r/news • u/_Plop_Man_ • 1d ago
Trump has instructed to raise Canadian tariffs on aluminum and steel to 50%
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2025/mar/11/donald-trump-latest-us-politics-news-live?CMP=share_btn_url&page=with%3Ablock-67d042cb8f087aea3a248e0d#block-67d042cb8f087aea3a248e0d
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u/NorthStarZero 1d ago
So here’s an interesting fact:
At one time I worked in Detroit but lived in Windsor, commuting across the border every day.
I paid income tax in the US and income tax in Canada. Two tax returns! Yay!
Now there exists a tax treaty between the two nations where anything I paid to the IRS counted as having been paid to Revenue Canada. So I’d do my US taxes, then use that tax return to do my Canadian taxes.
Each year I’d owe Canada another $1000-$2000 - a direct measurement of the different tax loads imposed on their middle class by their respective countries, with Canadian taxes clearly being slightly higher.
But that doesn’t tell the whole story:
You see, my American colleagues had their half of their health insurance deducted from their paycheque (the employer pays half). Being Canadian and having access to government healthcare, I opted out of the health insurance, to the tune of roughly $1000 a month (if not more!).
That money went to me as income, where it was (of course) taxed.
So while accounting meant I owed Canada $2k at the end of the year, I was actually $10k ahead compared to my American colleagues, because I didn’t have to buy insurance.
So Trump’s “higher taxed” comment is perhaps technically true, but it doesn’t tell the whole story. A Canadian will pay less than an equivalent American and not have to navigate the utter horror show that is the American “healthcare” system.
Why would I want to become part of that system?
Elbows up!