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A Canadian payroll dependency chart

daemonology.net

251–260 of 301 posts

Re: A Canadian payroll dependency chart

#251
post #216
post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's still math and the standardizing to ensure what payroll providers submit is correct is still checked by the government, who could provide said standard.

When things get complex even the payroll providers get it wrong Where I live (New Zealand) holiday pay got complex, and quite a few civil service payrolls got it wrong (IIRC by a few different providors). It tooke years for anyone to notice, and has taken years, and billions, to put right. Keep it simple. Please

Payroll providers absolutely still get it wrong but not always because it's too hard.

I joke, but a little serious when I say asking bureauracies to get details correct, quickly and consistently might be too much, let alone with software that could threaten jobs and meetings. Canada had a payroll implementation failure in government that received international attention: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenix_pay_system

Having implemented more than I've wanted to - too many are still anchored in the past on a mainframe, abstracted away with a web and/or mobile app.

Still worse, many payroll providers, particularly one of the very largest in Canada, actually still processes payroll according to a "model" that's manually run. It's an excel model, run manually by people. You deal with people directly. Do anything off a beaten path? Guess which model to win.

Re: A Canadian payroll dependency chart

#252
post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Canadian mortgages are a bit different than the US. First, they renew their interest rates every 5 years over a 20-30-40 mortgage. Think of it as mandatory refinancing. Unlike the US where a homeowner can lock in a low interest rate for a very long time.

That sounds terrifying. Do people just pay them off within quickly if interest rates rise?

Paying off mortgages quickly is often a topic, how much faster it happens compared to the US is another thing.

Typically, you decide on how you are going to approach the interest rate, and for how long. Owners can lock in for a fixed interest rate, or a variable rate that changes with prime. Term is most often 5 years, but latesly shorter or more flexible mortgages are more popular, sometimes between 2-4 years, and some folks who might take a risk on a 5+ year mortgage rate.

The variable rate mortgages out performed fixed rate mortgages for nearly 15-20 years. The tables turned in the past year or two.

Re: A Canadian payroll dependency chart

#253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That sounds terrifying. Do people just pay them off within quickly if interest rates rise?

It would be terrifying for any bank to give people 30 thirty year loans at historically low interest rates (because of the interest rate risk - rates have nowhere to go but up, and the bank could easily be upside down for most of the loan), so the U.S. government subsidizes/backs most mortgages (fannie and freddie). This tends to increase the cost of housing while taxpayers are taking on the interest rate risk instea…

Agreed, but technically, the loan is written at time of interest, and for that period it can provide a certain kind of stability in housing prices as well.

As 2008 taught us, other ways can come up to try and make money.

Re: A Canadian payroll dependency chart

#254
post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It could be a github repo. There are likely some digital government projects and software providers who's software might be a good fit for this kind of thing.

It's worth noting that the Government of Canada and various other gov orgs do have GitHub repos where they already host a variety of algorithms, configs, the design system, and a few others, so it would be good to add something like this. https://github.com/canada-ca https://github.com/statcan The Bank of Canada even has one where they host various economic models https://github.com/bankofcanada

This is nice to see and learn about!

Re: A Canadian payroll dependency chart

#255
post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It could be a github repo. There are likely some digital government projects and software providers who's software might be a good fit for this kind of thing.

Why stop there, one monorepo could hold all the laws and receive PRs from the ppl, cutting down the middle man (politicians) leaving just the bureaucracy

This is a joke - I doubt it will work, fewer people to fight over interpretations :)

I remember in my pursuit of learning about change management and digital transformation, someone tried to explain that too many bureaucracies ultimately have one goal - to ensure their survival at any cost. Maybe not so different than politicians in that way.

Re: A Canadian payroll dependency chart

#256
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The original post is about income tax. While VAT is a tax, it is not an income tax.

The post I responded to asked: Are there any countries with good, reasonable tax systems? VAT is a reasonable alternative to income taxes but neither the question nor my response ever specified "income".

Many places, Canada included, have both a VAT-like sales tax and an income tax.

Re: A Canadian payroll dependency chart

#257
post #15

[flagged]

>And to think, in the US we revolted because the king wanted to tax Tea 3%.... There is an important difference between then and now and it's called the US Congress. It wasn't about the amount of the tax on tea but rather the fact we didn't vote for it If we don't like the current tax system we have a surefire way to fix it, but we never actually take advantage of it (vote for someone else)

>It wasn't about the amount of the tax on tea but rather the fact we didn't vote for it

I didn't vote for the US Congress...

Re: A Canadian payroll dependency chart

#259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's also neglecting to mention what a mammoth hydroelectric powerhouse Quebec is, because of that, they have a giant surplus of electricity that makes their utility bills extremely cheap relative to anywhere else in North America, helps manufacturing businesses and gives them the ability to export power, to boot. Meanwhile Alberta burns (and leaks) natural gas and coal and gripes because the rest of the country is p…

Well, if Quebec is the economic powerhouse you claim it is, then surely they will be just fine if the equalization payments stop, right?

The whole point of the equalization payments is to level the playing field regarding the budget of provinces. The formula has to do with the amount of provincial taxation that a province charges its residents versus the rest of Canada. Given that the Quebec income taxes are higher, the province receives transfer payments. Some of the Federal income tax that Quebec residents pay ends up going to the province, so it's not just coming out of the income tax of non-quebec residents.

Re: A Canadian payroll dependency chart

#260
post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> None of this complexity is from trying to plug tax loopholes. Most of it is from politicians wanting to name things. The effect you describe is very real, but "loop hole closure" is certainly a source of complexity too, e.g., the US's insane alternative minimum tax (AMT), which nearly duplicates the amount of tax work to be done by insisting you compute your taxes under a second set of assumptions. The idea was to…

AMT is also completely insane when it interacts with legitimate deductions and deferrals that aren't loopholes. For instance stock options from start-ups for stock that can't yet be sold.

Ah, yes, what a horrible, awful burden the... consults notes... top 0.4% of taxpayers in the richest country on the planet are being asked to live with.

I'll go find a tiny violin so I may weep for them.

Edit: Hang on. I was wrong, I apologise. It would be a subset of those 0.4%. Now I'll have to find an even tinier violin.

Edit 2: Investopedia says "The AMT is charged when you exercise your ISOs, hold on to your shares, and sell them after the calendar year in which they were awarded to you." OK, TimPC, can you just straight up tell me what size violin I should be aiming for?

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