months of the fiscal year as of the end of October, down from $9.3 billion at the end of September.
This is the first time during the current fiscal year that the government has recorded a monthly deficit.
"These measures consist of the reduction in the lowest personal income tax rate from 15.5 per cent to 15 per cent and the increase in the basic personal amount to $9,600, both effective January 1, 2007," the finance department reported.
The budget revenues in October 2007 have decreased by $1.7 billion or 9.2 percent; at the same time program spending rose by $1.7 billion, or 11.3 per cent, on higher transfer payments and departmental operating expenses.
"The exceptionally strong growth to date also reflects tax remittance patterns last year, when corporations on average underpaid their tax liabilities during the first part of the fiscal year, but then made up this difference with significant settlement payments in February and March 2007," said the department.
The year-to-date surplus is $200 million higher than during the same period last year when the final surplus totaled $13.8 billion.
Email
Print
Share
del.icio.us
facebook
newsvine
reddit
stumbleupon
technorati