federal government Archives - Page 2 of 4

Canada fiscal update: Morneau eager to shift focus away from small business tax fracas, personal finances

October 24, 2017

The Canadian government will unveil a budget update widely expected to show shrinking short-term deficits, as Finance Minister Bill Morneau looks to turn the page on questions about his own finances.

Morneau will deliver his Fall Economic Statement at about 4 p.m. Tuesday in Ottawa. The midyear update to the March budget will reflect the improving picture for government finances, driven by surprisingly strong growth. Over the past four quarters, the economy expanded by an average 3.7 percent, the best performance in a decade.

That will have an impact on the government’s bottom line. The budget forecast a shortfall of $28.5 billion for 2017-18. CIBC World Markets Deputy Chief Economist Benjamin Tal expects it instead to come in between $15 billion and $16 billion, including the so-called budgeted risk adjustment.

Tax reforms will put the brakes on economic growth

October 5, 2017

Instead of clamping down on the entrepreneurs who drive Canada’s economy, the federal government needs to back off on all taxation.

The federal government is determined to eliminate the perceived income tax benefit provided to people who incorporate. The argument is that those who incorporate get an unfair benefit at the expense of Canadians who file tax returns as individuals, usually as employees.

The Finance Department proposes to eliminate exclusions and oddities so that incorporated professionals, farmers and entrepreneurs pay more tax and at rates comparable to employed individuals.

Federal tax hit the last straw for entrepreneurs

October 2, 2017

Over the past 75 days, Canada has witnessed something very rare — a spontaneous, grassroots response from small business owners, a group typically way too busy to mount protests and campaigns about government policy.

I have been impressed to see business owners from coast to coast reaching out to their MPs, setting up special websites and packing local meeting halls. The federal government’s proposed tax changes have caused a firestorm of reaction from small business owners, which appears to have genuinely surprised our political leaders.

Doctors say tax us: Canada is worth it

September 21, 2017

During the past month many doctors have mobilized to oppose the tax changes proposed by the federal government for individuals who are incorporated. We say that the government should move ahead with these plans and go much further in pursuing Canadian economic equity. We recommend that our physician colleagues should resolve their financial issues through negotiations with their ministries of health.

Canada’s poverty rate is 20th out of 31 OECD countries. The Canadian poverty rate went up slightly from 2005 to 2015 to 14.2 per cent, representing 4.8 million people. The child poverty rate was up marginally to 17.1 per cent. Ominously senior’s poverty rates, which had fallen dramatically for two decades, increased from 12 per cent to 14.5 per cent.

New Proposals on the Taxation of Private Corporations can result in Double Taxation

September 13, 2017

Much has been written regarding the proposals released by the Department of Finance on July 18, 2017 to limit income splitting and holding passive investments inside a private corporation.[1] A third measure, namely, placing limits on the conversion of income to capital gains is aimed at preventing an individual selling shares of a corporation to a non-arm’s length person followed by a sale by the non-arm’s length person to a connected corporation. The foregoing transaction would result in the individual realizing a capital gain based on the fair market value of the transferred share followed by the tax-free extraction of corporate surplus of the transferred corporation. This is considered an inappropriate conversion of what would otherwise be a payment of dividend income into a capital gain. The difference in tax rates is about 14%.

Trump ends ‘Dreamers’ program, leaving fate of 800,000 uncertain

September 5, 2017

Donald Trump thrust the fate of nearly 800,000 young, undocumented migrants into uncertainty on Tuesday by terminating the Obama-era program that protects the so-called Dreamers from deportation.

In response, Barack Obama said the decision was “self-defeating” and contrary to “basic decency”.

A “shadow has been cast over some of our best and brightest young people once again”, the former president said.

The 2012 policy known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (Daca) will be phased out by 5 March 2018, leaving Congress with six months to enact new protections for Dreamers through legislation. On Tuesday night, Trump suggested that if Congress failed to “legalize Daca” he would “revisit” the program.

Government added privacy protections to MyDemocracy.ca contract only after privacy commissioner began investigation: documents

September 5, 2017

When the Liberal government launched its MyDemocracy.ca website last December, the online survey — part of an ultimately fruitless public consultation process on electoral reform — was ridiculed. It also raised concerns about privacy.

Why, observers wondered, did a survey asking people’s opinion about our “democratic values” — though not which voting system we should have — need to know a respondent’s postal code? Their occupation? Their household income?

Grits gave $4.9M to OxyContin maker

September 2, 2017

Faced today with the staggering impact of the opioid addictions crisis, Ontario’s Liberal government is urging the federal government to take legal action against a company that allegedly played a role in triggering the epidemic.

But a decade ago, knowledge of lawsuits, criminal charges against executives and the increasing abuse of OxyContin wasn’t enough to dissuade the province from awarding that same company a $4.9-million taxpayer-funded grant.

According to documents obtained by the Toronto Sun in a lengthy battle at Ontario’s Information and Privacy Commission, the Liberal government doled out the money in 2007 to the manufacturer of OxyContin — Purdue Pharma. The documents reveal it did so even though it was well aware of legal issues piling up against the company because of the addictive pills which some experts say are at the root of the country’s wave of opioid addiction.

Convicted of being subject to approximate $2.9 million in false tax claims

September 1, 2017

Chander Mohan Sharma has been found guilty of one count of defrauding the Canada Revenue Agency for an amount of more than $5000.

According to the “Toronto Sun”, this is for approximately $ 2.9 million in false claims that the individual has been found liable.

During the trial of Sharma, it has been said that the irregularities were as a result of depriving the government of Canada of approximately $600,000.

Small business owners angry about proposed Liberal tax changes

August 30, 2017

OTTAWA – Liberal backbenchers have been getting an earful this summer from small business owners outraged by the Trudeau government’s proposals to end what it calls “unfair tax advantages.”

And now they’re preparing to unleash the concerns of their constituents – and pressure Finance Minister Bill Morneau to adjust his plans accordingly – during the government’s summer caucus retreat next week in Kelowna, B.C.