Harper offers fitness tax credit
Kanata, Ontario, Canada (AHN) – Canadian Conservative Party leader Stephen Harper has promised a new fitness tax credit for adults on Sunday. He also dangled doubling kids’ sports fees .
That would mean $75 in adult fitness tax breaks and a maximum $1,000 tax credit for children to cover $1,000 of sports and recreation fees from the existing $500. It would boil down to a savings of $150 per child from the current $75.
However, the tax reduction for adults would only become effective when the country’s budget deficit is eliminated, which would be in 2015, at the earliest.
The proposed tax credit would cover gym membership fees and other athletic and sporting expenses of adults.
Harper said the Tories decided to offer the fitness tax cost to recognize the fact that the cost of activities such as sports or dance could be heavy on the pocket for average Canadian families.
The adult fitness tax credit is expected to cost the federal government $275 million, while the doubling of the children’s fitness tax $30 million.
The current children’s fitness tax credit – which took effect in 2007 – cost Ottawa $115 million in revenue in 2010.
About 1.4 million Canadian families claimed the tax credit.
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