WE'D. Frelii7 78 Te LPS CANDIAN ee “HEY, MR. Middle-inceme Taxpayer, ‘such a deal I’ve got for you., a t oo How you. like to pay more- income tax than you ‘re paying now?.: OK, 1 hear your answer, You “don’t have to shout. Or be rude. So _Jet me rephrase the question: How'd you like a no-hassle , income tax return, one that you can : do, yourself —~ so you can dispense . with that accountant of yours who's : ‘driving around in a 7-Series BMW -.to'which you have been a reluctant ™ contributor? , ‘Sound a little more attractive? | “Welcome to the future ‘world cay : assuming the idea has a future —. ‘of the flat-rate: federal i income (ax. ; :system, . 28s itan idea whose t time has: come? : ; Nat-so.-far.: Dennis Mills, ai. Toronto Liberal Member of. Parjiameni, has gamely tried to get’? support for the idea for years.:But: you'll notice it didn't penetrate the Liberal orthodoxy of the party's Soy ‘Little Red Book. 2.):: Now the Reform Party yf. Canada has assigned North Shore © resident Herb Grubel; MP for. -Capilano-Howe Sound, and his Calgary fellow Reformer and oil- |. and-gas businessman Jim Silye, to. produce the party's own version of a flat-rate income tax and i incorpo- rate it'into the party platform. ‘whe ast month with a medal presented ‘by the University of Kiel, isa - “Chicago school” economist, an” on-leave professor aM Simon Fr ‘aser * University, and a leading contribu- ‘tor to the Fraser Institute. ‘\. There are different approaches : “ta flat-rate tax. The rate itself nat- sally j is crucial. A range of 15% to 20% is proposed. ' Silye wants a 50- called. “4 buck ‘is'a buck” system. All income, however derived; would be taxed at ‘the’ same rate. No more loopholes or incentives. Deductions for RRSPs and charitable donations would be allowed but readjusted. : There would be a more generous basic exemption. Silye would” ‘exempt income-earners under , ‘$12,000, with a further child-care ‘deduction ranging between $3,000 - and $5,000 depending on the J. 7 fracas HE RAPIDLY deteriorating West Coast. salmon situation demands some decisive action on all fronts. “That includes the provincial government. Salmon stocks are dropping all along the coast. The federal fisheries department, ears still ringing from the outery over last year’s miss- ing sockeye debacle, has imposed a sports « fishing ban at the mouth of the Fraser River | , to help conserve early Stuart River sockeye, | whose returns are far below expected num-: bers. Chinook stocks in Georgia Strait have all but disappeared, and local. coho: stocks are. dwindling fast. To top it all off, Canada appears headed for i an all-out fish war with Alaska over commer- : cial salmon fishing quotas. Alaska has thus far refused to cut its vcateh by the 40% requested by Canada to help head off the collapse of the commercial West Coast - chinook salmon fishery. . . Finger-pointing on both sides of the border over salmon conservation programs has been’ usurped by direct action on the high seas. “. The situation is fast reaching the boiling ‘point. Leadership is needed. But don’t look to Victoria, the national cen- ‘tre for creating fog-headed human rights ' cabals and free-speech controls. House Speaker Emery Barnes’ ruléd” ‘against. West Vancouver-Garibaldi MLA David Mitchell’s recent call for an emergency 7 legislative debate on- the salmon crisis. : Too bad. : v Because B.C., with-an annual $450 million. stake i in the West Coast salmon fishery, needs to send some serious - noise: northward : to -ensure that fi shery: survives for all communi- “ties along the North American west coast, not | _ Just those in B.C. om child's age. ° No matter how you slice it, though, the middle-income group would pay more. a How can you sella tax regime “that will relieve’ the burden on both: the rich and the poor, but lay it more heavily on the middls- -income taxpayer? With some difficulty. Bur start with this: economist Grubel says that at present the top 10% of ‘ income-earners pay about 50% of the income tax the government col:, lects. : ’ And where does that top 10% begin? Lower than you might of $51,000. Another effect of the shift: "The tax burden on corpora- tions,” said economist Grubel, “would go up dramatically.” But Grubel cautioned that the change in the tax burden ' “depends a great deal on the details.” His preference is that bond and ‘stock income, neither dividends nor! capital gains, wouldn't be taxed. The advantages of this simpli- fied system? Grubel is emphatic: i Release from “the private costs of “, you and I keeping records’... and; * the stress, which cannot be mea- i :) sured." Perhaps you have experienced April 30 Stress — the suicidal - depression that accompanies filling out an income tax form. Even if - you pay others to perform the ugly: task, you can “t just put those. bits of, 7 paper in a box and drop them off. " guess: people with annual incomes :” { | [, I ‘| Getting them i in order takes atoll of time and anxiety. 4 The biggest losers would be tax jidvisers and processors, Also: “The lgovernment would be swamped by lobbyists for their particular cause" [— pleading for exemption or spe- cial treatment, j i That's exactly’ what the fat- rate j system is intended to avon! Simplicity is its biggest sales pitch, | And because it would lower the government's cost of collecting, in a perfect world Mr, Middle ‘ Income’s tax load could be eased in absolute terms; even if his (or her) share of the tix burden rose. : Also reduced, said Grubel: “the costs of distortion” in the present, sy stem — - distortions that the sys- tem encourages. _ In principle, 200d. In practice — well, as the saying goes, the devil is in the details. The flat-rate | system couldn't be more devilish than the present one, Don Spratt, in‘a letter to the edi- a tor, laments that!no News colum- © . nist has deplored the Harcourt gov-":) ‘ermment’s ‘bubble zone" legislation - around abortion’clinics. Here goes: +; The legislation is disgusting law as befits a disgusting practice. ‘Thanks ° for the nudge, Mr. Spratt. si ines aka nine on enmt wt ‘eaeiaaiig ona eet hitpé peer “human being to :hell, Feminist : falderal Dear Editor: ues : Reader, - Marisa Poittillo JS takes “exception” to Doug.’ Collins’. opinion” expressed ;-in 4° his June. 11 column, “Society. i is losing the battle of, the “sexes” (Mailbox. June 30). et hs She ends her leiter with the statement... P sincerely hope. that’ Doug Collins: will: go" to” hell. However. ‘he. is not to": ~ worry: Lam quite positive there will be no feminists there.’ Ms: Pontillo clearly experi-., ences no ethical or moral dilem:= ma in vither consigning another | ‘or in. deciding that feminists, by défi- |: nition and seemingly regardless .. ’ of their individual conduct, will” . be exempt from the flames. It's; a shame that Ms. Pontillo‘ only adds to the “battle of the sexe by taking such'extreme, views Such a God-playing attitude amongst” some ' feminists ;’is exactly what has led to the oft. * valid concerns being, expressed ‘ ‘by many “mainstream”: men * and women, . not . just “colorful » columnists like Doug Collins. 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