When I decided to come over to Scotland, I investigated the tax consequences, expecting to find myself paying more tax over here in the UK. I was surprised to find the opposite, in fact, quite the opposite. For my fellow Canadians out there, here's the shocking news - the excess rate of taxation is considerable and across the board in all types of income and investment taxes.
Refer to the chart for all the numbers. I've used Ontario as my benchmark province.
The UK advantages start with the personal exemption of about $11,500 vs only $8839 in Canada. Take your marginal tax rate and compute the savings on the difference.
On income and interest, treated as the same in Canada but taxed at a slightly lower rate on interest in the UK, the Canadian rate is higher in every single tax bracket and the difference is the worst for middle income earners. For example, in the blue highlighted line for taxable income in the $60k range the Canadian marginal rate is 33% vs 22% in the UK. Ka-ching, another difference that could reach into the four figures.
On dividends, the UK has a zero effective rate due to an offsetting dividend tax credit until a person has more than about $76,000 taxable income.
On capital gains, the rate is actually higher in the UK throughout the tax brackets but everyone is given an annual exemption of about $20,150 in net gains. That should suffice to ensure a tax-free existence for most investors of modest means.
Not shown in the chart are the comparable retirement savings vehicles, the RRSP in Canada and the Individual Savings Account (ISA) in the UK. An ISA offers the same tax-free accumulation/compounding as the RRSP. An ISA does not allow a tax deduction as does the RRSP. Instead, any withdrawals are tax-free as opposed to the RRSP where withdrawals are taxed at the rate for marginal income. The RRSP advantage of saving taxes by withdrawing after retirement when one's tax rate would be less is not there for the ISA ... but the UK tax rates are lower in the first place and more uniform up to high levels. In addition, the ISA doesn't create artificial incentives to keep interest bearing securities inside the RRSP and dividend or growth investments outside. For anyone who has struggled with portfolio balancing across both RRSP /LIRAs and regular accounts while minimizing taxes, this ISA feature would be a big boon. Perhaps the biggest plus of the ISA is that the £7,000 annual allocation that is not reduced by contributions to a regular pension plan and thus allows a much high tax-free savings rate if desired.
Though such differences are and were not the motivation for my move to the UK, nor would I advocate moving to another country just to save taxes, it does lead one to ask those people who make our taxes why they are so high.
Stumble It!
3 comments:
This is a surprise!
I always thought that the UK was expensive in many aspects including taxes.
This may be food for thought down the road as my British wife occasionally pines for home.
Taxes are only a start. My undocumented impression is that the cost living here - food, clothing, housing, golf, curling (all those essentials of life!) - is about double. A pound buys about what a dollar does in Canada. A fair total lifestyle comparison would need to include all that stuff, as well as other state supports etc. Maybe grist for future posts.
Jim, what if I were to move to the UK. As a Canadian, what are the tax implications--will I have to pay that deemed disposition on all my assets? Is there any way around this tax?
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