Image via flickr user alexindigo

Turns out Toronto taxpayers are already treated with the utmost respect. Global accounting giant KPMG studied the tax burdens of 55 major world cities and Toronto ranked a respectable 5th place, with Vancouver coming in 2nd and Montreal ranking 6th. According to the study, which considered relative corporate income tax, capital tax, sales tax, property tax and miscellaneous local business tax burdens, along with the statutory labor costs, Canada is the second tax friendliest country overall behind India in the top spot. Chennai, India has the honour of being the world city with the lowest tax burden. The United States placed 8th overall and surprisingly no U.S. city cracked the top (or bottom) 15. Baltimore, the highest ranking U.S. city in the study, came in at 16.

So there you have it, Toronto is not the socialist nightmare that some would have you believe. Maybe we should start selling t-shirts with our new slogan: I paid the fifth lowest tax burden in the world but all I got was this lousy infrastructure.

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Top Ten Most Tax Friendly Cities according to KPMG (full study here in PDF)

1. Chennai, IN
2. Vancouver, CA
3. Chengdu, CN
4. Mumbai, IN
5. Toronto, CA
6. Montreal, CA
7. Monterrey, MX
8. Mexico City, MX
9. Manchester, UK
10. Saint Petersburg, RU

[via Forbes]

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Michael Kolberg is The Sprawl Editor at Toronto Standard. Follow him on Twitter for jokes @mikeykolberg

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