Accounting Ability
I don't understand Income Trusts. At all. A poster on my forum gives a good rundown of what they are. But I still don't understand Income Trusts. Here, for your edification, dear reader, is Kierkegaard's lecture (and yes - he's THAT Kierkegaard):
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"For most investments, you pay taxes whenever they grow and make profits -- you even pay taxes on the interest in your bank account. A trust is basically a structure defined by the tax system. It isn't like a bank account or a mutual find -- those are places you put money for it to accumulate. You create a trust, put your bank accounts or mutual funds or whatever into it, and so long as whatever you gain on these investments stays in the trust, you don't pay taxes on them. When you take money out of the trust, THEN you pay the taxes.
This is good for seniors because over time their tax rate decreases, meaning that they can put loadsa dough into a trust when they're wealthy to protect the profits from the shit-tacular tax rate they'd have to pay on it, and take them out when they'd be taxed at a lower rate.
And it would've been great for Canadian-based multi-national corporations as well, since by converting to a trust they would no longer have had to pay corporate taxes on gains in the value of their assets (which you'd think would be the same as their profits, but...).
Shareholders would take the take the tax hit when they withdrew their funds from the trust.
I'd like to see some figures on how many seniors are actually affected by this. Not a lot I'd bet -- and the ones that are prolly ain't gonna be eating cat food any time soon.
I'm surprised there wasn't more of a debate on this issue. I could see a lot of advantages for letting corporations go trust -- 0% taxes is a pretty sweet deal. Ireland is booming as a result of its tax laws. It could have led to a lot of business relocating to Canada.
That the Conservatives would step in and do something like this is very bizarre. But then I guess it's one more thing that separates fiscal conservatives from the social conservatives. This never would've happened under The Chin."
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Phew, eh? (And for my international readers - I believe "The Chin" in the above lecture is Brian Mulroney, the Old Conservative Party leader and former Prime Minister of Canada.) But while I may not understand Income Trusts - still - I do understand electioneering. And our Prime Minister, dear reader, that nice young man who goes to Church and shakes his son's hand good-bye when he drops him off at school and runs our country, is a damn good liar.
Look - there is no way an economist wouldn't know that this measure would have to be taken. Stephen Harper deliberately mislead his core voters - rich old people - by pretending that he wouldn't do exactly what he has done.
Either that - or he's no economist at all. He's just an idiot savant who can add up numbers without understanding that their sums are the totals of the numbers he's just added up.
So what is it about voters that they willfully DON'T SEE IT COMING! The turnaround. The aboutface. THE LYING!! Any politician who makes promises with a straight face - CANNOT BE TRUSTED! If he doesn't wink with each promise - DON'T VOTE FOR HIM! Gawd. How many times must we go down this road before we remember - THERE'S A FORK IN IT!
Sigh. And it's not even like I'm mad at Stephen Harper for pulling the wool over everyone's eyes and getting himself elected on whatever those five promises were. I'm mad at voters for falling for it. Over and over and over. If all it takes is a claim to Church-going to get elected - WE MAY AS WELL BE THE 51ST STATE!
Good Grief. As soon as you hear, "Less Government, Lower Taxes" - CUE THE HOOK! "Less Government" is the second oldest line known to man. And "Lower Taxes" is the first. ("I Promise" is the third.)
Anyway, since I don't really know what Income Trusts are, but I do know that some big corporations that were planning to use the tax loophole now known to the rest of us as "Income Trusts" - are pretty pissed at Stephen Harper, I have to admit - whatever he lied about saying he wouldn't do and just did - good on 'im.
But that can't be comfortable walking around with your pants on fire.
