The Real Cost Of Tuition In Quebec (SPOILER ALERT)
TAXATION OF STUDENTS.
Take an average full-time student in a University in Montreal – during the summer weekends he earns approximately $10,880 in 2011.
He has no Federal or Quebec tax to pay. He is not obliged to contribute to either the Quebec prescription drug insurance or health contribution of $100.
Therefore all amounts of tax withheld on his paychecks are reimbursed but he does pay QPP (Quebec’s pension fund) $365, and $153 for the Employment Insurance Plan and Provincial Parental Insurance of $58.
His tuition for 2011 is $2,564.35
He is entitled to a 15% federal credit of $384.65 and a provincial credit of 20% for expenses during the school year of $521.87
The percentage is the same for any student regardless of income level. If the student does not use these funds now, he can transfer them to his parents or postpone them indefinitely, until at such time he has a tax liability.
Federally there is an education credit amount based on the number of months in full or part time studies. In this case it is 8 months, full time.
8 months X $ 400 = $3,200 X 15% = a savings of $ 480.00
The following credit is for textbooks:
8 months X $65 = $520 X 15 = a savings of 78.00%
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So after tax, the net tuition of our student so far will be $ 1,108.93 for 2011.
Much less impressive than what we see on TV.
But it’s not over, because as he worked, even if he is considered low income, the Quebec provincial government contributes a refundable credit for the work premium.
With his income he receives $ 10,880 minus the $510.87 in income taxes stated before, and using good judgment, he decides to apply the amount paid by Quebec’s incentives back into his education.
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Our student need only now pay $597.96
But he is still entitled to other amounts - This is not a joke, I swear …..
He will receive during the next year’s credit a GST rebate of $309 and a credit for Solidarity of Quebec for $264
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Again if he uses good judgment and applies it to the balance of his tuition, he comes up with a total balance of just $24.96 he is out of pocket for tuition.
As for his summer earnings of $10,880 less QPP, Employment Ass and PPIP (576) - $10,279 remains entirely in his pocket if he takes advantage of living at home rent free with his parents for the duration of his BACC (Bachelor Degree).
Factually, the increase of $325 per year after rebate is $ 211.25 with 35% of the credits.
After 5 years of school, a whopping $1,625 is the total cost for his education.
Reposted from Antonio Casolino on Facebook
Numbers, i love numbers! But these only apply to 45% of university graduated students. The stats says that 38% of students will cummulate more than 15000$ debt and 19% more than 30000$. For an average of 23190$ for the rest of the 55%.
So you start your life with an average of 23190$ of debt (with interest depending of the source of the debt), you have the average income which is about 42190$ (but when you don’t have work experience it will be much less than that depending of your studies) now substract about 30% of taxes so a maximum of 30000$. Now you might thing about bying a house, average of 209639$. Now you must think of your old days, experts says that you should put aside 10% of your incomes from the age of 25 if you want to stop working one day. Looking at these numbers the next generation must think “what a great futur i will have!”
Increasing the fees (futur workers debt at the same time) will just stop them of reinvesting their incomes into our economy, instead it will be given to banks. If you look at the situation globally, the only one that will benefit of that increase in long and short term is not the tax payers, not the society, definitely not the futur generations it’s the banks once again.
The people in the streets of montreal, they don’t fight about an increase, they fight about ideology, they fight about the system that simply doesn’t work anymore, they fight about the futur because they don’t have any!!!
Numbers, i love numbers! But these only apply to 45% of university graduated students. The stats says that 38% of students will cummulate more than 15000$ debt and 19% more than 30000$. For an average of 23190$ for the rest of the 55%.
So you start your life with an average of 23190$ of debt (with interest depending of the source of the debt), you have the average income which is about 42190$ (but when you don’t have work experience it will be much less than that depending of your studies) now substract about 30% of taxes so a maximum of 30000$. Now you might thing about bying a house, average of 209639$. Now you must think of your old days, experts says that you should put aside 10% of your incomes from the age of 25 if you want to stop working one day. Looking at these numbers the next generation must think “what a great futur i will have!”
Increasing the fees (futur workers debt at the same time) will just stop them of reinvesting their incomes into our economy, instead it will be given to banks. If you look at the situation globally, the only one that will benefit of that increase in long and short term is not the tax payers, not the society, definitely not the futur generations it’s the banks once again.
