APPEALS TO REASON ..

APPEALS TO REASON – Part 9
A series of letters and E-mail messages from Canadian victims
of taxes on phantom income to Canadian Government Authorities, at all levels,
appealing for fair treatment and the, often idiotic, replies they received.

Read: Appeals To Reason Part – 1 (preamble) & Parts – 2, 3,4,5,6,7,8 for more background information.
By Victor Drummond ©
May 2009

Synopsis of the events to the present

Part 6: In the federal election of 2006 the Conservative Party was elected on the promise of fair and reduced taxation and their slogan “STAND UP FOR CANADA”

Read APPEALS TO REASON Part 6 to see how the “Fair Tax” promise was perverted and the federal Conservative party failed to “STAND UP FOR THE CANADIANS THAT ELECTED THEM”.

Part 7: Reprints of two articles that appeared in Canadian Newspapers revealing the way the outrageous tax on phantom income issue was bungled by both Prime Minister Paul Martin and Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Part 8: Excerpts from additional published articles that could explain what happened to disillusion former Minister of National Revenue, the Honourable Carol Skelton and possibly the reason she decided not to run for office in the 2008 federal election. Part 9 continues with comments on the article “JDS deal dangerous precedent, Ottawa told.” which appeared in the Victoria Times Colonist Newspaper June 9, 2007.

================================
Following is an excerpt from the article: “JDS deal dangerous precedent, Ottawa told.”

The decision, recently published as a “remission order” in the Canada Gazette, was approved by cabinet despite objections from officials at Finance and Canada Revenue Agency.

Senior bureaucrats warned such a decision was unfair to other taxpayers and set a dangerous precedent for employees of other high-tech companies who watched their fortunes rise and fall during the dot-com boom and subsequent crash.

======================================

It appears these “senior bureaucrats” don’t have a rat’s ass level of concern for the unfairness of taxing people on money that never existed. Obviously they couldn’t care less regarding the financial ruin, distress, harm and anxiety their tax policy is causing to honest, hard-working Canadian taxpayers.

What about Canadians who fail to take a real profit on their personal stock market investments when they have an opportunity to do so?

Is that a crime punishable by the CRA having the right to tax the money an investor might have realized – but failed to do so?

If not, then, why not? Haven’t they broken the same cardinal rule?

Can anyone show me a Canadian law, or tax rule, that states any person failing to sell their equities at a time when they could take a profit will be taxed on the profit they might have made?

Can anyone show me an ESPP/ESO plan document that informs the participating employee they should, or must, sell their equities, acquired via the plan(s) on the day they receive (exercise) them?

It should be obvious to every intelligent human that “Almost windfall gains” can only be used to pay: “almost taxes” not real taxes and if any crime is thereby committed it is not by the victimized taxpayer.

Apparently treating some victimized Canadian taxpayers “fairly” is setting a “dangerous precedent” that shouldn’t be applied to any victimized Canadians and definitely not to all Canadians, according to “senior bureaucrats” in the CRA and the office of the Minister of Finance.

It also appears as though the Honourable Carol Skelton, Minister of National Revenue was left holding the bag on the Tax Remission Order (TRO) boondoggle when Prime Minister Harper did an about face and decided he would rather default on his commitment to put an end to taxing phantom income when he said: “We’ll get it resolved.”

Harper obviously changed his mind and decided to allow the tax on phantom income to go on devastating honest hard-working Canadians, rather than to keep his commitment and give up the loot the CRA was, and still is, legally extorting. A quality reminiscent of: “Judas Iscariot”.

So what did the Prime Minister and his flunkeys actually do, to at least appear to be trying, to: “get it resolved.”?

==================================
Following the event of the special tax treatment given the SDL Optics/JDSU plant by the Harper government, via the Gary Lunn (TRO) and the Right Honourable Stephen Harpers commitment to “resolve” the phantom tax problem, what action was taken?

How about establishing a, “Tax Ombudsman”, to which dissatisfied Canadian taxpayers can appeal for justice and “fair” taxation. An ombudsman that is funded by the CRA and has the power to admonish any Revenue Canada Agent that has such lack of tact and diplomacy as to use harsh words when communicating/intimidating delinquent taxpayers.

