Canadian Income Trusts = Money down the toilet

This debacle was not caused by market forces; it was legislated slaughter by the gov't. Everyone takes market risks and should expect being wiped out as a possible result, but when your gov't greenlights you buying up income funds because they promise not to tax them and pledge this quite loudly, and then months afterwards breaks that promise, that is an entirely different animal. I am not arguing that trusts shouldn't be taxed or the playing field leveled with corporations...just that this reversal was disgusting...

I don't know if your blockage is because you are living in the US now or what it is, but you are just not seeing the timeline properly and wrong in your conclusions.

Yes, of course this was "out there" last year and was a major issue and news for months. The Liberals "mused" about taxing trusts and the uproar was so loud across the country that they backed off. The Conservatives said the Liberals were idiots for contemplating touching trusts and they promised they would not dare touch them. The PM pledged repeatedly this issue was put to bed.

Thus, it was not "out there" any longer and your assertion yesterday that only idiots and morons would have put money into trusts because smart people like you knew better is way off the mark

Apparently Harper doesn't agree with your assessment of his intentions regarding Income trusts.

http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/n...c8&k=45660&p=1


"Allan Woods, CanWest News Service
Published: Thursday, November 02, 2006

OTTAWA - Prime Minister Stephen Harper denied breaking a major election pledge with his government's surprise decision to tax income trusts, saying the party promised only to protect the incomes of Canada's seniors, not the profits of major Canadian corporations and foreign investors.

As the Conservatives and the Liberals warred over the bombshell move, which reverberated all day on Toronto's Bay Street, Harper on Wednesday told the House of Commons his government acted in response to the intentions of corporate giants such as Telus and BCE to convert to an income trust, a designation that allows the company to avoid paying corporate tax and returns higher dividends to investors.

"The commitment," Harper said, "was not that we would have no taxes for Telus. It was not that we would have no taxes for BCE. It was not that we would have no taxes for foreign investors or no taxes for major corporations. It was a commitment to protect the income of seniors."

Your objectivity is compromised by your investments in trust units. You are not in a position to argue this point with a clear mind - that's not a slight against you or an insult, it's just fact.

No I am not clear minded on this at all.

I have been reduced to even employing the "I'm Good Enough, I'm Smart Enough, and Doggone It, People Like Me!: Daily Affirmations With Stuart Smalley" chant to talk myself down from blowing my top and not curling up in a fetal position and mumbling to myself for the next week.

What a prick denying he made that promise. Political spin is what he is doing. Everyone saw him on TV during the campaign saying he would not tax trusts. I can appreciate being cornered into acting because of Telus and BCE...but he didn't have to take the route he did to protect existing trusts and their investors as he promised us.

This thread is much ado about nothing - so many people feining outrage.

Liberal, Conservative, NDP or BQ, no matter which one in power, they all would have made the same change very soon. Canada's biggest corporations stumbled on a tax loophole and it was going to be plugged one way or another very soon.

but the good news for 90% of Canadien webmasters, is that the Canadian dollar is dropping like a mofo ...

I sure do miss the days of the Benji being worth $1.65 CAD

double post tabarnak!

But It also states: "The Conservatives specifically said in their election platform that they would not tax trusts and they would not tamper with trusts. They appear to have reneged on that election promise and I think they should be called to the carpet," said Dynamic fund manager Oscar Belaiche."

Because of their lie, I should be reimbursed the money I lost.

you can blame BCE and telus more than anyone else in my opinion. if they weren't planning to go the income trust route i doubt anything would of happened.

Or our banks, they were next in line.