taxes

Tuesday September 29, 2020

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday September 29, 2020

Long-Concealed Records Show Trump’s Chronic Losses and Years of Tax Avoidance

Donald J. Trump paid $750 in federal income taxes the year he won the presidency. In his first year in the White House, he paid another $750.

October 4, 2016

He had paid no income taxes at all in 10 of the previous 15 years — largely because he reported losing much more money than he made.

As the president wages a re-election campaign that polls say he is in danger of losing, his finances are under stress, beset by losses and hundreds of millions of dollars in debt coming due that he has personally guaranteed. Also hanging over him is a decade-long audit battle with the Internal Revenue Service over the legitimacy of a $72.9 million tax refund that he claimed, and received, after declaring huge losses. An adverse ruling could cost him more than $100 million.

March 26, 2019

The tax returns that Mr. Trump has long fought to keep private tell a story fundamentally different from the one he has sold to the American public. His reports to the I.R.S. portray a businessman who takes in hundreds of millions of dollars a year yet racks up chronic losses that he aggressively employs to avoid paying taxes. Now, with his financial challenges mounting, the records show that he depends more and more on making money from businesses that put him in potential and often direct conflict of interest with his job as president.

June 2, 2020

The New York Times has obtained tax-return data extending over more than two decades for Mr. Trump and the hundreds of companies that make up his business organization, including detailed information from his first two years in office. It does not include his personal returns for 2018 or 2019.

The COVID-19 Pandemic

The returns are some of the most sought-after, and speculated-about, records in recent memory. In Mr. Trump’s nearly four years in office — and across his endlessly hyped decades in the public eye — journalists, prosecutors, opposition politicians and conspiracists have, with limited success, sought to excavate the enigmas of his finances. By their very nature, the filings will leave many questions unanswered, many questioners unfulfilled. They comprise information that Mr. Trump has disclosed to the I.R.S., not the findings of an independent financial examination. They report that Mr. Trump owns hundreds of millions of dollars in valuable assets, but they do not reveal his true wealth. Nor do they reveal any previously unreported connections to Russia. (Continued: New York Times) 

 

Thursday September 12, 2019

September 12, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday September 12, 2019

There is deep angst in Canada ahead of this fall’s election

We may have voted for hope, optimism and sunny days in 2015 but Canadians don’t appear to be very optimistic heading into the Fall of 2019.

August 14, 2014

Canadians do see a strong economy right now. Assessment of their personal finances has gone from 32 per cent positive (Q4 2015) to 46 per cent today and their assessment of their job security has grown from 39 per cent positive (Q4 2015) to 52 per cent today.

On the eve of the writ dropping, one would assume from these numbers that the federal Liberals would very much like to have the 2019 ballot question be: “Are you better off today than you were four years ago?”

But it won’t be, because despite these views and some impressive economic numbers at the macro level, Canadians aren’t optimistic about their longer-term prospects. Pocket-book issues and concerns over affordability are a common thread connecting most of the top issues Canadians identify as priorities: healthcare, the economy, housing, climate change, and taxes.

Our concerns are more than economic. There is deep angst about the direction of the country. Canadians are questioning the value and the very role of government, politicians and political parties in their lives and many politicians are going to run into the buzz saw of growing cynicism once they start knocking on doors. For starters:

January 3, 2014

* 67 per cent (unchanged since 2016) agree that the country’s economy is rigged to the advantage of the rich and powerful

* 61 per cent (vs. 56 per cent in 2016) agree that “traditional parties and politicians don’t care about people like me”

* 57 per cent (vs. in 47 per cent November 2016) say the country is “going in the wrong direction”

* 52 per cent (up dramatically from 37 per cent in 2016) agree that “Canadian society is broken”

This level of angst and cynicism among Canadians is going to pose a challenge for all political parties. Delivering policy ideas along with messaging to motivate supporter turn-out will be difficult, and they will need to find a balance between positive, forward-looking messages and empathetic, “we get you now” messages.

Imagine if you were a federal candidate hearing this at the door while looking for a vote: “I think the economy is stacked against me, I don’t think you care about me, I think our society is broken and our country is headed in the wrong direction. Tell me how you are going to fix this and why I should vote for you?” (Global News) 

 

Thursday July 26, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday July 26, 2018

National pharmacare ‘blueprint’ will be unveiled next spring

With more than 100 different public drug plans available across Canada, including Ontario’s recently scaled-back OHIP+, one challenge for a countrywide pharmacare program will be finding agreement on which one will work best, says Eric Hoskins.

Hoskins, the former Ontario health minister who helped usher in OHIP+ and is now in charge of developing a national plan, spoke to Canada’s premiers on Friday about the issue, the same day his advisory council launched wider public consultations online.

“There’s tremendous diversity” out there, he said, noting there are also more than 100,000 private drug plans in the country. A national pharmacare program will offer “the ability to have consistency across the country, so that a child in Ontario can expect to receive the same access to prescribed medications as a child in New Brunswick or in British Columbia or in the Northwest Territories,” he told reporters after the breakfast meeting at the picturesque Algonquin Resort.

