[itsybitsycoder]

This doesn't really apply to expats, but income tax isn't really about income, it's about funding all the public services you use. There are problems right now in parts of Canada where wealthy people from other countries are sending their families here and staying to work in their home countries. Their families live in multimillion dollar houses and get hundreds of thousands a year in "child support", but they also consume a lot of public services that they never paid into, like roads, healthcare, schools, and sometimes even welfare. Millionaires are getting welfare! It's insane.

[gambiting]

That sounds like "child support" should be taxed then. If expats can send "millions of dollars" to family in Canada and they don't pay a single cent as tax, then it's a tax system problem. And hey, on the other hand, if that family spends those millions in Canada, then it's a net benefit :P I'm sure even if the "income" is not taxed, all the money they spend actually is, so their amount of taxes paid to Canada might be significant.

[itsybitsycoder]

For sure it's a tax system problem, but in the usual case (where it was already taxed once in Canada) it makes sense not to double-tax child support.

AFAICT most of the money isn't spent here, it's parked here as a hedge in case something goes south in the home country, usually in real estate holdings. The biggest effect I can see is that housing in the city is too expensive for the locals now so families are being driven out into rural areas.