Sunday, October 10, 2010

The easiest way to reduce your taxes

  1. Reduce your income.  With a lower income you will have a reduced tax bill.
  2. Reduce or eliminate your purchases of gasoline.  There are excise taxes built into the price you pay at the pump.
  3. Stop purchasing tobacco and alcohol products.  In some provinces and states the excise taxes can be as much as 50 percent of what you pay at the cash register.
  4. Stop buying provincial/state lottery tickets.  This is a tax masquerading as fun for which most buyers get a colourful piece of cardboard with some numbers on it.
  5. Reduce what you purchase to essentials only.  In most regions, there is a sales tax on anything that is purchased.
  6. Grow your own food.  Eliminating the purchase of foods will reduce any taxes you pay that are levied on food.
  7. Start a barter system.  Where no money is exchanged for a good or service, there is no tax to pay. 
  8. Own your home instead of renting.  Property taxes are considerably higher for renters.
  9. Start a tool lending library.  You don't need that ladder, lawn mower or chain saw every day.  Buy one of each tool for several households and you will save sales tax by not duplicating items.
  10. Stop complaining when there are potholes in the road, streetlights burned out, not enough staff for libraries, community centres, policing, fire fighting equipment, garbage collection, snow removal and hospitals.  These are where your tax dollars are spent, but you have wisely reduced the amount of tax you pay, so there's not as much money for them and you don't really need them anyway.