Could income-splitting be the Conservatives next policy release?
The Conservatives are considering income-splitting as part of a package to ease the burden on "massively overtaxed" Canadians, party leader Stephen Harper says.
The measure would be a boon to single-income families who could reduce taxes by dividing total earnings between spouses. Supporters of the idea say stay-at-home parents would no longer be essentially penalized for caring for young children, and seniors would have the fairer treatment they've sought for years.
..."It's an idea that is talked about in our party policy book that was adopted at the convention. All I will say is it's one of a number of ideas we've examined over the past couple of years and we'll be announcing the specific tax breaks that we're going to give out very soon."
...Harper, a trained economist, is itching to fix a bloated system he says is way out of whack.
"There's been overwhelming evidence . . . that Canadians were being massively overtaxed, resulting in huge unnecessary surpluses that were only having the effect of causing the government to be badly managed."
"That's not the purpose of government - to turn a huge profit."
"When government is rolling in money, it tends to get very inefficient, full of scandals, full of mismanagement."
This policy would play very, very well in the Staples household.
