Flaherty was pilloried unfairly according to Keith Woolhouse - Brent Fullard responds
Evidently this reporter thinks its preferable that Middle Eastern oil sheiks (Khalifa bin Zayed al Nahyan of Abu Dhabi Energy) and Hong Kong billionaires (Li Ka-Shing of Cheung Kong Infrastructure) own these companies with "internal problems" like Prime West Energy Trust and TransAlta Power, rather than Canadians who are trying to provide retirement income in a protracted low interest environment.
I guess that fact that these foreign buyers will not pay the draconian 31.5% double taxation or be limited by Flaherty's growth restrictions and yet Canadians will be, is the reporter's idea of tax fairness and leveling the playing field.
Why can the government sponsored pension plans like the federal civil servant's own Public Sector Pension Plan own Thunder Energy Trust without being taxed, and yet the average Canadian holding that very same trust in their RRSP is?
The only internal problems at hand are the internal thought processes of this reporter. Meanwhile the real problem facing these trusts is the external problem brought down upon them by a double talking, double taxing two faced government.
Good thing this government has friends/shills in the press who are happy to practice yellow journalism, since no civilized and fully informed society would let this kind of egregious policy of gross unfairness to ever go down. Do you suppose if this reporter knew that once these trusts are all relieved of their "internal problems" by foreign private equity and government sponsored pension plans that Ottawa's tax collection will be reduced by an ANNUAL amount of $7.5 billion. That's the equivalent of a 1.5% GST increase.
Brent Fullard, October 25 2007
High-yield income trusts offer choice, but not for faint of heart
Keith Woolhouse, Citizen Special
Published: Thursday, October 25, 2007
It was at this time last year that federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty was set to rock the markets with his Tax Fairness Plan that effectively slammed the door shut on corporations converting to income trust status and gave existing trusts a four-year window to convert back.
The ensuing hue and cry from investors was predictable as the S&P/TSX composite index plunged and most trusts lost around 22 per cent of their value.
Flaherty was pilloried, unfairly so, as it turns out. The sector's recovery and ensuing acquisitions have largely vindicated him. Those who still believe otherwise may argue that unit values and the distribution rates have suffered. That's a moot point. Most of the still depressed companies have internal problems.
Read the Complete Article
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