A POLITICAL DILEMMA..

A QUANDARY ENTWINED WITH A DILEMMA
A commentary on apparent Confusion and/or lack of Comprehension
Exhibited by Canadian Federal Politicians regarding the Recognition
of an extremely serious Problem with a very simple Solution.
By Victor Drummond ©
April 2008


Collectively our Federal Members of Parliament led by our Prime Minister are -- figuratively speaking -- in the drivers seat of the Canadian living standards and economy.

When a federal election is under way those who want to become a part of our government -- and theoretically represent us in government -- spend a lot of time and money telling us why we should vote for them. But when elected carry on as though voters do not exist.

It seems very few voters demand – or even suggest – these campaigners do anything to deserve their vote. It appears as though many Canadians would vote for a snake if it ran for election under the banner of the political party of their choice.

Then if the snake they voted for – the last time -- turned on them and bit them while in office they would still vote for the same snake when election time arrived again.

No wonder politicians are notorious for making pie-crust promises at election time.
No wonder we end up with politicians who either do not bother to hear their constituents cries for help – or do not understand the issue – or have no idea what to do about a problem if they even recognize one.

Putting these people in the nations drivers seat is the equivalent to giving a teen-ager -- with a learners permit -- the family car to take on the freeway.
Then if they do not kill themselves in a crash – doing the same thing all over again.

From now on – if anyone asks me who will I vote for – in any election I will reply the person who kept – or at least made a sincere and intelligent effort to keep – the commitments they made before the previous election. And it won’t make any difference which political party they run for.

Why would it take seven or eight years of taxpayer abuse for our representatives in Parliament to recognize and promptly correct the defective legislation that financially ruined – even one honest hard-working Canadian – without justification?

And we are not talking about one devastated Canadian taxpayer – we are talking about
Thousands – perhaps even tens of thousands – of Canadians who were taxed into financial oblivion on theoretical “Income” money they never received.

These victims did not all suffer in silence. Some wrote their Member of Parliament – explaining the situation. Many appealed their income tax assessments. Others hired lawyers to fight the issue for them.
All to no avail.
Until the Conservatives were elected in 2006.

Part of the Conservative pre-election promises – in 2005 -- included a policy of “Fair” taxation.

Do you suppose that promise had anything to do with them defeating the old regime – that had ignored the taxable benefit problem for at least six years?

At least one conservative MP elected in 2006 made a serious and intelligent effort to keep that promise to some of his constituents.

The Hon Gary Lunn – supported by the Prime Minister – Stephen Harper and the Governor General for Canada, Her Excellency Micheal Jean, -- succeeded in having a Tax Remission Order, (TRO) passed into law.

Granted the Gary Lunn TRO was only a token fix and did little to correct the over-all problem but it was a step in the right direction.

If nothing else it caused a journalist or two to write about the injustice of this legislation and the favouritism produced by the selective Fix applied.

The TRO became the focus of other victims of that same defective legislation and the appeals made for blanket corrective action began to flow to all sitting MP’s right up to the Prime Minister and tax related agencies in government.

Every MP with an open mind and an ounce of intelligence would have heard of the problem and the distress of its victims by the middle of the year 2007.

Still at the time of the March meeting of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance, (FINA), the Minister of National Revenue, the Hon Gordon O’Connor, claimed he was not aware of more than a few victims in distress caused by the taxable benefits legislation – and the way it was being applied.

An amazing revelation considering that several members of the group named:- “Canadians for Fair and Equalized Taxation”, (CFET), had been sending appeal letters after appeal letters, and E-mails to his attention.

Just about as amazing was the apparent lack of knowledge on the part of federal government MP’s on the problem. It took several meetings between members of CFET and sitting MP’s before they actually comprehended the nature and extent of the horrendous tax penalties being imposed on Canadians who had participated in their employers shares and/or options plans.

Plans that were initially intended to provide financial benefits to productive employees not a financially ruinous penalty that resulted from defective taxable benefit legislation.

THE PROBLEM:-

Legislation in the Canadian Income tax act that provides a basis for taxing theoretical, non-existent money that is neither “earned” nor “income”.

SOME SIMPLE FAIR SOLUTIONS:-

Step (1) – Amend the taxable benefits legislation to exclude corporation shares – no matter how acquired – from the “taxable benefit” classification and place them in the “Capital Investment” classification where they have always belonged.

Step (2) – Pass the following legislation and make its provisions retroactive to the year 1999.

Canadians that have been levied taxes on purely theoretical income monies may apply for re-assessment of their “Income Tax Returns” for every year from 1999 through to the time the legislation has been corrected and passed into law.

Amounts paid in taxes on purely theoretical income will be refunded in the form of a tax credit – including all fines, penalties and with interest on the overpaid amount.

Tax credits may be used to offset current and future income taxes and/or requested repayment in cash at the rate of 50% of the total unused credits value per year for any two years of the taxpayer’s choice.
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Now that wasn’t so difficult was it?

Tell anyone soliciting your vote in the next federal election to commit to fixing the taxable benefits disaster – or no vote.

Victor Drummond ©