[Dayseed]

Municipal Property Taxes and You
by Dayseed

Picture this: You're at BestBuy, shopping around for presents. You spy, with your little eye, that they've finally decided to drop the price of an iPad from $1,000 to $500.

*Editor's Note: Yes, I know that iPads aren't $1,000 nor $500. Math is coming up and I want to keep the numbers simple in case Sarah Palin is cruising my writing and wants to attack the concept while she guts a moose on her show.*

You decide that's a fantastic price and tuck one under your arm a la Fred Jackson and dodge tackles to the cashier. Meanwhile, you notice rookie phenom CJ Spiller has dropped 4 iPads and is crying...again. Fuck you Spiller, stop dropping whatever you catch.

When you get to the front of the line, the cashier rings in your purchase. She announces you owe $630. You gawk.

"Excuse pardon what the fuck me?" you ask.

"Would you like a gift receipt?" she replies.

"Why am I paying $630? The iPad is $500 and the HST in Ontario is 13%. I should be paying $565."

The cashier adopts a smug look. "Well, you see, other people paid $1,000 for their iPads back in January. It just wouldn't be fair to have them pay $130 for their iPads when you're buying the exact same one and paying less tax, would it?"

Continued at Hello Darkness! The Official Blog of Helen Keller.

[Freakinoldguy]

An interesting topic to say the least, but it doesn't just affect fixed income retired people, it affects everyone who lives in Cities, Towns, Municipalities or Provinces.

It's definately an unfair practice, but I can't see it ever changing. Provincial Governments and City Councils have found what they think is the goose that laid the Golden Egg.

They actually believe, wrongly, that they and the Provincial Governments can continually raise taxes and assessments because they have a limitless supply of free fucking money that they're specifically entitled to...............ours.

For example, my house assessment went down by about 20% this year so the City in it's infinite wisdom raised the millrate. Now I actually have a less valuable house but owe more in property taxes. WTF is wrong with that picture?

The day is comming when the whole corrupt, fucked up system of property taxes in Canada is gonna come tumbling down and all the defferal plans and monthly payment programs aren't gonna be able to save these local politicians and their Provincial masters from their own shortsighted greed.