According to the story of Chicken Little, the sky is falling. While we know that’s not true, it was a misleading comment made by that chicken.
Some people, especially vulnerable seniors, might think the sky is falling, because Prime Minister Stephen Harper is telling voters that any party, except the Conservatives, will do away with income splitting. This is a half truth, that is also misleading. As a volunteer with the Penticton & Area Access Society, under Canada Revenue Agency’s Community Volunteer Income Tax Program (CVITP), I have done hundreds of tax returns over the past five years.
It was for the 2014 income tax year that the federal government, under Prime Minister Stephen Harper, that family income splitting took effect. Several sources, from the CBC to the Parliamentary Budget officer have shown that this family income splitting will benefit approximately 15 per cent of Canadian families, whose family annual income is more than $233,000. According to the Liberal’s campaign page, they’d cancel this income splitting for families with children under 18, while the NDP campaign page states they’d scrap the family income splitting program.
Both the Liberal and NDP campaigns have stated clearly that they’d not scrap the pension-splitting currently available for seniors. I’ve processed many returns for seniors who opt-in to pension-splitting. As Canadian senior women have too often been low-wage earners, or stay-at-home moms (such as myself on both parts), Canada’s senior women tend to be poorer than their spouses, and pension-splitting makes sense, to give them a greater tax break in their later years.
Please remember, the sky is not falling and nobody in their right (or left) minds would take away from the seniors who’ve made this country we call Canada.
Just get out and vote, because it’s our election.
Brigid Kemp
Penticton
