They Claim He's a Smart Man

                                                              http://dyn.com/

The Conservative "Family Tax Cut"  is straight out of the fifties. Linda McQuaig considers three families, each earning a total $100,000 in income:

Imagine three families, all raising kids, all with total household incomes of $100,000.

In the first household, the breadwinner is a single mother. Her benefit from the Family Tax Cut: zero.

The second consists of two working spouses, each earning $50,000. Their benefit from the Family Tax Cut: zero.

The third consists of a man earning $100,000 with a stay-at-home wife. Their benefit from the Family Tax Cut: Bingo! They get $2,000.

Incomes are equal, but benefits are not. What's the difference?

By what stretch of logic could that be considered fair? Are the other two families not “hardworking” enough? Does the Harper government consider them defective in some way?

Their only flaw, in terms of qualifying for this tax break, is that they’re not the kind of traditional family that Stephen Harper and his base clearly prefer.

Income-splitting also would reinforce the dominant role of men in relationships. The income-splitting itself is for tax purposes only. There’s no actual transfer of money to the lower income spouse (typically the woman), so it will do nothing to increase her autonomy or bargaining power within the relationship.

Harper's economic policy is straight out of the 19th century. His "family policy" is straight out of the middle of the last century.  His view of the future only stretches as far as the next election.

 And they say he's a smart man.

What's New?

                                                       http://lawofwork.ca/              

As the details of Stephen Harper's income splitting plan are made public, it becomes clear how grotesque his "family friendly" policy is. Carol Goar writes that a small minority of Canadians will give income splitting enthusiastic support:

For about 15 per cent of the population, the answer is an enthusiastic yes. These taxpayers — typically high-earning breadwinners with stay-at-home spouses and kids — will receive an average of $1,140 more a year in tax relief and children’s benefits.

For 12 per cent of Canadians — single parents and working parents in similar tax brackets — the answer is an equivocal yes. They’ll get an additional $615 a year in children’s benefits, but no tax reduction.

For the remaining 73 per cent of the population — couples without children, parents of children over 18, young singles and pensioners — the answer ranges from an altruistic maybe (in the case of grandparents) to a flat no (in the case underemployed youth). They will get nothing.

What this amounts to is a massive income transfer wrapped in child-friendly language.

And, when you get into the fine print, the gross injustice of Harper's tax break is stunning:

The lion’s share of the $27 billion will go to better-off families. They’re the only ones who can afford the “traditional” model of child-rearing in which Dad works, Mom takes care of the kids and one income supports everybody.

A disproportionate percentage will go to parents in Alberta and Saskatchewan, where one-earner families are more common than in eastern Canada. According to the Broadbent Institute, which analyzed the regional impact of Harper’s plan, 22.8 per cent of families with children in Alberta are eligible for the maximum benefit compared to 13.8 per cent nationally. Just 7.4 per cent of Quebec families with children qualify for the full benefit. (Ontario is in the middle at 14.1 per cent.)

Parents in their late 20s and 30s, who set aside money to start a family, will do better than their younger counterparts who need two incomes.

And families with grandparents nearby who can take care of the children will be at an advantage. This arrangement allows one parent to work part-time while the other maximizes the family income.

In all cases, tax dollars flow from the majority of Canadians to a well-off minority.

But Harper has always been about serving the interests of a well off minority.
What's new?

Comforting The Rich

                                                      morningstaronline.co.uk

Stephen Harper revealed his income splitting plan last week. It's classical Conservative policy. Comfort the rich, they say, and everyone else will benefit. Scott Clark and Peter Devries write:

According to the Harper government, income-splitting will cost Ottawa $2.4 billion 2014-15 and $1.9 billion in 2015-16. That’s an awful lot of revenue to give up just to make a small group of well-heeled taxpayers happy. Why do these households deserve a deep tax break more than the vast majority of Canadian taxpayer? How can the government justify a re-distribution of income that benefits the wealthy?

There is no justification whatsoever for introducing income-splitting on social or economic grounds — certainly not in the current economic environment. The argument that the government makes — that it did it for seniors and therefore it should be applied to other families — doesn’t make a particle of sense. The fact is that the Harper government gave income-splitting to seniors to make amends for its decision to tax income trusts.

Income-splitting is being done to placate a small part of the Conservative base at the expense of virtually everyone else. The rollout will be explicitly political: those households that qualify will be able to collect their tax cut when they file their 2014 tax return, just in time for the election.
It’ll be interesting to see how this tax change plays out with Canadians as they come to understand what it means to them — or rather, what it doesn’t mean. The Harper government obviously is expecting people to be disappointed, which explains their decision to sugar the pill with other tax breaks:

 Mr. Harper announced an enrichment of the Universal Child Care Benefit (UCCB), which would benefit almost 1.7 million families with children. First, the monthly benefit for a child under age six will be increased from $100 to $160. Second, under the UCCB, children aged between 6 and 17 will receive $720 per year. Enhanced payments will take effect in January 2015 and will start to show up in monthly payments in July — just before a fall election. The cost of the enhanced UCCB will be offset by the elimination of the existing child tax credit beginning in 2015.

The simple truth is that the economic policy of our "economist" prime minister doesn't -- and never did -- make a particle of economic sense. It's always been about buying votes from a narrowly targeted group of voters -- Canada's wealthiest citizens.