How to provide the core services our families, businesses and economy need for today and tomorrow, while protecting local taxpayers still recovering from a global recession.

To get there, our communities need an ongoing partnership with federal, provincial, and territorial governments.

Municipalities simply don’t have the tools to do the job on their own.

As chambers of commerce, boards of trade, and Ottawa’s own independent Competition Review Panel have all concluded, Canada’s municipal funding system is unfair, inadequate, and needs long-term reform.

Municipalities collect just eight cents of every tax dollar paid in Canada, with 42 cents going to the provinces and territories, and the other 50 cents going to the federal government.

Despite this, municipalities build and repair more than half of Canada’s public infrastructure, pay the salaries of two out of every three police officers, and meet a growing list of social and environmental responsibilities, many downloaded by other governments.

Canadian municipalities depend overwhelmingly on the property tax, a ‘regressive’ tax that hits middle and lower-income Canadians especially hard.

To fund local needs – and support economic growth – municipalities are forced to rely more and more on those who can least afford to pay.

In many parts of the United States and Europe, municipalities receive a share of tax revenues created by economic growth, to reinvest in the roads, water systems and public transit that both workers and businesses count on.

In Canada, however, even when municipal property taxpayers invest in local projects, the tax revenues flow straight out of the community.

For every dollar a municipality invests in infrastructure, federal, provincial and territorial governments receive a combined 35 cents in new income and sales taxes.

Not a single cent is collected by the municipality itself.

In recent decades, federal and provincial downloading turned Canada’s property tax problems into a crisis.

Downloading is a back door tax hike, pure and simple.

It’s what happens when other governments balance their books by shifting unfunded responsibilities – for national policing, affordable housing, or environmental protection – on to municipalities.

It forces local governments to raise taxes, cut core services and delay infrastructure repairs.

In the 1990s Ottawa and the provinces relied on downloading to reduce their budget deficits.

Municipal finances were stretched to the breaking point. The municipal infrastructure deficit exploded to $123 billion.

In the last few years, all governments have worked together to repair some of the damage done to our communities and put the brakes on the infrastructure deficit.

Federal investments are not only creating jobs, but helping build communities that can meet the needs of working families and growing businesses for many years to come.

As governments work to balance their books during the next few years, they must continue working together to protect recent gains in our cities and communities.

As the budget outlook improves, they must be ready with a long-term strategy to ease the burden on property tax payers and build the infrastructure, transportation networks, and quality of life Canada will need to compete in a tough, post-recession world.

http://timestranscript.canadaeast.com/opinion/article/1367939

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Starting January 1, 2010, 93 per cent of Ontario income tax payers will get a permanent tax cut, as part of a comprehensive tax plan that will help create 591,000 jobs and make the province more attractive for new business investment.

The province is cutting the first income bracket tax rate by one percentage point, from 6.05 per cent to 5.05 per cent. As a result, Ontario will have the lowest tax rate of all provinces on the first income bracket, and an additional 90,000 lower income Ontario taxpayers will no longer pay any provincial personal income tax.

The comprehensive package also includes $10.6 billion in direct payments and permanent tax relief, including the following:

• Starting in August, nearly 3 million low- to middle-income Ontario families and individuals will receive a new, permanent Ontario Sales Tax Credit of up to $260 for each adult and child per year – one of the most generous in Canada.
• An additional $270 million in annual property tax relief, through enhancements to the Ontario Property Tax Credit, will benefit 2.3 million low- to middle-income homeowners and tenants.
• Starting in June 2010, Sales Tax Transition Benefits will benefit 6.5 million Ontario families and individuals – totalling up to $1,000 for families (including single parents) and up to $300 for single people – in 2010 and 2011.

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As we get a lot of inquiries from our clients regarding the market condition in their neighborhoods, we in Local-n-Global Realty decided to offer our clients and friends free Market snapshot services. Please go to the front page of www.Local-n-Global.com and fill in the Evaluate your house form. You will receive the most up-to-date information about house listings and sales in your neighborhood. If you see that your house is over-assessed in comparison with the market value of the similar houses in your community, you may go ahead and ask the County Auditor for tax relief based on real market condition in your area. Please do not hesitate to use this service. It is accurate. It is free. We are here to help you.

We want our communities to prosper, our schools to get stronger, and our neighborhoods to be better. We are responsible tax payers. BUT – if there is any mistake in you

http://realtorsvetlana.wordpress.com/2008/01/10/homeowner-in-cuyahoga-county-is-your-property-over-assessed/

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Cuyahoga County had its regular property assessment in 2006. Many of us homeowners in Cuyahoga County were not happy with new property taxes. The timing was not perfect, as property tax increase came along with sub-prime crisis, growth of foreclosure rate and market price adjustment of 2007. Many homeowners notice that assessed value is much higher than possible market value of their homes. There is a way to reduce your taxes if you file a complaint with Cuyahoga County before the end of the day of March 31, 2008. You may find all the forms and information about the procedure at the web site of Cuyahoga County Board of Revision http://bor.cuyahogacounty.us/.

