No rebate for high-income seniors under province’s new tax plan

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This article was published 31/05/2016 (3449 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A tax rebate for higher income seniors has been removed by the Pallister government in the 2016-17 budget.

The full Seniors’ School Tax Rebate — which put as much as $470 annually into the pockets of every senior (65 and over) in Manitoba — will now be reserved for households earning less than $63,500 per year.

Premier Brian Pallister argues the rebate, which was brought in under the NDP in 2014, was an “irresponsible promise” by the NDP to buy seniors’ votes.

“It was an irresponsible promise by a previous government that was totally desperate to buy votes with money taken from children and grandchildren, who shouldn’t have to pay the price. We have no intentions of keeping unmakeable and insincere promises of the previous administration and that was one,” Pallister said after the budget was tabled Tuesday.

Ahead of its defeat in the April provincial election, the Selinger government released a fiscal update that outlined how it would up the ante and cover 98 per cent of school taxes for seniors, upping the rebate maximum to $2,300 from $470.

Under the new regime, seniors making less than $40,000 will be eligible for a full rebate on school taxes up to $470, while those making between $40,000 and $63,500 are eligible for a partial, income-tested rebate. It is a measure that will save the government $44.5 million in 2016-17.

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The average senior household will lose about $100 in 2016, with the average rebate falling to $300 from $400. The government estimates 34,500 senior homeowners will receive the rebate in 2016.

Kate Kehler, executive director of the Social Planning Council of Winnipeg, welcomed the measure, calling it a “very good move.”

“If you have that high of income — our schools, our education system — we need the investment. So when you are above that income you should be able pay that amount of money,” Kehler said Tuesday.

kristin.annable@freepress.mb.ca