Do you think it's fair that one person pays double digit tax on hours worked income and also their retirement income while their neighbor may pay $0 on investment income? This is possible with 0% capital gains tax bracket in USA. If we want true capitalism, don't tax the income. Tax the sales and transactions.
I have long since preached a very high death-tax and estate tax. A reduction of income taxes during life and a hefty death-tax on individual and setup trusts at death. For that matter I would even be for going after large inter vivos trusts.
Unfortunately it gets very complex, and at the higher ends of wealth most would just offshore everything in other countries at the risk of a high death and trust tax. You will always have the brighter minds working against taxation than for it. The second CRA releases new rules or changes to the Income Tax Act, there's instantly an army of CA's and Tax Lawyers looking to circumvent it. It does not even get to the point where its passed through the house of commons into law and its already been circumvented since proposals are first presented in a bill before it can be passed so you have people working on getting around it well before it becomes a bill that's passed through the House.
This post was edited by SBD on Apr 4 2025 10:19am