6 ~ Wednesday, April 26, 1989 —- North Shore News INSIGHTS Everyone could gain by/ flattening the tax man AS WE ANXIOUSLY WATCH Michael Wilson take off his shoes and prepare to drop both of them with a thud in tomorrow’s budget, it’s high time for a hard new look at the flat tax system. Flat taxes mean that all deduc- tions, exemptions, tax credits and other income tax loopholes would disappear. Instead, everyone would pay the same percentage on income above a certain level. The tax return form for everyone would be reduced to a single page. Flat taxation would — at one and the same time — reduce indi- vidual taxes while actually bringing the government more revenue. If you wonder how on earth that could happen, the reason is simple. When income tax was first in- troduced in 1917 (as a ‘‘tem- porary’’ measure!), the object was to pay the bills for World War One. But any concept of income tax as simply a method to cover the costs of government quickly vanished. Once the bureaucrats got their hot little hands on it, they quickly turned it into a blunt in- strument for economic and social engineering. In short, a method of forcing people through their wallets to do what Ottawa decided was good for them — and it. Hence, today’s hideously cumbersome and inefficient system. More and more com- plicated tax policies — designed to drive us along the path government wants us to follow — have also created a mass of legal and quasi- legal loopholes which are exploited to the maximum degree by sophisticated taxpayers, gleefully aided by the huge ‘‘tax consul- tant” industry which the system has spawned. The net result is that most tax- payers with simple income situa- tions pay MORE than they would under flat taxation. But this is of f- set by the many smart guys with complex sources of income in the higher brackets who — with the help of skilled Chartered Accoua- tanis — pay a lot LESS. So in the end the government winds up worse off than it would if it forgot all about economic and social engineering, and reverted to the 1917 concept of income tax as simply a means of raising the money to pay its bills. A flat 21-22 per cent tax on all income over $17,500 would solve Finance Minister Wilson’s im- mediate problem overnight — while reducing the tax now paid by a majority of wage-earning tax- payers, Later this week I'll give you the numbers that show how it can be Tax hacks HE SLIPPERY selling job on the new federal sales tax is done. And once again it is we who are being sold something we haven’t asked for. What’s worse, if a National Citizen’s Coalition com- missioned survey is to be believed, most of us don’t even understand what a budget deficit is, the slaying of which constitutes the real reason such a tax is so des- perately desired in Ottawa. The Tories must be chuckling quietly to themselves considering the ease of the sale, given the potential for fallout once the tax bomb is dropped. At a very basic level, the national sales tax is a regressive measure. Because it isn’t tied to the income ability of those who will pay it, it will hit many of us inordinately hard. And given the recent New Zealand experience, where that country levied a broad value- added tax against goods and services, we may reasonably expect a rise in the inflation rate. Those implications aside, for various reasons, most of them tied to self-serving political agendas, the pro- vintces have balked at the idea of meshing provincial retail sales taxes with the rew federal sales tax. Wilson’s announcement Monday that the feds will go it alone in formulating the tax without the provinces is shrewd. The percentage Ottawa will eventually come up with, whether it’s five per cent or more, will seem relatively benign when not piggy-backed on to a pro- vincial tax. Instead of scheming about how to remove more money from the pockets of Johnny and Jenny Canuck, Witson should instead be turning a hawk’s eye to par- ing down unnecessary government spending. done — and tell you why it won’t be, unless enough taxpayers even- tually raise hell. Enjoy Mr. Wilson tomorrow! . THE TEA PARTY this afternoon, April 26, at Beacon Hill Lodge will be attended by the surviving members of a family that’s a veritable little Royal Canadian Legion of its own. It marks the 100th birtiday of longtime North Shore resident Kathleen Hayes, widow of a World War One veteran who herself saw war ser- vice as a factory worker in BOTH world wars — during the 1914-18 one in London, England, and dur- ing the 1940s at the Wailace (now Versatile) Shipyard in North Van. Three of her four sons — all of whom also worked for a time with Mom at the shipyard — joined the wartime forces, Pat serving with the RCAF, Tom and Billie with the navy. The remaining son, Sam, was barred from enlisting by poor health but pitched in to help the war effort with farm work. Today, Tom and his sister Kitty are left to celebrate with their mother not only her own century but a unique and proud 75 years of family service to their country in times of need. That’s what a lot of the talk will be about as they blow out all those candies. Warm con- gratulations, Kathleen! WRAP-UP: Re-elected provincial IODE president is Franne Gregg, together with provincial coun- cillors Audrey Evans, Mary Gunn, Jane Martin and Rose Irwin — all five members of the IODE Lions Gate Chapter ... On exhibit this month and through May 16 at North Van City Hall (Mon.-Fri., 8:30-4:30) are Ann Hurst’s North Shore scenes in oils ... And happy birthday greetings tomorrow, April 27, to North Van Kiwanian Gerry Williams. went WRIGHT OR WRONG: Nothing heals faster than a tax cut. Photos submitted FORTY-FIVE YEARS LATER...(ieft) Kathleen faycs preparing to celebrate her century; (right) war worker Kathleen in 1944 at Wailace Shipyard in North Vi, OPA AUINGIRESU IY 0 FAST 0 She Of) GENIC) ROUEN i Publisher i; Associate Editor ._. . Peter Speck Managing Editor... Barrett Fisher .Noel Wright Advertising Directur . Linda Stewart North Shore News, founded in 1969 25 an independent Suburban newspaper and qualified under Schedule 111, Paragraph IIt of the Excise Tax Act, is published each Wednesday, Friday and Sunday by North Shore Free Press Lid. and distributed to every door on the North Share. Second Class Mail Registration Number 3885 Subscriptions North and West Vancouver, $25 per year Mailing cates available on request. 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