The debate about the taxation of health and dental benefits has, to this point, been an academic argument about fairness and tax efficiency. Those earning $60,000 in that province would pay an additional $1,043, while workers earning $90,000 would pay $1,277 more. The academic argument in favour of taxing health and dental is straightforward — most employee benefits are taxed but, for reasons lost in the mists of past public policy, health and dental coverage is not. The health-care coalition points out that when Quebec taxed health and dental benefits in 1993, it resulted in a substantial loss of coverage. Once benefits were subject to provincial income tax, there was a 14-per-cent decrease in employee-provided supplementary health coverage in the province.

Source: National Post January 29, 2017 22:09 UTC