The $400 check for the wealthy, downright outrageous

Paying an election gift of $400 to a person who has earned in 2021 up to $127,000 in total income is downright outrageous!

Worse still: it is doubly scandalous to pay an $800 campaign gift to a couple whose members each won $127,000, or nothing less than $254,000 in total.

In my opinion, the government of François Legault has made a straightforward squandering of public funds by undertaking during the last election campaign to pay these « wealthy » taxpayers the new one-time amount for the cost of the life of 400 dollars. This amount will soon be paid by Revenu Québec as a refundable tax credit.

Why am I talking about a total income of 127,000 dollars when François Legault and his caquiste deputies refer to an income of 100,000 dollars when it comes to this gift of 400 dollars?

Because the $100,000 in question is related to the taxpayer’s NET INCOME, that is, the person’s total income minus a host of deductions, such as deductions for RRSPs, registered pension plans, the Quebec Pension Plan (QPP) and the Quebec Parental Insurance Plan (QPIP), exploration expenses (flow-through shares), financial and interest expenses, the deduction for workers, etc.

However, at $127,000 of total income, for example, a taxpayer contributing the maximum to his RRSP will have benefited from a deduction of $22,860, in addition to deducting $3,428 in QPP contributions, $412 in QPIP contributions, 1205 $ deduction for worker. This will have had the effect of reducing his net income to $99,095, which net income allows him to be eligible for the $400 gift.

Plus previous $500

I remind you that the « wealthy » taxpayers with a total income of up to $127,000 were also entitled to the previous amount of $500 that the Legault government granted last spring to taxpayers in order to compensate for the increase in the cost of life.

In total, therefore, the Legault government will have paid, this year, $900 as an anti-inflation gift to a taxpayer whose total income can reach $127,000. And, it should be remembered, in the case of a couple where each earns $127,000 (i.e. $254,000 in total), the gift amounts to $1,800.

The caquist error

The government of François Legault should have limited the accessibility to these amounts of one-time compensation for the cost of living to taxpayers earning a net income of $65,000 at most.

Obviously, it would have been economically and socially more judicious to redistribute to the less fortunate the approximately 800 million dollars that the government of François Legault granted to people earning more than 65,000 dollars net.

Instead of paying $1,100 ($500 last spring and $600 in December) to taxpayers with a net income of $50,000 or less, the government could have granted them an additional $200.

The payment

It is through a refundable tax credit that Revenu Québec will soon be sending « gift certificates » of $600 to taxpayers whose net income is less than $50,000 and $400 to taxpayers whose net income ranges from $50,000 to $100,000.

You must have filed your 2021 tax return to access it. Those who have not filed their 2021 returns have until June 30, 2023 to do so!