There has been a lot of sound and fury recently about something called the Canadian-controlled private corporation: Tom Walkom explains:
It’s a form of corporate organization used extensively, but not exclusively, by small business. More to the point, it gives the owners significant tax advantages that most Canadians don’t enjoy.
More than that:
Independent research by tax experts such as the University of Ottawa’s Michael Wolfson show that the use of these private corporations has skyrocketed in recent years.In one study published by the Canadian Tax Journal, Wolfson and others calculated that the tax advantages associated with private corporations disproportionally favour the top one per cent of income earners.
The Liberals' plan to scuttle the tax break has caused a firestorm:
Small-business lobbies such as the Canadian Federation of Independent Business have reacted furiously to Morneau’s proposal. Farmers are nervous. Liberal MPs are being bearded in their ridings.The Canadian Medical Association, many of whose physician members have formed private corporations specifically to take advantage of the tax loopholes Morneau wants to close, have levelled volleys at his scheme.In an attempt to appeal to the prime minister’s avowed feminism, the CMA has even played the gender card, noting that the tax breaks the government wants to end allow female physicians to fund maternity leave benefits they would not otherwise enjoy.
No one mentions that "like all other self-employed individuals, physicians who choose to pay
employment insurance premiums are eligible to receive up to 50 weeks of
maternity and parental benefits from the government."
Canadians will sing the praises of a government which gives them a new tax break. But woe betide the government which takes a tax break away.
Image: thenewdaily.com.au
