- Wednesday, May 29, 1985 - North Shore News

Newest budget is not so bad

table, pocket

A

newspapers and cash

h, there we were, sitting around the dining

calculators in hand,
flow projections

spread out all over the place, eagerly calculating the
extra room to manocuver that we should be getting

out of the Tory budget.

The entire board of direc-
tors was on hand, that is, my
wife and f, We run what you
might call a Mom n’ Pop
communications shop. |
write. She designs cablevision
systems.

It all goes into the same
kitty and out of that we cover
Our costs, pay our employees,
and have an innocuous-
looking item in the budget
called ‘‘Draw’’. Draw is all
the moncy it takes to keep the
house going, buy shoes, eat,
drink and be leery of the tax-
man and the finance minister
alike.

There have been some real
fruitcake pirouettes perform-
ed with federal budgets over
the last few decades. And the
budgets of course are the key
to taxes, which have become
horrific, in case you hadn’t
noticed.

My bookkeeper finally ¢ eX-
plained it to me the other day
in terms I could understand.
Noting that we’d gone nuts in
the last month buying things
like clothes and a_ video-
camera, rebuilding a fence,
putting in a new sidewalk,
hiring a landscaper and tak-
ing out additional insurance,
she said it’s like that every
spring.

By that time of year, you
see, the worst of the annual
fiscal crunch is over, i.e., the
Christmas, damage control
program has been completed,

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maybe another mortgage is
out of the way or a washing
machine is paid off, there are
no birthdays coming up for a
while, ‘something. The
pressure eases.

And as it eases, a few

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bucks actually stay in our
hands for a few minutes, nat
entirely sure what to do with
themselves. So we race out
and buy something. We hire
somebody. We start up a pro-
ject. It’s an irresistible
impulse.

Then comes tax time.
Thud. ft’s as though we've
been kneed in the solar
plexus. The Mom n’ Pop
communications shop cash
flow takes an awesome
plunge. It's going to be
December, really, before we
get back up for air ... just in
time for you know what,

And, of course, our little
outfit is typical of every other
little business in Canada.
And our pattern as con-
sumers is probably typical
too. Taxes! That's what fouls
us up every year.

That's why, when | heard
the contents of the federal

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budget, my inilial reaction
was to shake my head at the
folly of it all. If it moves, tax
it, seemed to be the thurst.
Lord, how fatniliar! How on
eacth does the government
expect us to go into a dizzy of
buying if it keeps clobbering
us? It’s like adding weights to
a bird’s wings and saying:
“Fly higher!’

Looking closer, however,
we found some not-bad scuff
in there, both for the family
and the family business. The
taising of the ceiling in
RRSPs is good. So is the fact
that you can now take out
money from your RRSP and
invest it in small business
without having to pay what
used to amount to maybe 30
per cent in taxes, even if you
were only using it for your
own pension. That's better
than a kick in the butt with
an icy toe.

aA og
PROFESSIONAL #
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*WHIRLPOOLS
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RUCTION
G ACCESSORIES

We don't smoke, we both
have plenty of work, we drive
small cars, we're already cut-
ting down on how much we
drink, for the usual weight
and health reasons, and we
were trying fo wean the six-
year-old from candy anyway,
so some of the penalties don’t
hurt us.

The removal of capital
gains tax on the sale of in-
vestment property is pro-
bably a stroke of fiscal
genius, because that will sure-
ly get money circulating
again, although | for one
can't see any way to take ad-
vantage of it, not owning any
condos. Too bad.

As | understand it, if you
decide to sell a small business
you've invested in, you won't
be paying capital tax gains
either. Well, whoopee, |

guess.
So that's it, ch? The pocket

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calculators grow silent. The
board of directors scratches
its head. Well? Do we give a
hip, hip hooray? How about
a_hip, hip? So moved.
Passed.

Coulda been worse.

Ronal J. Schmidt

_ Barrister.

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