The lead-up to the March 22, 2017 Federal Budget
("Budget") was filled with fear and trepidation that the
Trudeau Liberal Government ("Government") would use the
Budget to grab more taxes from Canadians to pay for their platform
promises. In particular, in advance of the Budget, there was
concern that capital gains inclusion rates were likely to increase
significantly, from the 50% inclusion rate to 75% or possibly even
more.
The good news for taxpayers — at least for now — is
that the Budget did not make any particularly significant tax
rate changes at all.2 Unfortunately, that is not to
say that the Budget was a tax non-event.
Shots Across the Bow
Tax professionals are always worried about something. It seems
to be an occupational hazard, or perhaps a deeply-ingrained
socialized character flaw. Perhaps it is that we've adopted
Bruce Cockburn's song "The Trouble with Normal (is it
always gets worse)" as our theme song — or maybe
that's just me. In any case, it
