* **There are a small number of very wealthy Canadian families — about 19,500 — with net fortunes of more than $25 million, who are very lightly taxed.** Although few in number, they hold a fantastic amount of wealth.
* **Even a very modest wealth tax — directed only at this ultra-wealthy group — could collect an estimated $40 billion a year, providing significant new funding for health care and other vital programs.**
* If this sounds too good to be true, that’s because a lot of Bay Street professionals (who work for the wealthy) come up with arguments to convince you it’s too good to be true.
* One of their key arguments is that, if we raise taxes on the rich, they’ll leave and take their wealth with them. But the Bay Street professionals always omit a key fact — yes, the wealthy can leave, but they’ll face a hefty exit tax. All their unrealized capital gains are subject to tax when they exit, making their departure potentially very expensive for them.
the_sound_of_a_cork on
Start with abolishment the principal residence exemption. We can’t have high land transfer taxes and massive development charges filling in tax gaps.
DogeDoRight on
We sure do but I won’t hold my breath.
Shortbustony on
The consequences of a wealth tax are further-reaching than many believe. The ultra-billionaire class keeps very little in liquid cash and are fabulously asset wealthy. Paying a % of net worth annually will result in the need to liquidate assets or borrow against them. This would be bad for regular Canadians and Pensions and likely have an opposite effect. I would argue we need strict anti-trust/anti-monopoly laws that prevent large moguls from capturing an entire market. There is a reason many European nations have quietly gotten rid of or wound back their wealth taxes.
499449 on
So dumb. Look what happened to France, the wealthy will leave. Something is inherently wrong in this country, instead of asking where our tax dollars are going, we want to tax more and wonder why we’re a non business friendly country.
Guus-Wayne on
I’m all for a wealth tax, but also, you’re just giving the money to the most incompetent people you can find to spend it, or give to their rich friends…
This isn’t even tinfoil hat type stuff. Go to the public information on your city/municipality to see what the government is paying other companies to do, how much they’re paying, etc. You can check whatever space you’re most familiar with (landscaping, professional services, technology, etc).
onegunzo on
These kind of articles paint a picture, imho, that isn’t accurate. We can take 95% of the wealth of all the billionaires in Canada and it will cover 2 years of deficit spending by the LPC.. 2 years. Then what?
I’ve said it for years. Canada has a spending problem, not a taxing problem.
Joe_Go_Ebbels on
We need to stop subsidizing the media.
semucallday on
> But many at the top pay very little tax; the income tax system doesn’t really touch them. (It taxes people on the basis of income, and the wealthy can avoid generating income by instead borrowing all the money they want, using their fortunes as collateral.)
If this is the issue you identify, then ask the federal government to make using assets as collateral a taxable event for those assets. Find a threshold that excludes most people who may use HELOCs so it targets the group you’re aiming for.
Don’t have to jump to a ‚wealth tax‘, an idea with real-world case studies and well-known negative second-order consequences but for some reason comes up again and again as if it were some new brainwave.
**EDIT.** Finished the piece. The writer doesn’t grapple with any of the well-known issues with this policy, attributes any argument against it to „Bay Street professionals“ trying „to convince you it’s too good to be true“ (as if we don’t have case studies and academic research on this), and then uses some weird bank-shot logic that because of Bernie Sanders – or something – wealthy Canadians couldn’t escape to the US anyway. Dumb.
I honestly don’t think this would pass as an essay in a first-year humanities undergraduate program. I’m surprised the Star doesn’t demand more rigor from this columnist.
icyhotbackpatch on
I know where we can save billions: not subsidizing hack reporting by low effort “journalists”.
_Army9308 on
Mamdani in nyc offered a quick „tax the rich and you all get free stuff “ solution
Ended up he saying anyone with an estate iver 750k should get taxed 50%
Issue is an avg condo or house is well above that in nyc.
Why does this happen…cause the actual rich hide their money or move it.
It more the middle upper middle class that gets taxed cause they will pay it
You can see in canada once u make over 50k the federal govt thinks you super rich and u get hardly any of those benefits and rebates.
Just saying be wary…
No_Catch3545 on
A wealth tax is similar to rent control; both are popular among the economically illiterates and have the opposite effect of what their supporters intend to achieve.
bonbon367 on
Agreed, we need to heavily increase our artificially low property taxes (which are a wealth tax) and reduce or eliminate entirely the $100,000-$200,000 fees we charge developers to build new housing in places like Vancouver and Toronto.
I say this as someone that owns two rental properties in BC. I want my children to have a chance at affording a home when they grow up.
