REGINA, SK: New Year’s Day will bring the end to an old problem in Manitoba: bracket creep. The provincial government will start indexing tax brackets to inflation starting Jan. 1, 2017, and that’s a significant victory after years of campaigning by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF).
“Previous Manitoba governments imposed sneaky tax hikes every year by failing to end bracket creep,” said Todd MacKay, Prairie Director for the CTF. “By ending bracket creep, Manitobans will no longer get hit with tax increases every January 1st just because inflation rises.”
Bracket creep happens when people get cost-of-living increases in their incomes and then get bumped into higher tax brackets even though they aren’t really any richer. Because the income tax brackets and tax credits stay the same, it means that every year people pay slightly higher taxes. Other provinces, such as Saskatchewan, have long solved this problem by adjusting tax brackets for inflation every year.
The Manitoba government announced it would end bracket creep by indexing both tax brackets and the personal exemption to inflation starting on Jan. 1, 2017. This change will stop an additional $24.4 million from being sucked out of Manitoban’s wallets next year. Ending bracket creep has been a long-standing campaign of the CTF.
The CTF also released its annual New Year’s Tax Changes report today. The report shows how tax changes, especially changes to Employment Insurance premiums and the Canada Child Benefit, impact a wide range of Canadian taxpayers.
“High income earners in most provinces will pay more,” said Aaron Wudrick, Federal Director for the CTF. “But for the majority of Canadians, these two changes will mean more money in their pockets.”
CTF calculations for the tax changes that will be occurring on Jan. 1, 2017, for 44 different income and family scenarios can be found here:
