Archive for the ‘Governance Policy Context’ Category
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Why the CRA thought it could take a bite of your free lunch
The idea of taxing income equally is at the heart of any idea of tax fairness. Unless we want to encourage the creation of tax loopholes, our tax system has to try to respect it… [but] It comes down to a question of proportionality and reasonableness. There’s an old Latin expression: De minimis non curat lex. The law should not concern itself with trifles.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, tax
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How do governments come up with good public policy when an issue has polarized the public? There are some basic guidelines that can help.
In a post-fact era, when reasoned arguments are not always sufficient to secure support, the perception of a government’s presumed motive is critical and sensitive policy changes must be presented without an overtly political agenda. Voters do not always have the time or inclination to study complicated policy frameworks; if they believe the government is acting for good reason, or has good intentions, that trust can provide an effective shortcut to policy acceptance.
Tags: featured, ideology, participation
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Demographics the real driver of Trudeau’s planned tax changes
For the past 50 years, politicians focused on addressing the needs of baby boomers… Coming of age in the 1990s, Gen Xers were basically ignored by politicians as little demographic clout begat little campaign outreach begat little voter turnout begat little political power… Millennials are the echo generation, children of the boomers and an even larger demographic bulge… Winning campaigns are now constructed to address the value set of millennials rather than boomers.
Tags: featured, ideology, participation
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Justin Trudeau should finish the job on access to information
Bill C-58, which is now in its second reading in the House of Commons… is the first attempt to amend our access regime since the current law was passed in the pre-digital world of 1983… the legislation would allow the office to issue binding orders that would compel government departments and agencies to release information… within certain timeframes… But the government’s proposed legislation… is “far more conspicuous for what it fails to do.”
Tags: featured, ideology, participation, rights, standard of living
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Know the dirty little secret about taxing the rich? It doesn’t work
… the annual financial report shed some light on why the party hierarchy is so dogmatic about the tax changes. The report revealed that personal income tax revenues dipped by $1.2 billion in 2016-17, reflecting the impact of the introduction of the 33-per-cent top income tax rate in 2016. Some high-income Canadians realized capital gains and dividends in the 2015 tax year to avoid the new rate; others pushed their income into more complicated tax-planning structures like private corporations.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, tax
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Closing tax loopholes a sure vote winner
… But the backlash comes from the people using the loopholes… It should worry the complainers that most Canadians with jobs, where taxes are pre-deducted at source, had no idea this was allowed. They are not just annoyed, they are incandescent… But as Prime Minister Trudeau said, “People who make $50,000 a year should not pay higher taxes than people who make $250,000 a year.
Tags: economy, ideology, participation, standard of living, tax
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The tax system can’t possibly do what people want it to do
… the long hours a doctor works, the vacations a small business owner never takes, and all the rest. I’m sure all this is true but — how to put this — the tax system is not intended or designed to compensate for every hardship of life, or to weigh in the balance all of the pluses and minuses of one job versus another. It can’t possibly do so. Rather, there has long been a consensus that the tax burden should be apportioned on the basis of “ability to pay.” There’s no perfect measure of this, but income is the best we’ve got
Tags: budget, featured, ideology, participation, standard of living, tax
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Bill Morneau should show courage on tax reform
… 60 per cent of the small-business tax break benefit is enjoyed by those who earn more than $150,000 per year… Our small-business tax regime, like many other parts of our unwieldy tax code, has been abused in recent decades, often perverted into loopholes for the wealthiest few… The intense backlash, however misguided, is a reminder of why successive governments have been so reluctant to tame Canada’s overgrown tax code
Tags: economy, featured, ideology, tax
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Why the Nordic social democratic model can’t be implemented from Ottawa
… the Nordic countries… are all unitary nations without provinces, states or territories. Canada is a federation with powers constitutionally divided between two levels of government… The Nordic model isn’t just a capitalist-run economy with social programs and a progressive tax system wrapped around it. The economies of Nordic social democracies are run by a social partnership between employers and labour that by its nature creates greater equality.
Tags: featured, Health, housing, ideology, jurisdiction, standard of living
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How much will Morneau’s proposed tax changes cost small business? We do the math
… financial experts to provide before-and-after scenarios of three of Ottawa’s proposed changes, including using corporations for so-called “income sprinkling” among family members; reducing the lifetime capital-gains allowance for a family; and so-called “passive” investment income, where a business owner invests money they don’t need right away in their corporation, at a lower tax rate, instead of taking it out as personal income, at a higher tax rate, and investing it.
Tags: budget, featured, globalization, ideology, tax
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