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Donation tax rules: Now things are getting ridiculous - First Reference Talks
People always complain about the tax laws being way too complex but you know things are bad when even the tax lawyers are losing track of the most fundamental elements of the law. And what could be a more fundamental element of income tax then knowing the right percentage to apply to a given transaction – specifically a donation? Up until a few years ago the system for calculating the donation tax credits was relatively simple. You simply added the lowest rates for donations under $200 and the highest for donations over that. Dealing with the surtaxes was (and still is) tricky but we managed. Now though the Federal and various Provincial governments are going their own way in developing their donation tax credit systems. The result is an asynchronous where advisors have to be careful in calculating the appropriate donation tax credit rate depending not only on what was donated and to whom but also on the residence of the donor and their taxable income before and after the donation. Many of the Provinces still use the traditional system but Alberta, Ontario, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, PEI and the Yukon all have a system where the highest tax rate is not the same as the tax credit rate for donations over $200. In Alberta the credit rate is in fact higher than the tax rate but in the others the rate is lower. Besides the complexity in calculation where the tax rate is higher than the credit rate those in […]
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