Delicious_Peace_2526 on
Why start a company, succeed, scale up, create many good paying jobs in your city that allow people to buy homes and prosper, if people get angry and think you should be financially penalized for having a big asset.
AirMinute7060 on
No we do not need more taxes. We need tax spending accountability.
arthor on
wealth tax is copium. ultra-rich will find new ways to hide their money – it doesn’t matter. this is a bandaid on gunshot wound.
parkview-farmer on
Instead of taxing the ultra rich, I’d like to see that offset with paying out to their employees. Put more money in to the pockets of the people that need it. Tiered more to the bottom and less to the top. If a company is faced with paying a hefty tax or providing proof that it’s paid out as a dividend or bonus to employees, that money will reach further being spent in the economy and provide more net benefit for everyone then just government. The feds and provinces will still make their income tax cut and sales tax off that.
easyjimi1974 on
What we really need is effective government institutions. I work with the public service at the provincial and federal levels a lot. They are ferociously ineffective and inefficient. The level of waste is unthinkably high. There is literally no accountability – no KPIs, nothing. Have you ever seen any performance measures for any part of the public service? Because I sure as heck haven’t. I am not saying we should not also consider tax reform and ensuring people pay their fair share – very open to that – but we waste the vast majority of the money we spend on public sector institutions and that desperately needs to change.
Bananasaur_ on
I think if we just stopped big box stores from price gouging us and stamping out competitive small grocery stores, and get a grip on housing/rent costs, communities would feel much more of a swift and direct impact rather than wait to see what the government does with the wealth tax it has to figure out how to collect.
lunt23 on
Give us the missing 30% wage boost we should have had the last 20 years, and all the people making more money will pay more taxes.
GreatGreenGobbo on
We can also tighten rules around Trust Funds. I’m shocked that Trudeau never wanted to clean that up.
Patient-Ad-6219 on
Nope
Ifix8 on
We need less taxes.
Taxing wealth is not going to help the middle class
alex-cu on
No matter what laws we get, the middle class is to foot the bill.
Any tax changes in last ~30 years => more taxes for the middle class.
gamfo2 on
Wealth taxes are nonsense and people that support them shouldn’t be trusted to make economic decisions.
Dolly_Llama_2024 on
Of course I can understand why a Wealth Tax would be very controversial… but one thing that is clear to me is that there is a massive disconnect between „income“ and „wealth“, which results in not so wealthy people often paying a lot more tax than people significantly wealthier than them.
Prime example – 1) baby boomer that only has like CPP and OAS for taxable income but sees their principal residence increase in value by $100k each year tax free. versus 2) young professional earning $150k pay a marginal tax rate over 40%, paying down debt and paying rent, with no chance of ever being able to afford a house.
Obviously the overall tax system is complex and we can’t simply just implement a broad wealth tax, but it’s clear to me that the current tax system needs an overhaul.
phatione on
We need no taxes.
Valhallawalker on
How about just lowering taxes for everyone and far less spending?
Officieros on
When somebody like Elon Musk amasses almost a trillion dollars in wealth there is clearly something wrong with the taxation system. And he’s not exactly a Leonardo da Vinci to justify it. Was it legal? Probably. Moral? Not quite. Known to fund charities massively? Not the case. Good to his employees? Try again…
Sargo34 on
Opinion: higher taxes on the rich doesn’t help anyone as long as our government spends frivolously on things they shouldn’t have their paws in. Carney is definitely a step forward from Trudeau but there’s a long way to go.
Forward-Piano1714 on
Taxing wealth that’s already been taxed is a bad and unfair idea. Before asking more tax from tax payers this government needs to take a big hard look at itself and try to do better with what we already provide as a nation. The culture needs to change before we get asked for another dollar. We are amongst the most taxed nation in the world.
Goswint on
Yes!
It worked before and it’ll work again.
Everyone can say what they want but it’s propaganda. There used to be a wealth tax. Back when a single income could support a very large family. Back then, people would have 3-12 kids per family. Hence the boomer generation. Because they could afford it and have enough left over to still enjoy life.
The money shouldn’t belong to a few billionaires. It’s better in the hands of the people.
Upset-Government-856 on
Response: Okay
IMAWNIT on
I recently started my husband’s income tax for 2025. Total income $235k. Yet his taxes to pay are $67k.
Is that enough or not? He should also be taxed on what is in his savings/house equity/investments etc?
Maddkipz on
The only good billionaire is a heavily taxed one.
KingOfTheIntertron on
Yes I’m sure our banker prime minister or Ontario’s Doug the Thug Ford will jump at the chance to tax themselves and their ultra rich buddies.
infamousal on
What about less tax on general.
mj_silva on
How about we get our spending under control first.
