# Which country has the simplest tax system?



## MoneyGal (Apr 24, 2009)

Researchers from the World Bank and PriceWaterhouseCoopers set out to find out. 

Canada is number 10 in a list of 183 countries! Here are the rankings, and here's an accompanying explanatory article. 

I'm now planning my move to Qatar. I've been there before and the weather - and apparently the tax system - is great!


----------



## HaroldCrump (Jun 10, 2009)

Interesting...thanks for posting.
Moving to Qatar...hmmm...fry in 120 degree heat with sand between the eyes for a simpler tax system...I think personally I'll pass.

One thing though - it appears that this study analyzes the system from the perspective of a resident/citizen.
Many countries have simpler tax systems for non residents.
Not _lower_, just simpler, which is the objective of this investigation.

Therefore, if you are willing to live as a non resident, I think the rankings may be different.
In the past, I have lived as a non resident in a couple of tax advantaged countries for a couple of years each (for employment reasons), and I found the tax system to be very straightforward.

In one particular case, it was as simple as zero taxes for non residents with employment income only.
Can't get any simpler than that.


----------



## MoneyGal (Apr 24, 2009)

MoneyGal said:


> I'm now planning my move to Qatar.


Derp. I was kidding. I can't actually take 50C for prolonged periods. And I've lived in countries where this was the norm, so I know whereof I speak. I'll take 6 a.m. snowshovelling (which I did this morning) over 50C any day, actually.


----------



## brad (May 22, 2009)

Back in the 1980s, the IRS in the United States had the simplest system of all:


----------



## OhGreatGuru (May 24, 2009)

I remember when a T1 Short Form was only 1 page long. (early '60's)

Boy, if we rank 10th, I sure feel sorry for the 172 countries below us!


----------



## warp (Sep 4, 2010)

OhGreatGuru said:


> I remember when a T1 Short Form was only 1 page long. (early '60's)
> 
> Boy, if we rank 10th, I sure feel sorry for the 172 countries below us!



Very well said!!

Imagine, with all the bullsh*t in our tax system, we are rated #10 out of 182 countries!!

I feel sorry for them too....but still feel sorry for myself here in Canada with all the nonsense and complexity in our tax code.

I'd say 90% of canadian citizens cannot for a moment understand our tax system , which is doubly ridiculous when you consider filing tax returns is a legal requirment.


----------



## MoneyGal (Apr 24, 2009)

There's no legal requirement to file a tax return if you have no tax owing and CRA has not requested that you file one (and if you do not meet any of the conditions set out in this list from CRA). Most people *should* file a return, but that's not the same as saying they are legally obligated to.


----------



## warp (Sep 4, 2010)

I do know that one does not have to file a return in there are no taxes owing...however many people still have to "DO" a return to find out that no taxes are owing, unless you are homeless and begging on the streets, in which case you are still SUPPOSED to file a return and tell the CRA how much you "made", and send taxes in.

In fact even if you make your living selling cocaine to children you are still required to file a return and pay taxes on that "income".

By the way, I looked at that tax study a little further, and its all about business taxes, and corporate taxes, and not about regular tax filing by citizens at all.


----------



## MoneyGal (Apr 24, 2009)

Yes, they set up a kind of fun dummy business and predicted the tax rates after one year of operation.


----------



## onomatopoeia (Apr 8, 2009)

warp said:


> Very well said!!
> 
> Imagine, with all the bullsh*t in our tax system, we are rated #10 out of 182 countries!!
> 
> ...


That's probably true, but of those 90%, I bet only a few have actually tried to understand our tax code and the rest just go to HR block because "taxes are hard". 

I have friends who have physics and math majors from university who say that taxes are hard - only because they have never tried to do them on their own and just assume that they are hard from what they've heard.

Personally, I don't find our tax code very hard to manage. yeah there are some difficult things when you start getting into tax loss selling and stuff like that, but overall that majority of canadians don't have to fill in any extra schedules or boxes.


----------



## warp (Sep 4, 2010)

onomatopoeia said:


> That's probably true, but of those 90%, I bet only a few have actually tried to understand our tax code and the rest just go to HR block because "taxes are hard".
> 
> I have friends who have physics and math majors from university who say that taxes are hard - only because they have never tried to do them on their own and just assume that they are hard from what they've heard.
> 
> Personally, I don't find our tax code very hard to manage. yeah there are some difficult things when you start getting into tax loss selling and stuff like that, but overall that majority of canadians don't have to fill in any extra schedules or boxes.


Your post sort of reaffirms my premise:

WHY should we have to study our tax system to understand it?

It should be relatively simple...thats my whole point.

You friends who are "physics and math majors" probably have already tried to read the tax code and all the nonsense in it, prob turned them off, so they threw their hands up in the air, like so many others.

By the way, just because you take tour taxes to a tax preparation firm does NOT mean they are done correctly, or to your best advantage,( ei, lowest taxes).
Many of these guys dont understand the tax system much better than you do, ( because of all the complications and intricasies) and will do the least work possible to get paid.
It happens every day at tax season...and the taxpayer is non the wiser.

Even so called accountants make errors.

In fact its been proven by the media that when you call the CRA, you will get the wrong answer many , many, times from the govt employees, whose job it is to expalin the tax system to you!!

They don't understand it themselves!! This has happened to me many times myself, as I have had to correct the govt employee at the other end on the line>

The whole thing is a mess and a disaster.


----------



## kcowan (Jul 1, 2010)

warp said:


> ...Even so called accountants make errors...


DW had a part-time bookkeeper and then sent the Quick Books to an major accounting firm. They were done correctly given they data they received. But when I took it over, there were numerous deductions she could make that were not included in her books (like auto depreciation, computer purchases, etc.). 

She got a sizable refund the first year and then paid less going forward. And this is not even talking about the trained monkeys that work part-time for H&R Block et al.


----------



## cardhu (May 26, 2009)

Trained monkeys is an apt description ... my father-in-law was 73 when he passed away ... he’d been taking his personal income taxes to H&R Block for a number of years ... when mom-in-law asked me to have a look at their finances, in the aftermath of his stroke, I discovered that not once ... not EVER ... had H&R Block applied the pension amount credit to his return, despite the fact that his Ontario Hydro DBP was by far the largest single source of retirement income he had ... incompetence doesn’t begin to describe the skill level of the individuals (I assume there was more than one, over that length of time) that worked on his file. 

We did recover the amounts, by filing 8 separate requests for reassessment, but it was a pain in the rear and should never have happened in the first place.


----------



## kcowan (Jul 1, 2010)

I think that anybody who does not buy a tax program and run their numbers through it is missing a major source of added keeper money. It is a crime for inexperienced people to pay more than they should to the CRA. But it happens all the time based upon my experience.

All they need to do is hire someone who is computer literate and with some numerical efficiency, not an necessarily an accountant.

I have taken over from MIL and DW and found these ommisions. So they were paying more than needed for many years. I never went back because they did not have the data.


----------



## warp (Sep 4, 2010)

The rerason all this sh*t happens is DIRECTLY related to how complicated and complex our tax laws are.

And every year there are changes that make it more and more near impossible to comprehend for the average taxpayer.

So I will say it agian.....

If filing a tax return, and paying your taxes, is a legal requirment for every citizen with taxable income.....then it stands to reason that these average citizens should be able to UNDERSTAND that tax system!!!

What could be more clear and logical??

Why should anyone have to buy software or pay tens or hundreds of dollars to comlpy??

The whole thing is a mess and a disaster.


----------

