In its recent Speech from the Throne, the federal government said it was considering a tax on what it termed “extreme wealth inequality” in this country. This would be a mistake for several reasons.
Source: Does Canada Need a Wealth Tax?
Seems to me some of the objections raised could be handled. For instance;
“Wealth is difficult to define, measure, and tax. The largest sources of wealth are housing and pension assets, which are almost always exempt from a wealth tax because they are widely held. As a result, wealth taxes are applied to a narrow range of assets the value of which can be difficult to establish.”
So make HNWIs not exempt? I’m assuming the “widely held” means both the rich and the non-very-rich hold these. So just say “Housing holdings less than $500k are exempt; obviously smart people should figure out the best value for $500k.
