Comments by "Hyperpandas" (@Hyperpandas) on "Canada's Controversial Capital Gains Tax Change" video.

@FaustsKanaal In Canada, they have options. For example, they could pay themselves salary/dividends at better rates than normal salaried rates and then channel those incomes into tax deferred or tax free accounts like anyone else. They could also put them into taxed accounts, and this change wouldn't affect them unless they realized a gain in a year in excess of something like 300k, which is unlikely. Note, to realize a gain you have to actually sell the asset. Finally, even if they keep things in their corporation, presumably because it's even more tax advantaged than the above, they're still doing fine. Is it more tax than they've been paying? Sure, but it's still at lower rates than most Canadians pay.
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@FaustsKanaal While all of that is true, there isn't really a public policy incentive to compensate that risk with lower taxes on your income. On the contrary, your compensation for the risk is presumably the potential to make more money by booking more jobs, growing your company such that other employees make you money, etc.
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Not sure I follow your argument here. If a small business owner has invested a million dollars and realizes a capital gain of 5% each year, then 1/3 of that gain is still tax free and the other 2/3 is subject to your normal corporate tax. The only change is to the inclusion rate, which was 1/2. Not sure that most small businesses even have capital gains unless or until they are sold or have to dispose of some property. In the case of the former, they still get preferential treatment than any salaried worker receives by accumulating wealth through their labor. Finally, I don't believe dividend rates are affected by this at all. So small business owners can still pay themselves a small salary and dividends each year, once again resulting in lower taxes than salaried workers with equivalent gross incomes.
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@FaustsKanaal While it's true large multinationals have more tools to avoid or reduce taxes of all types, it's a separate issue. Your rationale for moving away from salaried work actually confirms the rationale of the government making this move. Some Canadians get better rates than others, solely because they have more control over their incomes. Is tax too high? Maybe, maybe not. But the issue here is, is it right that some Canadians pay different rates than others when they have the same incomes? As for dividends, I don't think they're impacted by this. Dividends aren't considered capital gains in Canada, and when they come from Canadian corporations, the tax is reduced to account for corporate taxes that were already applied on the profit.
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