“Changes are being made almost every day at the provincial and territorial level … (as they) try to improve access. We are trying to build consensus … so your access isn’t dependent on your postal code.”

Hoskins was joined by Linda Silas, president of the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions. Eight of 13 premiers attended the Friday morning session; Doug Ford was not among them.

Hoskins said premiers who didn’t make it sent senior staff, and noted that he just last week met with Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott.

The big question premiers have is about a national pharmacare program is how much it will cost and the cost-sharing arrangement, both of which are still being worked out, he said.

Hoskins said a “blueprint” with full details on the model and pricing will be ready next spring.

Billions of dollars are wasted each year given the competing plans, he said, and a federal plan would see lower costs through efficiencies like bulk purchasing.

Currently, Canada spends the most per capita on prescriptions after Switzerland and the U.S. (Source: Toronto Star) 

 

Saturday May 5, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday May 5, 2018

Ontario gas prices approach record high as election looms

The high price of gasoline is a concern right now for many of Ontario’s drivers and voters, giving it the potential to become an issue in the provincial election campaign.

The average price of regular unleaded gas across the province is sitting just shy of $1.37/litre according to data compiled by the Ministry of Energy. That’s just six cents lower than the highest-ever average price that hit the province in late June 2014, shortly after Ontario went to the polls the last time.

PC leader Doug Ford is trying to convince voters that gas prices will soar even further if the Liberals are re-elected.

“We all know that paying $1.50 for gas is what would happen under the Kathleen Wynne government,” Ford told a news conference at a gas station last week. “Kathleen Wynne will have her hand in your pocket every time you fill at the pump. I can tell you, that’s not going to happen on our watch.”  

Ford says his government would bring down gas prices by ending the Liberals’ cap-and-trade program. That would knock 4.3 cents a litre off the price.

However, Ford is not promising to scrap or reduce the provincial gasoline tax, which adds 14.7 cents to each litre. The gas tax brings $2.7 billion into provincial coffers each year, with a portion allocated to municipalities for local transit. Only three provinces have a lower gas tax than Ontario.  

“We were very clear when we took action on climate change that there was a small increase in the price of gas,” Premier Kathleen Wynne said this week in response to a question from CBC News.

She argues that this latest spike is a result of market forces.  

“There’s a very significant vacillation of gas prices,” Wynne said. “It’s very challenging, it’s a private market.” (Source: CBC) 

 

Saturday October 21, 2017

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday October 21, 2017

Bill Morneau bristles at questions about personal finances

Finance Minister Bill Morneau dodged questions about his use of numbered companies to hold investments Friday, suggesting he does not have to defend his personal financial choices to journalists.

September 22, 2017

After a week of questions about his own fortune, Morneau showed signs of exasperation during an event in Waterloo, Ont., where he was pitching the government’s “step back” on proposed changes  to the small business tax regime.

Morneau batted away a question about why he held some of his investments in an Alberta company rather than one domiciled in Ontario, where he lives.

“So, is the question why are they numbered companies and they don’t have names?” he said with a shrug.

“Seriously, what I’ve done is expose all my assets to the ethics commissioner. The process we have in our country isn’t that I report to journalists on my personal situation. It’s that I report to the ethics commissioner and I make sure she fully understands my situation so we can get to the recommendations.”

Owning investments in a personal holding company can provide various tax and non-tax benefits. Income in an operating company can face a lower tax rate by using small business deductions, for example.

Morneau said he has now agreed to do more than what the commissioner, Mary Dawson, recommended he do when he took office.

Morneau did not place his considerable holdings in a family company — the publicly traded human resources firm Morneau Shepell — in a blind trust because Dawson had only recommended the creation of an “ethical screen” to ensure he wasn’t making policy decisions to his own financial benefit. The screen was to be administered by Morneau’s chief of staff. (Source: CBC News) 

Letter to the Editor

One-sided cartoon unfair to Morneau

RE: Oct. editorial cartoon

This amusing cartoon, portraying our finance minister doing hoops for his salvation from not putting his family business in trust, is surely very one sided.

He originally sought the advice of our ethics commissioner, who told him that it was not a necessity for him to do so. Now that he is trying to rectify his “mistake” he is subjected to much scorn by the opposition parties.

A cheering Justin Trudeau reminds me that it is hard to recall one MacKay cartoon with something positive about our PM.

A bigger concern is the lack of media support for left-wing Canada. It is easy to list six families/corporations who own the majority of our major print and broadcast media and are all supporters of the Conservatives. Even the CBC, with its president and eight Harper-appointed directors, too often follows suit.

The Star and Spectator used to provide regular support but these days, I find that to be hit and miss. All issues should be subject to scrutiny but it would be refreshing to have more balance.

Richard Ring, Grimsby

 

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