Check out this story from CTV on Gerard Kennedy's plan to reduce the wage gap between males and females. I have a question about this:
...Introduce a series of reforms to make the tax system more family-friendly and to remedy the current situation in which single-earners get more generous tax breaks than dual-earner families.
OK check that - two questions.
1) I was under the impression that is was the other way around in that the tax system was more friendly to dual-earner families. Am I wrong about that?
2) Is a dual-earner family policy a "family-friendly" policy? I mean it is not exactly a statement of fact - it is a value judgment and different families make different judgments on that one.
Comments (4)
I’m thinking that he meant single people (not a single-income family) by “single earners”. I know our taxes certainly got worse when my husband and I got married.
Reading the story, it seems to me there is not a whole lot that actually increases women’s wages and improves workplace environments (with the exception of the last point), and a whole lot to engineer society as big-government types would like it to be - lots of workers paying lots of taxes for lots of social programs (like daycare, which just encourage the cycle further).
Posted by Tamara | August 25, 2006 9:00 PM
Posted on August 25, 2006 21:00
You’re right, you are better off, tax wise, to be a dual income family.
The reason behind this is the difference in the Basic Personal Exemption vs. the Spousal Exemption.
The personal exemption is higher. So if both spouses earn money, they get a larger cut in their taxes by both being able to claim this exemption. If only one spouse is employed, then that one can claim both the Basic and Spousal exemption, but because the spousal is smaller, you get a smaller benefit.
Posted by Jeff | August 25, 2006 9:19 PM
Posted on August 25, 2006 21:19
Let’s face it, more women stay home with their young kids than men. The best way to close the gender income gap is to make it as difficult as possible for parents to choose to take time off work to care for their kids.
Posted by MarkCh | August 25, 2006 11:13 PM
Posted on August 25, 2006 23:13
Parents can apply for Gov’t. benefits for purposes of Maturnity Leave. The father can to but I believe that applies only after the child is born. Up to six months I think it is. Future mothers can apply during pregnancy.
Posted by Allan | August 26, 2006 3:30 AM
Posted on August 26, 2006 03:30