What Is Marginal Tax Rate and How Does It Work?

We hear a lot about tax rates. Often, what we pay in taxes is expressed as a percentage of income. However, it’s important to understand that the tax rate you pay doesn’t apply to your entire income. Instead, you will pay taxes based on a formula that looks at was is called the marginal tax rate.

What is Your Marginal Tax Rate?

Your marginal tax rate is the tax you pay on your last dollar of income. However, and more importantly for tax planning, your marginal tax rate is also what you’ll likely pay on your next dollar earned.

Since Canada operates on tax brackets, you will pay more tax when you earn more. However, it’s worth noting that you pay a rate based on the income in each bracket. So your marginal tax rate doesn’t reflect the total that you pay on your income. In fact, what you actually end up paying, in terms of a percentage of your income, is probably going to be lower than your marginal tax rate.

Even with the reality that your taxes will go up the more you earn, it’s possible to use the marginal tax rate to your advantage by planning ahead with RRSPs and other steps to reduce your taxes. Marginal tax rate should not be confused with your average tax rate, which is simply the amount of tax you pay divided by your income.

How Does Marginal Tax Rate Work?

To show how these tax rates work, I’m using the combined federal and Alberta rates for 2015. While your province may have different tax brackets and tax rates, Alberta has a flat provincial tax of 10%, and this will give you an idea of how marginal tax rates work. For the tax rates in your province, you can find all marginal tax rates at TaxTips.ca.

Technically the first tax bracket is $0 to $44,701, but I’ve included the effect on marginal tax rate from the federal basic personal amount of $11,327 and the Alberta basic personal amount of $18,214.

• Up to $11,327 – tax rate of 0%
• $11,327 to $18,214 – tax rate of 15%
• $18,214 to $44,701 – tax rate of 25%
• $44,701 to $89,401 – tax rate of 32%
• $89,401 to $138,586 – tax rate of 36%
• above $138,586 – tax rate of 39%
•  

So if you lived in Alberta and made $44,000, your marginal tax rate would be 25%. But what if you were to get a $5,000 raise? Then you would be in the next tax bracket and paying 32% on that final $4,299. So, as you can see, you aren’t paying the entire 32% on all of your income. You pay the percentage reflected in each bracket, so the first $11,327 isn’t taxed at all. That immediately brings down your effective tax rate. Additionally, as you can see, you only pay the 32% on any income that takes you above the threshold. In this case, you are making $49,000 a year after your raise, but you aren’t paying 32% in taxes on that entire amount.

Knowing this is how you can best work towards reducing your taxes.

Investing In RRSPs Based On Marginal Tax Rate

Sticking with the example above, it might make sense to put the $4,299 into an RRSP since you would get $1,376 back on your tax refund. However, putting any more into an RRSP that year may not be best since you would only get 25% back, not 32%. While getting a 25% tax deduction might sound better than nothing, you need to look at what you expect to earn in retirement. Tax planning requires that you step back and look to the future. Now, if you have more money to save, this is where your TFSA can come in. Make use of your RRSP within your highest tax bracket, but also look to use your TFSAs contribution room as well.

While you would be making $49,000 a year in this example, and will likely make more in future years, you would likely need less money in retirement. With the house paid off, children moved out, and since you no longer need to put money money away for retirement, you may be able to withdraw less than $44,701 (or its equivalent whenever your retire). This is when an RRSP works best, when you can get a a larger tax deduction from contributing and then pay a lower income tax in retirement. It’s important to understand this, since the money you withdraw from your RRSP is considered “regular” income.

Knowing and understanding your marginal tax rate, and how it works, is a key part of long-term financial and tax planning. Take the time to understand, and you will be able to get the most from your RRSP, now and in retirement.

source: canadianfinanceblog.com

Jawbone UP24 Fitness Tracker

The Jawbone UP24 Fitness Tracker is a wristband that works with an app on a smartphone to track vital daily stats. The wristband relays data to the app via Bluetooth, which allows to track calories burned, intensity and any type of workout. Users can track what they eat or drink as well as the hours of sleep. Its low-profile form factor lets the user wear it comfortably any time of day or night.