As we get a lot of inquiries from our clients regarding the market condition in their neighborhoods, we in Local-n-Global Realty decided to offer our clients and friends free Market snapshot services. Please go to the front page of www.Local-n-Global.com and fill in the Evaluate your house form. You will receive the most up-to-date information about house listings and sales in your neighborhood. If you see that your house is over-assessed in comparison with the market value of the similar houses in your community, you may go ahead and ask the County Auditor for tax relief based on real market condition in your area. Please do not hesitate to use this service. It is accurate. It is free. We are here to help you.

Are your property taxes too high ?
Commercial / Business / Residential / Assessment Appeals
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We want our communities to prosper, our schools to get stronger, and our neighborhoods to be better. We are responsible tax payers. BUT – if there is any mistake in you

http://realtorsvetlana.wordpress.com/2008/01/10/homeowner-in-cuyahoga-county-is-your-property-over-assessed/

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So without further ado, here’s Tax Carnival #27: Waiting for the Tax Ball to Drop.

As the traditional Auld Lang Syne says, let’s not forget the old acquaintance of this soon-to-end tax year. To that end, Robert D Flach, aka THE WANDERING TAX PRO, brings us a review of 2007′s tax happenings.

Now, moving forward, Lubna Kably wishes us a Happy New Year via her Law Street column in The Economic Times and reprinted in her blog Talking Tax. “In tax land,” writes Lubna, “one can but wish for goodies that Santa could have provide. But one thing common across the world is that the government must use tax money wisely, reduce tax slabs and provide more transparency and ease in filing and refunds.”

Sadly, transparency isn’t associated with the U.S. alternative minimum tax. Fortunately, nickel at fivecentnickel.com sheds some light on this parallel tax system in What is the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT)?

One benefit still available to both AMT and regular tax payers is the child tax credit. But in Australia, reports Rose at Learning at Home, there’s some thought to a Have a Kid, Pay a Tax approach, which would entail a $5,000-plus “baby levy” at birth and an annual carbon tax of up to $800 per child. “Sounds crazy now,” says Rose, “but with the way politicians like to spend our money, you never know.”

At the other end of the age spectrum, Super Saver at My Wealth Builder tells us When Parents Can Be Claimed Dependents On A Tax Return.

Does (did) your year-end wrap-up include a good look at your portfolio? FMF at Free Money Finance tells us How Shrewd Investors Save on Taxes.

Investing and taxes also is a concern of Moolanomy, who in his self-named blog asks Would You Like to Pay My Taxes? Yeah, we all know the answer, but check it out for a look at the tax consequences of mutual fund investments.

And Reba at Team Reba Real Estate offers some end-of-year tax strategy and planning for real estate investments.

RDF is back on the midway of 2007′s last Tax Carnival with an entry from his other blog, ANYTHING BUT TAXES! There, in Won’t You Take This Advice I Hand You Like a Brother, he discusses the burden of proof during an audit, particularly when it comes to the cost basis of an investment sale.

Kent at Bankruptcy Law Network brings us Home Loan Foreclosure No Longer a Tax Trap? It’s a look the recently enacted Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007, which “will protect some, but not all, foreclosed homeowners from a one-two gut punch.”

Raymond at Money Blue Book isn’t worrying about troublesome mortgage payments and taxes. Rather, he tells us Why I’ve Decided To Rent Rather Than Buy a House For Now. Even the much ballyhooed mortgage interest tax deduction is not enough to get Raymond into his own residence right now.

Just in case you feel a need for a quick refresher before 2008 arrives, Alex at Buckmoon offers a quick overview in What Everyone Should Know About Taxation.

Time is tight, but I wanted to remind y’all of some possible last-minute tax moves, posted here at Don’t Mess With Taxes in Dec. 31: A red-letter tax day. You still might be able to take advantage of a few to shave some dollars off your 2007 tax bill.

Finally, we close this final Tax Carnival of 2007 with a humorous offering from Beckie at Tax Consultant for All Seasons. In The Lighter Side of the IRS, she directs us to a video of Santa’s tax audit.

Well, it’s time to chill the champagne and get ready to toast tax year 2007 and welcome 2008.

Here’s to a Happy New Filing Season!

And be sure to join us again in two weeks. On Jan. 14 we’ll kick off 2008′s Tax Carnivals.

At our official Blog Carnival page you can submit an item for the year’s first Carnival, as well as read all our past editions and check out when future tax fests are planned.

http://dontmesswithtaxes.typepad.com/dont_mess_with_taxes/2007/12/tax-carnival-27.html

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