(February 28 – 16:00 ET) Ottawa is proposing to drop the middle personal income tax rate from 26% to 23% within the next five years. In this year’s budget, it proposes dropping the rate to 24% on July 1, 2000. The feds estimate that this measure will reduce taxes for nine million Canadians.

Ottawa is also raising the threshold at which the 5% surtax will kick in. Under the current rules, the surtax is applied when the taxpayer earns $65, 000. Effective July 1, the threshold will kick in at an income of $85,000.

The feds are proposing, in the present budget, to lower the surtax to 4%. The Budget Plan 2000 proposes to eliminate the surtax altogether by 2004.
-IE Staff