Odd-Elderberry-6137 on
We don’t necessarily need a weakly. Tax but we need a way to account for tax free wealth and tax deferred wealth in determining OAS eligibility. That’s the first and easiest step and isn’t as hard a sell as people make it out to be.
Then see how that affects government finances and go from there.
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**Paywall bypass:** [https://archive.ph/MC1n5](https://archive.ph/MC1n5)
**In Brief:**
* **There are a small number of very wealthy Canadian families — about 19,500 — with net fortunes of more than $25 million, who are very lightly taxed.** Although few in number, they hold a fantastic amount of wealth.
* **Even a very modest wealth tax — directed only at this ultra-wealthy group — could collect an estimated $40 billion a year, providing significant new funding for health care and other vital programs.**
* If this sounds too good to be true, that’s because a lot of Bay Street professionals (who work for the wealthy) come up with arguments to convince you it’s too good to be true.
* One of their key arguments is that, if we raise taxes on the rich, they’ll leave and take their wealth with them. But the Bay Street professionals always omit a key fact — yes, the wealthy can leave, but they’ll face a hefty exit tax. All their unrealized capital gains are subject to tax when they exit, making their departure potentially very expensive for them.
Start with abolishment the principal residence exemption. We can’t have high land transfer taxes and massive development charges filling in tax gaps.
We sure do but I won’t hold my breath.
The consequences of a wealth tax are further-reaching than many believe. The ultra-billionaire class keeps very little in liquid cash and are fabulously asset wealthy. Paying a % of net worth annually will result in the need to liquidate assets or borrow against them. This would be bad for regular Canadians and Pensions and likely have an opposite effect. I would argue we need strict anti-trust/anti-monopoly laws that prevent large moguls from capturing an entire market. There is a reason many European nations have quietly gotten rid of or wound back their wealth taxes.
So dumb. Look what happened to France, the wealthy will leave. Something is inherently wrong in this country, instead of asking where our tax dollars are going, we want to tax more and wonder why we’re a non business friendly country.
I’m all for a wealth tax, but also, you’re just giving the money to the most incompetent people you can find to spend it, or give to their rich friends…
This isn’t even tinfoil hat type stuff. Go to the public information on your city/municipality to see what the government is paying other companies to do, how much they’re paying, etc. You can check whatever space you’re most familiar with (landscaping, professional services, technology, etc).
These kind of articles paint a picture, imho, that isn’t accurate. We can take 95% of the wealth of all the billionaires in Canada and it will cover 2 years of deficit spending by the LPC.. 2 years. Then what?
I’ve said it for years. Canada has a spending problem, not a taxing problem.
We need to stop subsidizing the media.
> But many at the top pay very little tax; the income tax system doesn’t really touch them. (It taxes people on the basis of income, and the wealthy can avoid generating income by instead borrowing all the money they want, using their fortunes as collateral.)
If this is the issue you identify, then ask the federal government to make using assets as collateral a taxable event for those assets. Find a threshold that excludes most people who may use HELOCs so it targets the group you’re aiming for.
Don’t have to jump to a ‚wealth tax‘, an idea with real-world case studies and well-known negative second-order consequences but for some reason comes up again and again as if it were some new brainwave.
**EDIT.** Finished the piece. The writer doesn’t grapple with any of the well-known issues with this policy, attributes any argument against it to „Bay Street professionals“ trying „to convince you it’s too good to be true“ (as if we don’t have case studies and academic research on this), and then uses some weird bank-shot logic that because of Bernie Sanders – or something – wealthy Canadians couldn’t escape to the US anyway. Dumb.
I honestly don’t think this would pass as an essay in a first-year humanities undergraduate program. I’m surprised the Star doesn’t demand more rigor from this columnist.
I know where we can save billions: not subsidizing hack reporting by low effort “journalists”.
Mamdani in nyc offered a quick „tax the rich and you all get free stuff “ solution
Ended up he saying anyone with an estate iver 750k should get taxed 50%
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-03-13/mamdani-wants-new-york-estate-tax-threshold-cut-90-to-750-000
Issue is an avg condo or house is well above that in nyc.
Why does this happen…cause the actual rich hide their money or move it.
It more the middle upper middle class that gets taxed cause they will pay it
You can see in canada once u make over 50k the federal govt thinks you super rich and u get hardly any of those benefits and rebates.
Just saying be wary…
A wealth tax is similar to rent control; both are popular among the economically illiterates and have the opposite effect of what their supporters intend to achieve.