In order to make this new government “ombudsman” appear to have the power to provide Canadians with justice and fair taxation there was an announcement of an updated “Taxpayers Bill of Rights” at the same time.

And so it came to pass that on May 28 2007 the Minister of National Revenue, the Honourable Carol Skelton together with the Honourable James Flaherty, Minister of Finance, made an announcement, in Toronto Ontario, of :“two new government initiatives”:

(1) A taxpayer’s bill of rights: and
(2) A taxpayer’s ombudsman to ensure the Canada Revenue Agency is more accountable to Canadians.

The announced document lists 15 items as the “Rights” of Canadian taxpayers.

The Honourable James Flaherty is quoted during this announcement as saying: “When it comes to taxes this government believes in strong accountability, but fairness.” “We have introduced the tax fairness plan and the Anti-tax Haven Initiative.”

“Our next important step is introducing a Taxpayers Bill of Rights and a Taxpayers Ombudsman, which will ensure fair treatment of all taxpayers by the CRA.”

To read the complete announcement visit: www.cfib.ca/legis/national/pdf/5395.pdf

====================================

Fine words Minister Flaherty. When you made that speech weren't your lips moving?

Nearly two years have passed since that fine speech and to date CFET has to hear of one Canadian, victimized by the tax on phantom income, receiving anything like the same “fairness” as the SDL Optics victims received.

When may we expect all Canadian victims, of taxes imposed on phantom income, to receive fair and equal treatment, while bearing in mind a “senior bureaucrat” in your office warned the Right Honourable Stephen Harper against giving any victimized Canadian taxpayers a fair deal.

Apparently your lips were moving when you made that fine speech while announcing the updated “Taxpayers Bill of Rights” that ALMOST guaranteed every Canadian the RIGHT to have: “the law applied equally”.

What kind of sucker deal were you foisting on the Canadian voter by combining the announcement of creating a toothless “Taxpayers Ombudsman” together with an updated “Taxpayers Bill of Rights” that the Taxpayers Ombudsman has no mandate or power to enforce?

Wasn’t this announcement intentionally designed to deceive all Canadians into assuming the newly created “Taxpayers Ombudsman” had the mandate and power to enforce the terms of the “Taxpayers Bill of Rights”?

There isn’t a doubt that was an intended scam. And everyone who was taken in by that perfidious bit of political deception should be outraged at the “senior bureaucrats”, in our government, for the low opinion they obviously hold of the average Canadian’s level of intelligence.

Anyone who votes for their federal riding candidate from now on, without question, proves the government scammers are at least partially correct in that opinion.

Also I doubt the Honourable Carol Skelton, Minister of National Revenue realized, at the time, she was being used to add credibility to this scam.

=======================================
Shortly following the Newspaper articles:- January 13 2007 article:- “What about the rest of us?” and Stock fiasco victims to get tax refunds: (see APPEALS TO REASON – Part 8), many excluded victims turned their attention to the Honourable Carol Skelton, Minister of National Revenue hoping she could, and would, take action to assist the Right Honourable Stephen Harper, implement his commitment to “resolve” the issue and bring fair taxation to them all.

How do you imagine she felt when in good faith she endorsed the Right Honourable Stephen Harper’s commitment to: "we'll get it resolved" and “that changes to the federal tax code were necessary.”, only to have her endorsement blow up in her face when the Right Honourable Stephen Harper perverted that commitment to have “two new tax initiatives” introduced but did absolutely nothing to actually “resolve” or provide the promised “fairness” to victims of phantom tax.

Possibly Carol still had some faith, in her conservative party colleagues, when she joined the Honourable James Flaherty, Minister of Finance in making the announcement of two new tax initiatives at a Toronto Ontario meeting, on May 28 2007.

Well it is now almost two years since that perfidious announcement was made and I have yet to hear of even one more Canadian taxpayer, any victim of the same defective tax legislation that had devastated the SDL Optics/JDSU employees, that has had their tax on phantom income revoked by way of an appeal to the “Tax Ombudsman”.

Read more details of this “senior bureaucrat” fiasco when APPEALS TO REASON – Part 10 is posted.

Victor Drummond ©