Wealthy investors dodge capital gains bullet but little else to cheer about in Budget

Here’s my latest blog for Motley Fool Canada: Investors dodge bullet on capital gains but little else to cheer about in Budget 2016.

Note the paragraph about the the roadblocks put in the way of two strategies involving life insurance, often used by business owners. You can find more detail about this in yesterday’s Hub guest blog by Robert Kepes: Budget closes two life insurance planning strategies.

Little good news for the wealthy

In today’s Financial Post, CIBC Wealth’s Jamie Golombek also provides a fine overview of the Budget’s impact on the wealthy.

I’ve used the headline from the physical paper but the link goes to the online version: Little good news for the wealthy. The piece says the good news pretty much stops at the fact there no changes to capital gains inclusion rates, no changes to the taxation of employee stock options, and no major changes to private and professional corporations: they can continue to access the small-business tax rate and income-split with family members.

Income splitting, charitable donations

However, as he notes at the end of the column, the so-called “Family Tax Cut” introduced in 2014 is no more (Family income splitting for families with children under 18.)  He also covers the surprise involving the donation of real estate and private company shares to charity. The Conservative government would have eliminated capital gains tax under these conditions if proceeds were donated to charity within 30 days, and had been scheduled to kick in at the start of 2017. The Liberals have ended this  but don’t confuse this with the donation of publicly traded securities to charity, which continue to be free of capital gains tax.