Agreed, we need to heavily increase our artificially low property taxes (which are a wealth tax) and reduce or eliminate entirely the $100,000-$200,000 fees we charge developers to build new housing in places like Vancouver and Toronto.
I say this as someone that owns two rental properties in BC. I want my children to have a chance at affording a home when they grow up.
Why start a company, succeed, scale up, create many good paying jobs in your city that allow people to buy homes and prosper, if people get angry and think you should be financially penalized for having a big asset.
No we do not need more taxes. We need tax spending accountability.
wealth tax is copium. ultra-rich will find new ways to hide their money – it doesn’t matter. this is a bandaid on gunshot wound.
Instead of taxing the ultra rich, I’d like to see that offset with paying out to their employees. Put more money in to the pockets of the people that need it. Tiered more to the bottom and less to the top. If a company is faced with paying a hefty tax or providing proof that it’s paid out as a dividend or bonus to employees, that money will reach further being spent in the economy and provide more net benefit for everyone then just government. The feds and provinces will still make their income tax cut and sales tax off that.
What we really need is effective government institutions. I work with the public service at the provincial and federal levels a lot. They are ferociously ineffective and inefficient. The level of waste is unthinkably high. There is literally no accountability – no KPIs, nothing. Have you ever seen any performance measures for any part of the public service? Because I sure as heck haven’t. I am not saying we should not also consider tax reform and ensuring people pay their fair share – very open to that – but we waste the vast majority of the money we spend on public sector institutions and that desperately needs to change.
I think if we just stopped big box stores from price gouging us and stamping out competitive small grocery stores, and get a grip on housing/rent costs, communities would feel much more of a swift and direct impact rather than wait to see what the government does with the wealth tax it has to figure out how to collect.
Give us the missing 30% wage boost we should have had the last 20 years, and all the people making more money will pay more taxes.
We can also tighten rules around Trust Funds. I’m shocked that Trudeau never wanted to clean that up.
Nope
We need less taxes.
Taxing wealth is not going to help the middle class
No matter what laws we get, the middle class is to foot the bill.
Any tax changes in last ~30 years => more taxes for the middle class.
Wealth taxes are nonsense and people that support them shouldn’t be trusted to make economic decisions.
Of course I can understand why a Wealth Tax would be very controversial… but one thing that is clear to me is that there is a massive disconnect between „income“ and „wealth“, which results in not so wealthy people often paying a lot more tax than people significantly wealthier than them.
Prime example – 1) baby boomer that only has like CPP and OAS for taxable income but sees their principal residence increase in value by $100k each year tax free. versus 2) young professional earning $150k pay a marginal tax rate over 40%, paying down debt and paying rent, with no chance of ever being able to afford a house.
Obviously the overall tax system is complex and we can’t simply just implement a broad wealth tax, but it’s clear to me that the current tax system needs an overhaul.
We need no taxes.
How about just lowering taxes for everyone and far less spending?
When somebody like Elon Musk amasses almost a trillion dollars in wealth there is clearly something wrong with the taxation system. And he’s not exactly a Leonardo da Vinci to justify it. Was it legal? Probably. Moral? Not quite. Known to fund charities massively? Not the case. Good to his employees? Try again…
Opinion: higher taxes on the rich doesn’t help anyone as long as our government spends frivolously on things they shouldn’t have their paws in. Carney is definitely a step forward from Trudeau but there’s a long way to go.
Taxing wealth that’s already been taxed is a bad and unfair idea. Before asking more tax from tax payers this government needs to take a big hard look at itself and try to do better with what we already provide as a nation. The culture needs to change before we get asked for another dollar. We are amongst the most taxed nation in the world.
Yes!
It worked before and it’ll work again.
Everyone can say what they want but it’s propaganda. There used to be a wealth tax. Back when a single income could support a very large family. Back then, people would have 3-12 kids per family. Hence the boomer generation. Because they could afford it and have enough left over to still enjoy life.
The money shouldn’t belong to a few billionaires. It’s better in the hands of the people.
Response: Okay
I recently started my husband’s income tax for 2025. Total income $235k. Yet his taxes to pay are $67k.
Is that enough or not? He should also be taxed on what is in his savings/house equity/investments etc?
The only good billionaire is a heavily taxed one.
Yes I’m sure our banker prime minister or Ontario’s Doug the Thug Ford will jump at the chance to tax themselves and their ultra rich buddies.
What about less tax on general.
How about we get our spending under control first.
We don’t necessarily need a weakly. Tax but we need a way to account for tax free wealth and tax deferred wealth in determining OAS eligibility. That’s the first and easiest step and isn’t as hard a sell as people make it out to be.
Then see how that affects government finances and go from there.