You really think this is only about the fees? The people in the streets of montreal, they don’t fight about an increase, they fight about ideology, they fight about the system that simply doesn’t work anymore, they fight about the futur because they don’t have any!!
Clearly you don’t have higher education dude. Overspending what?? I didn’t have money for groceries you moron. And the accountant was a family friend who didnt charge me anything and knows way more than you do. Clearly from the feedback from other legitimatly EDUCATED people you don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. Maybe you should have focussed more on yiur studies. I’m dont do stupid, NO REPLY is required.
I can reassure you that I have way more education than you, in fact I have an advanced degree, if you know what that means. I was in the same boat as you, same tuition (probably more because I used to take extra courses), same taxes, same loans, and I had enough money for groceries. So I don’t know what happened to you.
oh by the way, you accountant friend better know more than me, because I am not one, but I can still do “student tax return”. Can you? obviously not.
Yes I know what an advanced degree is, because I have one. In fact, I have three degrees and 2 certifications, if you know what that is. I have also worked in the finance industry, so I do know of what I speak. You are clearly an ignorant person, since you presume that everyone is in the same financial boat as you are. Clearly you don’t have any other assets or finances to declare, since you use a “do it yourself” method of tax assessment. And judging by your ignorance, I’m pretty sure I make way more money than you do.
Nastiness aside, try to step out of your own bubble and practice some empathy and appreciation for others. I’m happy for you and the fact that you were able to make it on your own. Don’t presume that everyone is in the exact same boat as you, there are people that have responsibilities and maybe some personal struggles that you and I were or are lucky enough not to have. What has happened to our society, that makes us so selfish that we can’t empathize with others. Yeh I agree some of them may be spoiled brats living off mom and dad, but there are a lot of ppl struggling. I have family in the US, that still have tens if thousands of dollars in student debt and (with a degree) are making peanuts for wages. We don’t want to become that society. So I say yeh, stand up to the bullies and fight, it’s about time. You don’t realize that, this time it’s tuition, but next time it will be something that is important to you. These elected ppl need to be accountable. Just because they were voted into power doesn’t mean thet have carte Blanche to do whatever the hell you want. Enough said. I wish you well and I hope some day you will understand. If not, you’re entitled to your opinion and I am to mine.
That would be a job that pays $56 an hour if one were to work the 12 weekends in summer. If your first number is that wrong, I don’t think I’ll bother with the rest of the article.
There’s also a thing called an evening or two :)
I’m sorry but the cost of living in general has gone up. People across the board are having to pay more for everything. Food has jumped enormously, gas, clothing, etc… why wouldn’t education go up as well. Even in elementary school the fees are approx. $500.00 for two children and that doesn’t include you basic school supplies. Stop roaming the street get back to school so that you can get a decent job. If the government back down now they have succumbed to mob rule and that can’t happen.
Je ne sais pas où tu prends tes chiffres, mais avec mon salaire de sauveteur j’ai toujours gagné plus d’argent que la plupart de mes amis étudiants et quand j’allais me chercher environ 10 000$ dans une année, c’était avec les bonus de mes semaines de 60 heures. Et je le répète, je suis une étudiante qui a toujours gagné un salaire plus haut que beaucoup d’autre. De plus, mes frais de scolarité n’étaient pas de 2 500$ à l’UdeM comme tu l’écris dans le texte, mais de plus de 3 000$ (environ 1 500$ par session). Puis attention, on n’a pas parlé du coût des livres…
Et veux qui habitent chez papa et maman, c’est une minorité. Ce n’était pas mon cas et même si je suis une étudiante qui réussissait à aller se chercher un bon salaire, ce n’était pas assez pour tout payer.
Et quand bien même que ces chiffres seraient bons et que ce texte serait vrai, où est ta motivation à demander une hausse des frais de scolarité?
Au lieu de regarder les étudiants gâtés qui ont tout cuit dans le bec, pense à ceux qui en arrachent depuis leur enfance. Ils pourraient avoir une chance non seulement de s’en sortir, mais d’atteindre leurs rêves en étudiant dans ce qu’ils aiment et en faisant un emploi qu’ils veulent si le coût des études restait accessible.
Puis pour la personne qui parle des Québécois qui veulent se séparer du Canada et qui se plaignent du traitement que le reste du Canada leur fait subir, effectivement, ça n’a aucun rapport. La hausse des frais de scolarité n’a rien à voir avec la souveraineté. Informe-toi avant d’avancer des propos incohérents.
