By Pepper Parr
September 1st, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
The material that gets pumped out of the constituency offices of the federal and provincial politician’s is usually about an opportunity to take their picture,
We seldom see a document that has information that is focused and informative.
Oakville Burlington North Member of Parliament Pam Damoff.
Pam Damoff, the federal member for Oakville Burlington North sent out both a comment and a document that many of the professional class who have incorporated their operations for tax purposes and most of the small business who have questions about changes in the tax act will find useful and interesting.
Damoff refers to an announced set of proposals aimed at reforming the tax planning options available for private corporations. Since the changes were released Damoff reports she has heard from a number of incorporated professionals, and small and medium sized business owners in Oakville and Burlington.
The proposed changes will bring reform to rules that have been unaltered since the 1970s and people rightly have a lot of questions about how these changes will affect their businesses. The proposed changes are complex, and Damoff believes there is misinformation that has been circulating.
The document she refers to can be found at;
Damoff believes the document will help to set the record straight.
The first thing Damoff wants people to do is inform themselves and learn how these changes will affect them personally or their business. She claims that once they did this, they discovered that the proposed changes do not have any impact on them at all.
She was a replacement nominee who had no plans to run for a federal seat – she was content with being a member of Oakville town council.
The document compiled by the Department lays out the current tax planning strategies that corporations are currently using, some problematic elements found in these current strategies and the rationale for why new legislative measures are needed.
You can read the document in full by clicking on this link;
Damoff encourages constructive and actionable feedback: The consultation will be open until October 2nd .
Within the newly proposed rules corporations will continue to be able to take advantage of the lower corporate tax rate to expand their offices, hire more staff, and purchase more equipment. Additionally, the government has no intention of going back in time.
The proposals would only be applied going forward. All existing savings will be unaffected. Small and mediums sized business owners can continue to use all available, tax-sheltered savings plans such as pension plans, RRSPs and TFSAs. Less than 3% of wealthy individuals max out their RRSP, TFSAs and pensions.
The proposed adjustments to the tax laws that allow unlimited tax-sheltered accounts within a business over and above the limits that apply to everyone.
Pam Damoff letting a senior explain to her how a piece of equipment works.
Damoff says that: “If you own a business and are saving against a possible downturn or to invest in your business, these changes will not affect you. As I mentioned above, changes will only be applied on a go-forward basis – all existing savings for personal use in a business will be unaffected. Our proposals will only impact a business owner if the savings are used for personal use moving forward.”
Damoff points to a Special Employment Insurance Benefits that since 2010 have been made available to people self-employed on a voluntary basis. Prior to 2010 the self-employed were not eligible for any EI benefits. Now, however, for individuals on maternity leave (including small business owners), EI provides a 55% replacement rate on employment income, up to a maximum salary of $51,300.
Damoff encourages those who have questions to reach out to her office at pam.damoff@parl.gc.ca or at 905-847-4043.
As far as the document referred to in this piece: A most self-serving, one-sided document of the type we are all too used to seeing from governments of all stripes.
The point which the Liberal government can’t seem to get their heads around is that small, self-employed business people do not have access to pension plans that employees have. They also assume a significant amount of risk in establishing and running a business. Accordingly, they need to have mechanisms such as “income sprinkling” to offset that additional risk in starting, managing and operating a business. Small businesses are the engine of the Canadian economy and account for about 73% of employment in Canada.
The Liberals, in their inimitable fashion, promoted these changes as “levelling the playing field” and “helping the middle class”. When all is said and done the changes will bring in a pittance….only $250 million a year. That is a drop in the bucket for a government facing a $29 billion deficit created in large measure by their profligate spending habits. However, the upshot is that many business professionals will simply leave and move elsewhere. Already we are hearing of sole medical practitioners in rural communities threatening to move to the U.S., and farmers who are looking at getting out of farming because the lack of tax shelters will result in additional taxation making their operations unsustainable. Ironically, these are the same “middle class” voters the Prime Minister keeps prattling on about helping.
The Prime Minister and his Finance Minister have unleashed a storm fire of protest this time which Damoff and her fellow backbench MPs are expected to field. Let’s hope that when the Prime Minister and his caucus meet this week in Kelowna saner heads will prevail and that poorly conceived policy papers give way to an extended consultation timeline and better examination of the facts.
As Forrest Gump said (Im not a smart man….but) One of the more annoying things about business owners is that we react very quickly based on instinct. Like Antelopes at an African watering hole the slightest noise from the bush and were off.
Now the Government have to do some damage control. Like the Lion saying “Come back! I won’t eat you….Honest!
What about tomorrow though.