Specs:

• Hypoallergenic TPU rubber
• Splash-resistant
• Compatible with iPhone 4s and newer, iPod touch 5th Gen and newer, iPad 3rd Gen and newer,iPad mini and newer
• Phones equipped with Bluetooth 4.0 and running Android 4.3 (Jelly Bean) or later
• Lithium-ion polymer batetery
• Up to 7 days battery life
• 80 minutes charging time via USB charging cable
• Bluetooth 4.0 BLE connectivity
• Accelerometer Tri-axis accelerometer
• LED Indicator Two single color LEDs and vibrating motor
• Dimensions (WxH) Inner: 2.5 x 1.6″ (63 x 40 mm)
• Outer: 3.0 x 2.1″ (76 x 54 mm)
• Length: 6.0 – 7.0″ (15.5 to 18.0 cm)
• Weight 0.78 oz (22.0 g)

source: interaksyon.com

Mississippi pastor trots out horse in wedding dress to protest gay marriage

A Mississippi pastor brought a horse in a wedding dress to stand with him outside a federal courthouse on Friday in Jackson to protest a federal judge's ruling, currently on hold, to overturn the socially conservative state's ban on gay marriage.

The horse, complete with white flowers tucked into its harness and a bouquet at its feet, munched grass as the pastor, Edward James of Bertha Chapel Missionary Baptist Church, spoke and waved signs at passersby.

"Do you take this horse to be your unnatural wedded spouse to have and to hold?" one sign read.

US District Judge Carlton Reeves struck down Mississippi's same-sex marriage ban in a ruling last month. Gay couples cannot yet marry in Mississippi pending the outcome of a state appeal to the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, which is hearing arguments in the case on January 9.

Gay marriage is legal in 35 US states, a trend that has accelerated since the Supreme Court ruled in June 2013 that legally married same-sex couples nationwide are eligible for federal benefits, striking down a key part of the 1996 federal Defense of Marriage Act.

While gay marriage advocates have enjoyed the upper hand in the courts since then, the Cincinnati-based 6th Circuit US Court of Appeals in November became the first to rule the other way in upholding state bans on same-sex marriage.

That decision was seen as setting the stage for the Supreme Court to finally rule on the merits of gay marriage nationwide.

Mississippi is home to an estimated 3,484 same-sex couples, according to the most recent decennial census. About one quarter of the couples are raising children.

Speaking in a video-taped interview with the Clarion-Ledger newspaper, James acknowledged that his horse bride was absurd, but said the spectacle served a point.

"Although it's ridiculous, so is the same-sex marriage status," he said.

source: interaksyon.com

Palestinian minister dies after being struck by Israeli troops

TURMUSIYA, West Bank - A Palestinian minister died shortly after being hit by Israeli soldiers during a protest on Wednesday in the occupied West Bank, a Reuters photographer who witnessed the incident and a Palestinian medic said.

Ziad Abu Ein, a minister without portfolio who was in his early 50s, was rushed by ambulance from the scene, in the village of Turmusiya, but died en route to the nearby Palestinian city of Ramallah.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, in a statement, called Abu Ein's death "a barbaric act which we cannot be silent about or accept". Announcing three days of national mourning, Abbas said he would take "necessary steps" after an investigation.

The Israeli army was looking into the incident, a spokeswoman said, She did not immediately provide further information.

About 100 foreign and Palestinian activists with the Committee to Resist Settlements and the Wall, the government-run protest organization that Abu Ein headed, were on their way to plant trees and protest near an Israeli settlement when they were stopped at an improvised checkpoint, witnesses said.

A group of around 15 Israeli soldiers fired tear gas at the protesters and began scuffling with them.

Abu Ein was struck by a hand to the neck during an altercation with two of the soldiers, and was rushed away in an ambulance shortly afterwards, the Reuters photographer said.

Bilateral tensions have been fueled in recent weeks by the killing of 10 Israelis and a foreign visitor in Palestinian attacks. More than a dozen Palestinians have been killed over the same period, including most of those accused of carrying out the assaults.

Palestinians in Ramallah closed shops in protest at the minister's death and youths threw stones at Israeli soldiers guarding a Jewish settlement outside the city, Palestinian security sources said.

source: interaksyon.com

Pirate Bay taken down after Swedish police raid

Swedish file-sharing website The Pirate Bay was taken down after Swedish police seized servers and computers from a server room in Stockholm.