I don’t know where you got your numbers buddy. I was a full time student living on my own, not too long ago, and even with loans and bursaries, I barely made ends meet. I certainly didn’t get the right offs you mentioned, but even if I did without realizing it ( accountant took care of things), I didn’t have enough money fir griceries at the end of the month. If my mother, on a fixed income, didn’t feed me, I didn’t eat. Infact one year I had to pay taxes. It was only $30 some odd dollars, but at the time, that might as well have been a million. I had the option to move in with my mother, but then the government would take away my bursaries and I’d only get loans. I tried to supplement by making extra money, but whatever I made the government took half of it, because I was honest and declared it. It wasn’t worth working. And by the way student loans, not so easy to get. I was in my thirties and they wanted to know my parents income.
Another thing is that, have you seen the price of books lately? Depending on your program, it could cost you hundreds of dollars for books. I used to borrow the books from the library over and over until they wouldn’t let me anymore. Finally, what no one mentions is that the cost of tuition has gone up regardless of the government. In the last ten years, the cost of a single class has gone up about $100.
Finally, what people forget is that we are the lowest paid in Quebec, than any other province and we are taxed out the wazoo, with not much to show for it. I have a friend who got fed up and moved to Ontario, for a lower pay cheque, guess what she’s making more money than she made in Quebec with a lower salary.
I am priud of the students for their persustence. Don’t get me wrong, I am against any violence from either side and those who are deserve to be arrested. It’s about time that someone stands up to this miserable government. In a recession this government decides to raise the tax on gasoline and sales tax. In my opinion it is gross mismanagent of our hard earned dollars and they continue to make US pay the cost of their incompetence. I would agree to a slight increase, but how do they go from a freeze to a 75% increase. There is no negotiation, but a dictatorship at this point. Enough said.
Francis
strange, because I think his numbers are right from CRA. I lived off loans too and I did fine. I didn’t have to live with my parents who didn’t give me a penny for my education or my living. So either your accountant was an idiot or you were over spending. (By the way, hiring an accountant obviously was over spending, your taxes as student is dead easy, why didn’t you do it yourself?)
This is an inaccurate assessment of the “cost” of an education. It assumes that a student will find work, despite their levels of unemployment being amongst the highest across age cohorts. Further, it doesn’t consider books, food, transportation, housing, additional fees added by school, or lab fees etc. Or the fact that IF one can find a job, one cannot work full-time because of class schedules etc. Don’t let them fool you with only a part of the story. Tuition is not the sole educational cost….And those individuals who do attain higher ed, earn more and thus pay more taxes…
You do realize that the increase you mention is every year for the next 5 years… (under the latest gov’t offer, it’s now 250$ per year for 7 years). 7 years from now, it’ll be 1750$ more per year to study… that’s 8750$ extra over five years. I didn’t take time to poke holes through the rest your math there but you got the main point of the hike wrong so I don’t really feel I need to go any further… although the idea of applying the gst and solidarity credits as some sort of discount on tuition fees is also quite rich…
yes $8750, if you suck and you do 5 years instead of 3-4 years really required. And assuming you’re starting university in 7 years and inflation has remained none. What does $8750 in next 7-12 years in current $? And even then, the author’s point is you get so much back in tax credit when you are student. So now would you bother letting us know your brilliant calculation of after-tax-credit numbers?
Actually a general Bachelors in Quebec, if you went through the CEGEP system is only 3 years, therefore 975$ is the total cost. Other programs such as medicine can be 5 years.
what the heck are you talking about? you’re obvious not from Quebec. You still need to go to a university of bachelor’s degree. Medicine is 4 years.
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$&#*%^, my children should have learned French & gone to school in Quebec, that is absolutely ridiculous. And yet they bitch & complain about the treatment that Quebec gets from Canada & want to separate. Think they would be willing to give up these educational benefits?
Those educational benefits are a choice made in Quebec with higher provincial taxes. Don’t compare orange and apple here. This has nothing to do with separatism. I would gladly pay less income tax like in Alberta (based on a 85k annual salary it`s 200-300$ more each 2 weeks in my pocket) than subsidize all those socialist program but it remains a choice made by a majority, really nothing to do with the “Qc-is always complaining” cliché the rest of Canada is so fond to rehash every 2 sec.