What is Canada’s carbon tax? How expats can get through it?
The current climatic conditions globally are all hinting towards a climate disaster, resulting in extreme dips in highs and temperatures, in places where winter is the main season, like Canada. Under the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act in 2018, a carbon tax was then introduced in order to make progress and effectively reduce carbon emissions by a minimum of 30% by 2030.
What Is Carbon Tax?
In Canada and worldwide, the carbon tax is levied on the emitted carbon in the atmosphere due to the performance of any sort of human activity. The main intention behind this tax is to encourage individuals of the population as well as the commercial industry to work towards eliminating excessive carbon emissions. This is necessary in order to protect the climate and curb change. One of the major reasons why it is one of the most effective ways to curb climate change, as per a Canadian tax consulting service, is because it is quick and easy to implement.
The carbon tax first came to Canada in 2007 and at present, under this tax, individuals are taxed at a different price in comparison to the industry. The two common tax impositions are on fuel price and output-based pricing system. According to the current sustainability goals of Canada, the target is to increase the price per tonne every year up until it reaches $170 tonne by 2030.
For Expats
As per international tax consultants in Toronto and tax consultants in New Orleans, the most important thing to remember, as a non-resident, is to register yourself under Canada’s new carbon pricing backstop that came into effect around 1 April 2019. This is important to avoid uncertain and unannounced penalties. Additionally, under this new tax, it is important to figure out which category you fall under and carefully remember the return filing timing and requirements for yourself to keep up with the carbon tax.
The end goal is to charge $170 per tonne, which, no matter whether you are an expat or not, can be very tolling for your bank account. Moreover, the price of multiple products may tend to rise and become more expensive as well, given the increased production cost due to the limited use of fossil fuels.
Overall, with Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions contributing to 1.6% of the global greenhouse gas emissions in total, at present, it ranks amongst the top 10 carbon emitters in the world. As per a tax consultant in Toronto, if the carbon emissions are not controlled with the regularisation of the carbon tax, Canada would not only witness a climate calamity but will also be bombarded with other kinds of taxes to compensate for the same.
