Taxing the Super Wealthy

Courtesy Pixabay

Bit of a random rant today. This is brought on by the continued political news south of the border and the results of our last round of Canadian elections. Our federal Liberal party did make noises about increasing taxes for the rich. I'm a big skeptic.

I'm in New Brunswick where we have a Liberal provincial government and as far as I can tell they and their federal buddies are quite happy with each other. I don't see any efforts in this province to tax the super rich more than they are already being taxed. This budget that was brought in over the past month increases the HST. That's a tax increase on the rich and the poor and it doesn't even begin to solve the problem here. Where is the relief for the poor in Canada's poorest province? Is this the wonderful type of solution that will be foisted on the whole country?

Let's see the federal government actually increase the percent income tax for the nations super rich. Even if it does happen the skeptic in me knows that this will not increase the amount these people are contributing to the nation's budget. They'll cry rivers over it, might even make threats to try and scare everyone but in the end they won't be paying more. If your income is hidden from the tax man through legal loopholes the percentage tax paid makes no difference at all. They can publicly claim how much they paid in taxes. That public claim will not include their hidden income and won't show you all the government incentives their companies received to operate. So the numbers the average Joe like you and me will see are completely meaningless.

If you really want the rich to pay their fair share of the taxes you have to close the loopholes that are allowing them in some cases to effectively pay no income tax at all. The skeptic in me doesn't think that is ever going to happen.

I don't believe our politicians have any concept of what it is like to be poor. They are completely out of touch both liberal and conservative. We get advice on saving money in tough times like, “only eat in a restaurant once per week” and “it's more important to pay for your subsidized government housing than it is to buy food”. I remain skeptical of any solution at this point. I really feel sorry for my friends south of the border. You might get to choose a president between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Don't expect anything to improve for awhile. They are both part of the problem and not part of any solution.