dcf0a7f0
XPost: can.general, can.politics, ott.general
From: sharx35@hotmail.com
IF I had MY way, ALL freebies would be taxed, including LOTTERY WINNINGS.
Why should someone win $40 million and pay absolutely NO TAX?
"Alan Baggett" wrote in message
news:b9b13b2a-1605-49e6-8da4-6ba2c7177153@r27g2000yqn.googlegroups.com...
> Are Free 2010 Olympic Tickets being Taxed? :CRA SOTW
>
> By Carlito Pablo
>
> After the Olympics are over and the visitors have gone home, many will
> be waiting to find out where thousands of taxpayer-funded tickets
> ended up.
>
> It’s not as if the recipients won’t be known to the public. For Chuck
> Gould, an advertising executive, the important question to ask is, did
> they have any business being there?
>
> Because if they didn’t, Gould argues, the Canada Revenue Agency should
> be on the recipients’ backs to see if they have to pay tax on those
> freebies.
>
> Gould was one of the early critics of Olympic spending. In 2002, he
> helped file a class-action lawsuit regarding the Insurance Corporation
> of British Columbia’s $1.8-million contribution to the Vancouver 2010
> Bid Corporation. As he recalled in a phone interview, the case was
> tossed out, but only because the court ruled that ICBC policyholders
> could not be considered a class-action group.
>
> “There’s merit that the list be published, and each person should be
> itemized,” Gould told the Georgia Straight regarding the free tickets.
> “Who is the person? What was their purpose of going there? What
> business have they done with the City of Vancouver or the Province of
> British Columbia?”
>
> The B.C. Liberal government purchased 3,244 tickets worth $940,680 for
> hosting purposes. In the oral question period during the October 21,
> 2009, session of the legislative assembly, the Opposition NDP noted
> that B.C. Hydro spent $264,000 on luxury suites at GM Place, a venue
> for Olympic hockey games, and that more than $400,000 and almost
> $390,000 were spent by ICBC and the B.C. Lottery Corporation,
> respectively, on tickets.
>
> In a March 24, 2009, meeting, Vancouver city councillors approved the
> purchase of $340,000 worth of tickets, of which $257,500 in tickets
> would be used for hosting purposes.
>
> Gould explained how tickets are given as gifts by private businesses.
> If a company buys, say, hockey tickets and gives them to business
> associates like suppliers and contractors, the firm can write off the
> expense as a business cost, meaning it gets deducted from its taxable
> income. The recipient doesn’t have to pay taxes on the gift.
>
> But if the firm gives tickets to someone who does not have a
> commercial connection with the business, such as relatives or friends
> of executives, that’s a different story. This can’t be written off as
> a business expense. For the recipient, it constitutes a perk and
> should be reported as personal income.
>
> But Gould wants to push the argument further. According to him, public
> entities like provincial and municipal governments, as well as Crown
> corporations, shouldn’t be treated any differently from private
> businesses like his marketing company.
>
> “If I have to prove to CRA that the person who is receiving my tickets
> is for business purposes, whether with me or without me, if I have to
> prove that, why don’t they?” he said.
>
> Philippe Brideau, an Ottawa-based CRA spokesperson, refused to address
> the Straight’s query about the conditions under which a government-
> bought Olympic ticket received by a private individual becomes a
> taxable benefit.
>
> Brideau would only say that as far as the federal government is
> concerned, none of its elected politicians and civil servants are
> receiving free Olympic tickets.
>
> Lakh Multani is a partner with the Vancouver-based Strategex Group of
> chartered accountants. Although he agrees with the principle that
> there should be some accountability with respect to taxpayer-
> subsidized tickets, Multani explained that tax procedures that cover
> private businesses don’t apply to public entities.
> “At the end of the day, if they [private enterprises] give away
> something that they can’t deduct, there’s a cost to them because they
> don’t get a tax deduction that they think they’re entitled to,”
> Multani told the Straight by phone. “But governments are not
> interested in tax deductions. They don’t pay tax. So there’s even less
> incentive for them to do the right thing.”
>
> On February 8 of this year, the Straight filed a freedom-of-
> information request with the City of Vancouver asking for a list of
> each councillor’s and the mayor’s recommendations of private
> individuals who should receive free Olympics tickets.
>
> On February 17, the city’s manager of corporate information and
> privacy, Paul Hancock, replied and stated that the list of guests and
> ticket allocations will be disclosed after the Games. However, Hancock
> also wrote that it is “not appropriate” for the city to reveal who
> made these recommendations.
>
> In early February, COPE councillors David Cadman and Ellen Woodsworth
> told the Straight they weren’t endorsing anyone because nobody should
> get a free ride at a time when the city is cutting services due to
> budget problems.
>
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------
> Miss a Tax Tale Miss a lot!
> Visit the CRA SOTW Library at http://canada.revenue.agency.angelfire.com
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> Alan Baggett – Tax Collector’s Bible
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