Comment Corporate Work in the US vs. Canada? (Score 1) 1309
I moved to Canada from Silicon valley in California.
California has pretty high taxes, but Canada has REALLY high taxes. It doesn't take that high of a salary to get up into the 50% tax bracket. Also, keep in mind that the sales tax in Ontario is 8% and that is on top of the GST (Goods and Services Tax) tax of 7% for a whopping 15% sales tax. That, remember, comes out of your NET earnings. There are few tax havens and gov't fees everywhere for everything under the sun.
Housing here in the greater Toronto area is not cheap and is getting more expensive by the day. A small place with almost no yard will set you back about$250k to $300k.
Sadly, with all these super high taxes, here in Toronto they can't even manage to keep the roads in fair shape. Pothole city.
The politics here in general are rather lefty, especially Toronto. If you have any political objectivity, you'll quickly note how left wing the CBC (based in Toronto) is. What this means for you is astounding amounts of social programs with absolutely no thought as to how to drive an economy to pay for them. Fortunately, the NDP (Nutcake Democratic Party) is currently rather marginalized.
If you are left wing, you'll like most of Canada. You wouldn't enjoy Alberta so much - it's more right wing.
If you enjoy Anti-Americanism at its best, give Quebec a try.
I recently heard from the US Consulate that Ontario has 250k Americans.
What about corporate culture here? I've worked around the world and corporate culture is pretty much the same everywhere you go. Business is business. There's no big company group hug here if that's what you're looking for. Comapany's are looking to make profit here just as much as anywhere else in the world.
Canada does have lots of freeloaders who don't pay taxes and milk the gov't programs.
Canada also has tons of National and Provincial parks. I wish I had time to go to more of them - they're big, beautiful, and generally well kept and well run.
Try it, you may like it here. At the very least, you'll learn more about the US by being out of it for awhile. Of course, after awhile, you'll also learn to ignore the constant anti-American whining here. Canadians have some serious identity issues and I've often thought that they define themselves not by the fact that they are Canadians, but by the fact that they are not Americans. Declaring what you are not doesn't tell you much about who you are.
California has pretty high taxes, but Canada has REALLY high taxes. It doesn't take that high of a salary to get up into the 50% tax bracket. Also, keep in mind that the sales tax in Ontario is 8% and that is on top of the GST (Goods and Services Tax) tax of 7% for a whopping 15% sales tax. That, remember, comes out of your NET earnings. There are few tax havens and gov't fees everywhere for everything under the sun.
Housing here in the greater Toronto area is not cheap and is getting more expensive by the day. A small place with almost no yard will set you back about$250k to $300k.
Sadly, with all these super high taxes, here in Toronto they can't even manage to keep the roads in fair shape. Pothole city.
The politics here in general are rather lefty, especially Toronto. If you have any political objectivity, you'll quickly note how left wing the CBC (based in Toronto) is. What this means for you is astounding amounts of social programs with absolutely no thought as to how to drive an economy to pay for them. Fortunately, the NDP (Nutcake Democratic Party) is currently rather marginalized.
If you are left wing, you'll like most of Canada. You wouldn't enjoy Alberta so much - it's more right wing.
If you enjoy Anti-Americanism at its best, give Quebec a try.
I recently heard from the US Consulate that Ontario has 250k Americans.
What about corporate culture here? I've worked around the world and corporate culture is pretty much the same everywhere you go. Business is business. There's no big company group hug here if that's what you're looking for. Comapany's are looking to make profit here just as much as anywhere else in the world.
Canada does have lots of freeloaders who don't pay taxes and milk the gov't programs.
Canada also has tons of National and Provincial parks. I wish I had time to go to more of them - they're big, beautiful, and generally well kept and well run.
Try it, you may like it here. At the very least, you'll learn more about the US by being out of it for awhile. Of course, after awhile, you'll also learn to ignore the constant anti-American whining here. Canadians have some serious identity issues and I've often thought that they define themselves not by the fact that they are Canadians, but by the fact that they are not Americans. Declaring what you are not doesn't tell you much about who you are.
