Canada Will Implement a New Luxury Tax on High-Priced Planes and Vehicles | Hacker News Reader

Canada Will Implement a New Luxury Tax on High-Priced Planes and Vehicles

robbreport.com

15 pointscolinprince14 comments

Canadian here. I don't own a plane, yacht or luxury vehicle and am not planning to buy one. I live with my partner in a tiny, modest apartment (<1000 sqft).

I feel 10% is going overboard. I assume it's on top of the existing 5-15% sales tax (depending which province). The government seizing 25% of the value of a purchase feels like outright robbery. For those viewing this from the lens of the US, keep in mind the highest income tax brackets here are north of 50%. (Yeah... Canada has a lot of tax).

Can't tax the ultra rich's income because they don't have any

Can't tax the ultra rich's wealth because there's no political will and can get complicated really quick

Taxing their consumption is probably the only thing left

In Denmark, the vehicle tax has a 150% marginal rate

Tax their liquid money holdings, then the poor can use the money as a medium of exchange instead of letting it lay fallow as a status symbol.

Hard to tax as it's easy to move across jurisdictions.

Yep, but just as a comparison, VAT in the EU is in some countries over 20% (Italy 22%, Sweden 25%) on most goods.

In Italy there used to be a "luxury item" VAT that raised VAT from the "normal" 18% to 38%.

I believe Australia still has LCT (in addition to GST):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luxury_Car_Tax

> I live with my partner in a tiny, modest apartment (<1000 sqft).

Perhaps that's tiny by Canadian standards. In Europe, it'd be actually considered large. "Tiny" is below 300 sqft.

It depends on countries, and within countries it depends on the location.

In Italy 28 m2 (roughly 300 sqft) is the minimum size you can legally call it a living unit, "tiny" is usually roughly 30-60 m2, "medium" is 60-100, 100 m2 and over is considered "large".

This is for cities and towns, in the country 60 m2 would probably be considered "tiny".

Not sure how or if this will apply to the property of Canada's citizens which is registered abroad, but how can they tax transactions retroactively (anything after January 1, 2022)? Is there any precedent for that in Canada?

China has a luxury tax on top of all other taxes, incl. the VAT. That was one of the reasons why supercars were bought in Hong Kong rather than mainland China. And I am not speaking about the plebs Lamborghinis or Ferraris.

Worked in the luxury car industry over there for a few years. Trust me, the rich have their ways.

If the goal is to reduce production of private jets and vehicles, then go for it.

The last time USA tried this it killed jobs and reduced tax income.

Rich people lease, often from their own tax heaven incorporated entities.

They lease from entities that will have to pay taxes if they operate as lease businesses in Canada. The tax is not directly aimed at wealthy people, but at any person or corporation buying a high-priced vehicle, before using it or leasing it.

But neither the the lease nor the purchase is in Canada.

Link just seems to go to the homepage via a redirect.

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