tax

Tuesday November 7, 2017

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday November 7, 2017

Paradise Papers Are Another Hit to Justin Trudeau’s ‘Middle Class’ Agenda

There is a storm blowing in from Paradise. Documents leaked to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists reaffirmed what most of us already at least suspected: that the wealthiest among us have an elaborate shadow network of financial infrastructure in offshore tax havens to skimp taxes in their home countries. In short, rich people are playing by different rules.

September 22, 2017

The Paradise Papers are noteworthy for two reasons. The first is the magnitude. The leaked documents come from offshore tax firm Appleby, corporate service providers Estera and Asiaciti Trust, and business registries of 19 tax jurisdictions. They concern about $10 trillion (USD) overall, which is quite a lot of money considering that total gross world production for 2014 was about $78 trillion. We are talking about the global high rollers table here.

The second is that they meet CanCon requirements. Over 3,000 Canadians were named in the leaks, and some of them have connections to the commanding heights of the House of Commons. Even our beloved head of state Elizabeth II was named in the papers. Her Majesty’s estate has millions of pounds tied up in a rent-to-buy retailer accused of preying on the poor, which is a shock because the hyperexploitation of unlanded labourers is not something you associate with a feudal monarch.

April 6, 2016

The real meat of the report is how many of our former prime ministers are enmeshed in the financial heart of darkness. Leaked memos reveal Paul Martin’s former company Canada Steamship Lines is one of Appleby’s biggest clients, and Jean Chretien is listed as the owner of 100,000 stock options in an East African oil company ever having a bank account outside of Canada, and says he doesn’t know about the stock options.) And lest anyone suggest this was a Liberal family affair, it turns out that Brian Mulroney sat on the board of the company that facilitated the largest arms deal in British history to Saudi Arabia.

Juicier still than the has-beens on the list is the revelation that Liberal fundraising bigwig Stephen Bronfman has not only amassed nearly $60 million in a shadowy offshore tax haven, and that the law firm representing Bronfman had been instrumental in lobbying the Canadian government against cracking down on overseas tax evasion. Coming on the heels of two months of a taxation trainwreck—and a grueling few weeks exposing just how comfortable Justin Trudeau is with plutocracy—this is not a good look for the prime minister. Again, we reiterate: the optics certainly make it look like the extremely rich people around the federal cabinet table don’t actually have the best interests of the “middle class” at heart. (Source: Vice) 

 

Friday September 22, 2017

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday September 22, 2017

Bill Morneau, Justin Trudeau left untouched by proposed new tax rules

The proposed new small business tax changes do not impact family trusts or numbered companies, used by Canadian Finance Minister Bill Morneau and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to shield their family’s vast fortunes.

April 6, 2016

Trudeau’s personal wealth, which was inherited from his father, is held in numbered corporations. And Morneau has money in a family trust and numbered corporations.

The NDP took direct aim at Morneau who argued that the Liberals are going after wealthy people who try to use small-business structures to avoid paying taxes, but would not respond to questions about his family businesses and why the new rules leave out the sheltering of funds for both Trudeau and himself.

April 5, 2016

Morneau is the beneficiary of a number of Canadian companies on one hand, and on the other states “we also want to make sure that we do not have a situation where some people that are, frankly, very well compensated, pay a lower tax rate than others,” said Trudeau. (Source: Global News) 

 

 

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Friday September 15, 2017

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday September 15, 2017

Bill Morneau pushes back on ‘misinformation’ coming out about proposed tax changes

With Parliament due to resume sitting next week, Finance Minister Bill Morneau is digging in on his proposed tax changes and mounting a campaign against what he calls misinformation about it.

March 23, 2017

The tax changes have been the hot topic of discussion at the Sheraton Hotel Newfoundland, where cabinet ministers met for three days this week to prepare for the fall sitting.

It’s not just business groups and opposition Conservatives who’ve been blasting the government in the media; Liberal MPs are increasingly speaking up about their concerns with the proposed changes, including finance committee chair Wayne Easter, who told the Globe and Mail the communication strategy around the reforms was “god-awful.”

Meanwhile, Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Dwight Ball told cabinet ministers on Tuesday that there’s a “disconnect” between what the government intends and what the public believes about the changes.

In an interview with the National Post, Morneau said he knows people need more information, and he’s working on getting it out ahead of the Oct. 2 deadline on the consultation process.

November 2, 2016

He said once the consultations are done, the government will consider tweaks to prevent “administrative problems” or other unintended impacts down the road.

Asked if he’s worried that the furor over the changes will put a chill on people thinking about starting a business, Morneau said his emphasis is on protecting investments in active business operations.

“Anything we hear that will discourage people from making investments in their active business will absolutely be taken into consideration,” he said. “Again, our goal is to make sure that people have the opportunity to invest and the incentive to invest in their business.”

He said his government is constantly looking at options for small business incentives. “I don’t have anything to announce right now, but that’s something we are always looking at,” he said. (Source: National Post) 

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Friday June 16, 2017

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday June 16, 2017

Netflix tax? Trudeau says no to MPs’ proposed broadband internet levy

February 11, 2016

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has flatly rejected a controversial recommendation from a parliamentary committee calling for a five per cent tax on broadband internet services.

The new levy, included in a majority report of the Canadian Heritage committee released Thursday, was intended to boost a media sector struggling to adapt to technological changes and evolving consumer habits.

“We respect the independence of committees and Parliament and the work and the studies they do, but allow me to be clear: We’re not raising taxes on the middle class, we’re lowering them,” he said during an event in Montreal. “We’re not going to be raising taxes on the middle class through an internet broadband tax. That is not an idea we are taking on.”

September 24, 2014

Trudeau said his Liberal government was elected on a promise to lower taxes for the middle class and raise them on the wealthiest one per cent.

The committee’s report suggested the proposal would add hundreds of millions of dollars in revenues to the Canadian Media Fund, which already receives a levy on cable bills to finance the production of Canadian content.

The tax, levied on broadband internet providers, would apply to high-speed internet services that allow for the streaming of music, movies and TV shows, but not to slower and less costly services.

Revenue generated by the current cable levy is no longer seen as sufficient in an age of cord cutting and “over-the-top” services that stream content over the internet.

The Heritage committee has spent more than a year studying the industry, which has been steadily losing advertising revenue and market shares to online giants such as Facebook, Netflix and Google. (Source: CBC News) 

 

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Friday January 27, 2017

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday January 27, 2017

Hamilton’s rat problem 5th worst in Ontario

Ranking based on rodent calls to pest control company Orkin Canada

Why President Trump might not be the worst for Canada

March 12, 2015

Hamilton is known for a lot of things, and its rat population is starting to become one of them.

To be sure, we’re not in the big leagues. New York and London, England are definitely the places to go if you want to see furry vermin.

But a recent rodent ranking by a pest control company suggests we are becoming a contender.

Orkin Canada says Hamilton is the fifth “rattiest city” in Ontario. Cities were ranked by the number of rodent (rat and mice) treatments the company performed from January 1, 2016 through December 31, 2016. The ranking was based on both residential and commercial calls.

Toronto was number one in the province followed by Ottawa. An Orkin spokesperson said the results were “not weighed for population size.” So the top five “rattiest cities” list resembles closely the top five municipalities by population in Ontario.

“In theory it is probably correct to see a correlation (between population and rodent treatments) but some cities, Brampton (10), Windsor, (7) and London (12) for example, do not follow this pattern,” a spokesperson for Orkin said. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)