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WHEN I GET MINE – YOU WILL GET YOUR’S
A Truth in Fiction
By Victor Drummond ©
January 2008


Bruno Gruffman was born and raised in a back-woods village in Northern Ontario.
Bruno’s parents were killed in an auto accident shortly after he was born and he was raised by his Mennonite Grandmother.

Bruno grew up a type “A” male that would make Paul Bunyan appear a 90lb weakling.
In spite of Bruno’s intimidating physique and exceptional strength he was in fact a gentle giant.

His Grandmother had taught him to be kind to everyone, be honest, be truthful, be tolerant,
and compassionate, and to be gentle – even with those who might mistreat and/or verbally abuse him.

Bruno’s mind was not polluted with doublespeak or forked tongue legalese intrigue.
With Bruno – what you see is what you get.

When his Grandmother passed away Bruno was 19 years old with a couple of years experience in the lumber industry.

He could fall a tree in any direction he wanted – in record time. He stripped a tree of its limbs and cut it into board lengths twice as fast as anyone else. His prowess and ability became known throughout the industry.

It came as no surprise when Bruno received a job offer from Tall-Spruce Lumber Inc. of British Columbia. Tall-Spruce offered Bruno free transportation and a wage more than double what he was currently receiving.

Bruno packed his duffle bag, said farewell to his friends and went to a job interview at Tall-Spruce Inc. The job interview was a mere formality as the Tall-spruce human resources department had already decided they wanted Bruno.

After hiring -- Bruno spent two weeks with experienced Tall-Spruce Lumber-Jacks learning the safe way to scale and top 300 ft trees.

Before long Bruno was literally running up the tallest trees and topping them in less time than the average lumber-jack took to scale a tree.

Management at Tall-Spruce Inc. were delighted with Bruno’s performance and wanted to be sure he stayed with them so they placed his name on a preferred employee list to be granted shares in the company.

Although this bonus deal might be classed as an Employee Share Purchase Plan, (ESPP) a purchase was not actually involved as the shares were given at no cost to the employee.

The quantity of shares to be given each preferred employee was by way of a performance bonus.

So in 1999 Bruno had 1000 shares of Tall-Spruce Inc. transferred into his employee holding account. Not being stock market savvy Bruno paid little -- or no attention -- to the notices attached to his pay check. The significant numbers on his bi-weekly pay check were the bottom line pay dollars. All else were of little or no concern to Bruno.

And so it was that in February of the year 2000 Bruno Received his T4 Income Tax slip which showed he had received a whopping $1,000,000 “Earned Income” in the year 1999.

Bruno was thrilled. To him it meant he had a big raise pending -- that had not yet been handed to him – but was surely coming.

In his previous employment Bruno’s income was based on an hourly rate and at the end of the year he had no trouble calculating and submitting his annual Income tax returns.

The money he took home each payday, plus deductions, added up to the total “Earned Income” that he had actually received.

His new employer had reported he had “Earned” some $1,000,000 in 1999 so it was logical for Bruno to assume that his employer intended to give him the outstanding $875,000 that his T4 reported he had received – or there was some kind of error made that would soon be corrected.

Bruno didn’t really care which way the difference was resolved as his basic wages were more than adequate to satisfy his needs.

Bruno decided to complete his 1999 T1-General Tax Return himself. He totalled the actual pay he had received and calculated the Income Tax due on the actual $125,000 he had received.

When his assessment came back -- a few months later -- Bruno was shocked to see Canada Revenue Agency, (CRA) was insisting he had an “Earned Income” of $1,000,000 and had recalculated his tax on that basis.

The bottom line they said was that he owed the government Income tax of some $297,250 based on an income of $1,000,000 at the 75% inclusion rate ($750,000) taxed at a bottom line tax rate of:- 41% produced a gross tax levy of:- $297,250.00 before personal exemptions were deducted.

As Bruno had already submitted tax payment of some $33,000 on his real income the assessment bottom line said he still owed some $260,000 in unpaid Income Tax.

Bruno was thoroughly outraged when he read this assessment. He took the document personally to the offices of Revenue Canada in Vancouver and demanded to know how his Income Tax could possibly be more than twice his real total Income.

The tax counsellor showed Bruno his Income record for the year 1999 and pointed out that Bruno’s employer had reported Bruno’s gross “Earned Income” was his $125,000 basic salary supplemented by a taxable benefit of $875,000 in his employer’s shares.

The tax counsellor had copies of documents that Bruno had been given by his employer that had notified Bruno of company shares that had been placed in his employee file.

At the time the shares were issued to Bruno they were trading -- on something called a stock exchange – for over $1,000 per share. Bruno wondered why things -- called shares -- were traded along with livestock but accepted the tax counsellors word that he had in fact been given something worth $1,000,000 by his employer in 1999.

Bruno lost no time going to see the paymaster at Tall-Spruce Inc. to pick up his $1,000,000
Shares and settle this “Earned Income” fiasco.

The paymaster was most conciliatory and set up an interview with Bruno – with no time limit – to explain to Bruno where things had come off the track.

The paymaster patiently explained that during 1999 Tall-Spruce Inc. had given key employees, such as Bruno, corporation shares as an incentive and reward for outstanding performance.

That at the time the shares were issued they were trading on the stock market at around $1,000 each and that the law required Tall-Spruce to report the value of the shares Bruno had been given -- on his Tax forms – as a “Taxable Benefit”. In Bruno’s case a total of $1,000,000.

It was also explained to Bruno that he had been issued notices -- along with his pay check --
informing him of the shares issued to him with advisory suggestions as to the choices he could make regarding their disposition, etc.

Bruno admitted he hadn’t paid any attention to these attachment notices that came with his pay check from time to time but now that the matter had been explained to him he said:- “Great news – I will just sell my shares and pay the tax the government wants and spend the rest”.

After a bit of coughing and choking the paymaster finally regained his composure and went on to inform Bruno his shares now are only worth about $5,00 each and he would be lucky to get $5,000 for his 1000 shares. Bruno wanted to know what had happened to his $1,000,000.

It was explained that the Lumber industry had encountered some downturn due to international disputes over subsidies etc. and the shares of all Canadian Lumber companies had taken a big hit.

Bruno then asked:- “Is there any possibility the Tall-Spruce Inc. shares might recover their former high value?” He was told:- “Yes – it is possible but not very likely in the foreseeable future.” Bruno thanked the paymaster and said:- “I will just hold on to my shares until they are worth as much or more than the taxes levied on them.”

Bruno was more than a little dazed over this turn of events and sent a letter to the Vancouver Revenue Canada counsellor explaining the situation – thanking the counsellor for the time he had taken to explain the tax assessment to him and saying:- “I am more the willing to pay all the tax you claim I owe and “WHEN I GET MINE – YOU WILL GET YOURS – Fair Enough?


Victor Drummond ©

Authors Comments:-
Bruno and the story above are a truth in fiction.

Bruno represents those honest, hard working, conscientious Canadian Taxpayers who were totally blind-sided by the taxable benefit legislation that gives the Canada Revenue Agency a right to tax money reported by their employer’s as an “Earned Income” when in matter of fact the so-called benefit actually produced a non-recoverable “CAPITAL LOSS”.

What kind of unscrupulous people make up our government? Anyone with an ounce of common sense would immediately see the gross unfairness of this legislation and the way it has been applied.

It has decimated the financial situation of many innocent, victimized, Canadians.
If no political party commits to correcting this insidious bit of punitive legislation then register a protest vote -- in the coming Federal Election -- by voting for Victor Drummond as a write-in candidate.

See you at the voting polls for the next federal election, O'Grady.
Victor