Recently I have been taking some portrait classes. When I was a teenager, one of my favourite things to do was to draw and paint.
I did a lot of that in school. At one point, I applied to become an architect, instead of an accountant. I got an interview from Waterloo but never got into the program.
Chinese culture placed little value on developing our artistic skills. Accounting is a lot more practical than pursuing fine art or any other art related subjects in university. I went for accounting instead.
15 years later after having two kids, my dream is to be able to draw my two kids on the canvas one day.
That, of course, would require some help to dust off my art skills.
The most recent portrait that my teacher told me to draw was a picture of Stephen Harper. ?
When Erwin saw it, he jokingly made a comment, “you wanted Harper back so bad that you are drawing him?”
I thought that was a cute comment. At the very least, Stephen Harper didn’t have any policies that would hurt the middle class and small business owners in Canada.
Over the weekend, Erwin hosted his monthly Halton REI meetings. One attendee volunteers at the coalition to fight against Justin Trudeau’s proposed tax changes.
Of course, we share similar dislikes to the tax changes and the revised plans.
He made an interesting comment though. He said that these proposed tax changes had been around for many years. It was indeed put through to Paul Martin’s government at one point but he immediately turned it down.
Dan Kelly, President of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, wrote this insightful article “Tax change backlash gets changes made, but more are needed: CFIB”.
If the proposed tax changes were truly meant to hurt the top 1%, maybe Justin Trudeau and Bill Morneau can share how these changes could increase their tax bills. Not small business owners.
Allowing only $50K for passive investment annually is NOT even comparable to the teacher’s pension.
In case you haven’t read this other article about Conservative Party leader Andrew Scheer who invests in real estate limited partnerships, this Liberal MP is calling Andrew Scheer hypocritical as the real estate limited partnerships are lucrative tax shelter.
It’s hard trying not to be political. A limited partnership interest has its own tax advantages, but these three commercial plazas are nothing compared to Bill Morneau’s fortune.
I doubt these properties are generating the same $64K dividend income monthly for Andrew Scheer.
P.S. On a side note, I look at the silver lining of this story. Real estate investment is great! ?
Until next time, happy Canadian Real Estate Investing.
Cherry Chan, CPA, CA
Your Real Estate Accountant