“We had a crackdown on a server room in Greater Stockholm because of a copyright infringement, and yes it was Pirate Bay,” Paul Pinter, national coordinator, intellectual property crime at Stockholm County Police told Reuters.

Other file-sharing sites such as EZTV, Zoink, and Torrage were also offline, as was Pirate Bay’s forum Suprbay.org.

It was unsure if Pirate Bay was taken down for hosting some of the movies leaked due to the recent cyber attack on Sony Corp’s Sony Pictures Entertainment, tech website Wired reported.

Pirate Bay resurfaced for a while late Tuesday, after changing its domain name to .cr (Costa Rica), according to Russian news site Rt.com

source: interaksyon.com

Sting feted at Kennedy Center Honors

WASHINGTON | British rock star Sting was the toast of Washington on Sunday as he was feted with fellow recipients of this year’s Kennedy Center Honors.

He took time off from his Broadway show “The Last Ship” to join Oscar-winning actor Tom Hanks, 1970s soul man Al Green, comedienne Lily Tomlin and ballerina Patricia McBride at a gala ceremony in the US capital.

“I feel very happy in my trophy,” Sting told AFP on the red carpet going into the soiree, pointing to the rainbow-colored laurel draped around his neck.

“I’m not sure when I’ll wear it again, but I think I look rather fetching in it,” he quipped.

“It’s still pretty overwhelming. I’m dealing with it quite well.”

Bestowed by the nation’s premier performing arts center, the Kennedy Center Honors are regarded as the highest recognition of cultural achievement in the United States.

Sting is the eighth British rock and pop musician to receive a Kennedy Center Honor.

Others include Elton John, Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend from The Who, Paul McCartney and Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant.

This year’s honorees were all smiles and laughter as they took their balcony places alongside President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama in the Kennedy Center’s vast opera house.

First to be honored was Green, with Earth, Wind and Fire putting the black-tie crowd in a soul-swinging groove, Usher crooning “Let’s Stay Together” and a huge chorus backing Mavis Staples and Sam Moore on “Take Me To The River.”

Earlier, on the red carpet, Green — an ordained pastor in Memphis, Tennessee who branched out into gospel music in the 1980s — said the honor was merely a milestone in a career that is still unfolding.

“They give me all these great accolades and then they tell you, ‘Alright, go out and earn it’,” he said. “So we gotta keep writing and keep making songs.”

“Soul music is alive and well. You’ll never get rid soul music. It’s in here,” added Green, playfully poking the heart of an AFP reporter before breaking into a few lines of Otis Redding’s “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long.”

TV satirist Stephen Colbert, making his debut as a Kennedy Center Honors emcee, ironically dubbed the event “the only awards ceremony in America that does not feature Taylor Swift.”

The three-hour gala is to be telecast in the United States on the CBS network December 30.

source: interaksyon.com

Internet giants wage war on pop-up ad blockers

PARIS, France — Imagine being able to surf the Web and watch videos online without having to swat away pesky pop-up ads?

These days you can, thanks to small programs like Adblock Plus that are available free for download and that arm your browser to defend against ads.

Flashing banner ads, “pre-roll” ads (short ads that play before a video), pop-up notices that cover the whole screen — few of them make it past ad blocking software.

In the beginning, the applications acted under the radar, and were known mainly only to young people or the really tech-savvy. But now they’re catching on.

Adblock Plus has nearly five million active users in France, with a further two million in the United Kingdom and 1.5 million in Spain.

Worldwide, they have amassed about 144 million active users, up 69 per cent in a year, according to a September report from Adobe software developer and PageFair, a company that helps publishers see which ads are being blocked.

Depending on the website, the percentage of viewers equipped with ad-blocking software ranges from 10 to 60 percent

Internet users may dream about ad-free surfing, but for advertisers and web publishers, who rely on ads to fund content, ad-blocking applications are the stuff of nightmares.

“This is no small matter; it affects all publishers. Our members have lost an estimated 20 to 40 per cent of their advertising revenue,” Laure de Lataillade, CEO of GESTE, an association of web publishers in gaming, media, music and other domains, told AFP.

