The September 24 Nova Scotia NDP budget will defer the provincial Transit Tax Credit that was planned to start in 2009.
The original announcement in the May 4 Progressive Conservative budget was:
- Starting in 2009, the province will match the Federal Transit Tax Credit. This non-refundable tax credit is calculated at the lowest personal income tax rate for the year (8.79 per cent) and deducted from the amount of provincial tax owed.
However the September 24 budget tabled by the NDP is trimming back to reduce the provincial deficit:
- The 2008-09 budget announced a new Transit Tax Credit starting in 2009. The implementation of this credit has been deferred and will be revisited at a later date. This tax credit would have cost $1.5 million in 2009-10.
Let us do the math here for one person. Of course multiple users in a single family would bump this up.
- 12 months adult Halifax Metro Transit MetroPass @ $70/month = $840
- $840 x 8.79% = $73.84 tax saving
So, the question is: Is it better to trim deficit by $1.5 million dollars, or should transit patrons get their promised tax credit?
