The dirt on the tax proposals

First of all, know that I am a proud Canadian farmer and want to stay that way. The debate over the finance minister’s proposed tax reforms is so much bigger than a Liberal/ Conservative issue. This is more of a right/wrong issue.

The last time a tax reform of this magnitude was implemented it was the early seventies. It took about six years of consultation and about two years of legislative debate to become law. The government is attempting to ram this tax-reform package through with a 72-day consultation period, which happens to fall during farmers’ harvest season. This cannot be seen as a coincidence.

The federal government continues to move forward rapidly with its tax-reform initiative. As each day passes it is becoming increasingly clear that its communication strategy leaves a lot to be desired. All of Canadian agriculture is united in expressing serious concerns in opposition to the initiative in its present form and is working through a coalition of over 60 organizations across the country.

Finance Minister Bill Morneau and Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay are now starting to make statements attempting to assure us that the tax exemption on intergenerational transfers and the lifetime capital-gains exemption, which are of significant interest to farm owners in particular, will be maintained. While this is good news, it highlights the failure of the communication initiative.

There was nothing in the original tax-reform proposal documents indicating that the capital gains exemption would be protected for Canadian agriculture is united in expressing serious concerns in opposition to the Liberal tax reforms in their current state, writes Terry Youzwa. farmers. The Department of Finance has wasted the time, energy and resources of financial experts, accountants, certified financial planners and others by not stating what the intended tax-reform proposal actually looked like.

A good communication plan would have consulted financial experts on the impacts the tax reform would have on various stakeholders and the overall effect on the economy. of this lack of meaningful consultation. These raise a lot of questions and are major concerns for succession planning and passive income within farms and small businesses. This raises the question of why these have not been addressed in the proposal already. How does one know that these aren’t actually objectives rather than unintended consequences? What kind of government plants the seeds of a class war in our great nation?