The growing popularity of ad blockers comes as companies plough more and more money into internet advertising.

A quarter of the 545 billion dollars spent on global advertising this year went on digital ads.

To protect that investment, a group of publishers in France, including Google, Microsoft and Le Figaro newspaper, have threatened legal action against the developers of ad blocking software.

In Germany, too, publishers are alarmed at the success of the anti-ad workarounds. “There have already been some companies that have lodged a formal complaint,” Oliver von Wersche, head of digital marketing at Gruner + Jahr, publishers of Stern news magazine and several other leading titles, told AFP.

Unauthorized access

Websites, meanwhile, are experimenting with a range of strategies to placate ad-addled audiences.

French sports daily l’Equipe’s website is using a carrot-and-stick approach.

Users with ad-blocking software who attempt to watch videos receive the message: “Unauthorised access. L’Equipe.fr is funded by advertising, which allows us to offer you free content.”

Once they deactivate the software they can gain access to the video.

“We have to find a viable economic model. Either the user pays for a premium model or he accepts advertising,” said Xavier Spender, deputy managing director of L’Equipe group.

Sean Blanchfield, CEO of PageFair, compared the campaign against ad blockers to the music industry’s takedown of the file-sharing program Napster a decade ago.

“They should instead learn from the Napster story that the users will ultimately get what they want,” said Blanchfield, whose company works with publishers to devise ads that “respect users’ privacy”.

For Helene Chartier, head of French web developers’ union SRI, the big mistake was to let users believe the internet was free in the first place, considering “there was never a problem with ads on television or radio.”

Industry professionals said the growing rejection of ads — and the shrinking space for them on mobile devices — should spur advertisers to come up with less intrusive messages.

In a sign of how seriously the problem is being taken in the industry, Google has launched an alternative to web advertising.

Called Google Contributor it charges users between 1 and 3 dollars a month to be spared ads, with the fee going to the affected websites.

In levying the fee Google urges users to “support” their favourite websites.

The idea is currently being tested on around a dozen US websites, including The Onion, Science Daily and Mashable.

source: interaksyon.com

60 barangays in Tacloban placed under state of calamity - report

MANILA, Philippines - Sixty of the 138 barangays in Tacloban City in Leyte were placed under state of calamity after the areas were battered by Typhoon Hagupit (local name: Ruby), which has weakened into a tropical storm on Monday.

A report by dzMM radio Monday evening quoted Tacloban City Mayor Alfred Romualdez as saying that members of the city council convened Monday afternoon and issued a resolution placing said villages -- where bunkhouses and tent constructed for victims of super typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) were destroyed --  under state of calamity.

The resolution was supported by Romualdez, according to the report.

Earlier, Catanduanes, Albay, and Camarines Sur were also placed under state of calamity after the provinces were hit by Hagupit.

Placing areas under a state of calamity will enable local government units to use the Quick Response Fund, which is part of the 2014 Local Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Fund, and rehabiliate areas and provide assitance to residents affected by a weather disturbance.

The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC)  reported that some 259,675 families or 1,186,961 persons were affected by "Ruby" in Regions IV-A (Calabarzon), IV-B (Mimaropa), V (Bicol Region, V (Western Visayas), VII (Central Visayas), VIII (Eastern Visayas) and Caraga. Of these, some 226,605 families or 1,034,464 people were evacuated.

Around 1,953 passengers, 74 rolling cargoes, 429 vessels and four motor boats are still stranded in various ports of the country while 184 domestic flights and 24 international flights were also cancelled due to bad weather.

The airports in Legaspi, Marbate City, Marinduque, San Jose, Virac, Busuanga, Plaridel, and Puerto Princesa are  now open for operations but landing and take-off are subject to prevailing aerodrome weather conditions

Power outages were reported in 17 provinces of Regions IV-A, IV-B, V, VI and VIII, while Globe and Smart networks are currently down in some parts of Leyte and Eastern Samar.

Power has been restored in the affected areas in Romblon and in the municipalities of San Fernando, Gainza, Camaligan, Pasacao, Pamplona and Ragay, all in Camarines Sur.

