The Star is to be congratulated for its excellent research regarding low taxes, tax shelters and off-shore tax avoidance schemes enjoyed by many corporations.
The burden for these corporate benefits is incurred by the middle class, the group the federal Liberal government promised to help in its election platform.
A few examples of the unfair taxation system include the Canadian Revenue Agency disallowing capital losses for RRSP/RIFF investments, charging tax on investments that were never realized or withdrawals that quickly turned into capital losses that cannot be claimed, and retroactively charging income-tax interest if instalment payments are not made and the amount owed is more than $3,000.
The Senate finance committee has twice called for a review of the Canadian tax law to institute a more equitable tax system, but the federal government has failed to address inequities and continues to reward the wealthy at the expense of all other Canadians.
https://www.thestar.com/opinion/let...uld-canadian-corporations-pay-more-taxes.html
The Toronto Red Star is to be congratulated for its remarkable capacity to AVOID speaking the truth on any subject! Consider:
Here is an article illustrating how clueless some people are about economic issues. With some comments of my own in brackets):
BELZILE: Let's bring free trade benefits home.
Special to Toronto Sun. Published: December 10, 2017/ Updated: December 10, 2017 6:00 PM EST
Filed Under: Toronto SUN/ Opinion/ Columnists
Beer is on display inside a store in Drummondville, Que., on July 23, 2015. Gerard Comeau of Tracadie launched a constitutional challenge after he was charged with illegally importing alcohol into New Brunswick from neighbouring Quebec.Ryan Remiorz / THE CANADIAN PRESS.
(For anybody who is interested- this kind of stuff- major barriers to inter provincial trade was supposed to STOP back when Brian Mulroney signed that first Free Trade Agreement. The fact that LIE-berals have quietly eroded the former free trade provisions between provinces is simply what happens when you let LIE-berals suck up to powerful unions! In Vancouver it is easier to get wine from Australia, Chile and South Africa than it is to get wine from Ontari-owe and this is a national disgrace especially as Ontari-owe wine is of just as good quality and price as the foreign stuff!)
By Germain Belzile, Special to Postmedia Network
There’s been a lot of talk about free trade lately. This is due in part to the renegotiation of NAFTA, and to the Trans-Pacific Partnership that many governments are trying to resuscitate. In Canada, a long-awaited inter-provincial free trade deal was also signed in the spring, and a case before the Supreme Court this week could potentially lead to even freer trade within Canada.
Why do such agreements and court cases matter? Quite simply because freer trade makes us all richer.
(Surely it is not a difficult argument to explain why it is better for Canadian economy for us to drink Ontari-owe wine rather than Chilean or South African stuff?)
Two hundred years after the discovery of the law of comparative advantage, economists have had time to measure the effects of free trade, and studies leave little doubt: Free trade increases competition, as the number of companies in a given market goes up, which leads to better products; it increases consumer choice; it increases the size of markets, which makes economies of scale possible; and it forces companies to become more productive.
(Too bad that economies of scale and vertical integration neutralize that law of comparative advantage- with powerful corporations buying up all the little players and consolidating power in a few hands and then adding powerful unions with the ear of LIE-beral govt who like to monkey with the import/export rules by denying space on LCBO shelves for stuff they deem `unsuitable`!)
All of these phenomena reduce prices and raise salaries. The purchasing power of households thus increases, as they have more to spend and can buy more with each dollar.
(The devil is in the details- salaries are NOT rising and competition is to often strangled when corporations, LIE-berals and unions collude together -within provinces!)
But while international free trade gets a lot of attention, we forget that free trade between Canada’s provinces is far from perfect. The Comeau case is being heard this week by the Supreme Court of Canada.
In 2012, Mr. Comeau was stopped for having brought back home to New Brunswick fourteen cases of beer and three bottles of spirits purchased in Quebec. He contested his fine and won his case before the Provincial Court. Now, the Supreme Court will have to decide if Canadians have the right to transport legally purchased goods, including alcohol, from one province to another.
(This is NUTS! Would they sue of he filled up his car with gas in Ontari-owe and drove it to Quebec? The answer is YES- if it was easy to prove! In summer 2017, LIE-beral hug a thug judges RELEASED SEVEN accused murderers because LIE-berals could not arrange trials with “a reasonable time”! LIE-berals are all about making examples of others- just so long as it does not inconvenience THEM! )
This case is important because it highlights the fact that the Canadian provinces do not practice free trade among themselves. And we want free trade. A poll conducted by Ipsos on behalf of the Montreal Economic Institute shows that 89% of Canadians think they should be allowed to bring any legally purchased product from one province to another.
Specifically regarding alcohol, 78% think they should be allowed to bring any amount of beer or wine from one province into another, while 84% think they should be allowed to order wine directly from a winery in another province.
(If you are willing to pay the shipping costs then why not order anything you want from within Canada? Answer: because greedy Hogs in each province want THEIR CUT of sales tax- they do NOT want you licking and choosing what and were you buy and they BELIEVE THEY ARE ENTITLED to treat YOU as a cash cow!)
And Canadians don’t buy the justifications that provinces offer for blocking inter-provincial free trade. Only 16% think that governments should be allowed to impose restrictions against goods from other provinces to protect their own industries, and only 12% think they should be allowed to do so to collect more revenues.
A Statistics Canada study calculated that the many restrictions on internal trade in Canada correspond to an average tariff of 6.9% on goods traded between provinces. This rate is much higher than the average Canadian tariff on international imports (1%) and even the average global tariff (2.9%). Indeed, it is often easier to export to another country than to another Canadian province.
(AS the Vancouver example shows, it has been easier to import from Chile than from Ontari-owe!)
The Supreme Court has an opportunity to correct this provincial protectionism by reaffirming the vision of the Fathers of Confederation, who wanted to create a vast common market. When we understand the advantages of free trade, we cannot help but cheer for the possibility that the Court could bring down provincial trade barriers, to the great benefit of all Canadian consumers.
(The idea behind that “vast common market” in Canada is also about economies of scale- we can get better results when we work together! Too bad LIE-beals and Hogs are prepared to damage us if they do not get their ENTITLEMENTS!)
Germain Belzile is Senior Associate Researcher at the Montreal Economic Institute.