NDRRMC also said that nine roads were closed to traffic due to flooding, landslide and falling trees in Regions V and VIII; while four road sections are not passable to light vehicles in Leyte and San Fernando, Romblon due to flooding; and eight road sections (five in Region V and three in Region VIII) are hardly passable due to flooding, landslides, uprooted trees and toppled electric posts.

It added that Buenavista Bridge in Barangay Lilukin, Buenavista, Quezon province is not passable due to the high level of water while four areas in Quezon province namely Pagbilao, Pitogo, Barangay Almacen in Unisan and Panaon also in Unisan were flooded.

The total cost of government assistance for the affected families in Regions V, VI, VII and Caraga has reached Php 60,718,256.50.

source: interaksyon.com

Snowden film ‘CitizenFour’ wins top documentary award

LOS ANGELES | “CitizenFour,” filmmaker Laura Poitras’s documentary about National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden, was given the top award for best feature by the International Documentary Association on Friday.

The IDA award for “CitizenFour” follows the film’s best documentary win at the New York Film Critics Circle Awards this week. It was also nominated for an Independent Spirit Award last month and is among 15 films advancing in the Oscars best documentary race.

“CitizenFour” gives a fly-on-the-wall account of Snowden’s tense days in a Hong Kong hotel and encounters with journalists as newspapers published details of NSA programs that gathered data from the Internet activities and phone records of millions of Americans and dozens of world leaders.

U.S. filmmaker Poitras shared a Pulitzer Prize this year for her role in publicizing the Snowden documents. She was awarded IDA’s Courage Under Fire award last year for her “conspicuous bravery in the pursuit of truth.”

The IDA, a 30-year-old non-profit organization that aims to support documentary films and culture, also bestowed honors on veteran actor-filmmaker and Sundance Institute founder Robert Redford, who was given the career achievement award.

Cable network Show time’s “Time of Death” was named best limited series, while best short documentary went to HBO Films’ “Tashi and the Monk,” about a Buddhist monk and his 5-year-old charge Tashi.

Last year’s IDA best feature winner, Jehane Noujaim’s “The Square,” was nominated for an Oscar this year, losing out to “20 Feet From Stardom.”

source: interaksyon.com

SoftBank invests $250 million in Southeast Asian taxi-hailing app GrabTaxi

SINGAPORE — Japanese telecoms firm SoftBank Corp has pumped in $250 million to become the top investor in Southeast Asian mobile taxi-booking application GrabTaxi Holdings Pte Ltd, its biggest investment in a Southeast Asian Internet firm.

GrabTaxi, which allows customers to order cabs closest to their location by mobile phone, operates in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines. In a statement, the two companies said the funding will be used to accelerate the app’s expansion in the region.

The investment in GrabTaxi comes about a month after SoftBank and its billionaire CEO and founder Masayoshi Son announced a $627 million funding into online marketplace Snapdeal as part of a plan to put $10 billion into India’s booming online retail market.

SoftBank also said in October it will lead a $210 million investment round with existing investors in India’s ANI Technologies, which owns a mobile application for taxi bookings.

The Japanese firm is the largest investor in recently listed Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.

Including the SoftBank investment, GrabTaxi has raised $340 million in funding. The statement did not specify how much of GrabTaxi SoftBank will own.

Other investors in GrabTaxi, which was developed by two Harvard Business School graduates and launched in Malaysia in 2012 as MyTeksi, include a unit of Singapore state investor Temasek Holdings [TEM.UL] and U.S. investor Tiger Global Management. The app competes with Rocket Internet’s Easy Taxi as well as Uber’s better known app.

Taxi-hailing apps have become popular in Southeast Asia, especially Singapore, one of the most expensive places in the world to own a private car.

Finding a cab during peak hours and during frequent tropical downpours can be difficult in the city-state, which last month said it planned to start regulating third-party taxi booking services for the first time.

Heavy traffic in cities such as Manila and Jakarta also makes finding taxis tough.

Those troubles are benefitting apps such as GrabTaxi. Over the past year, the number of users of the mobile app has jumped six-fold to about half a million and taxi drivers in its network have grown four-fold to 60,000, according to the company.

source: interaksyon.com