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Now the government gets its cut, and comes to rely on the revenue, and works hard to ensure there are on ongoing streams of foreign buyers and revenue. When go
by hoodoof 10y ago
Now the government gets its cut, and comes to rely on the revenue, and works hard to ensure there are on ongoing streams of foreign buyers and revenue.
When governments tax foreign buyers all it does is entrench the foreign buyers.
Be it gambling or foreign buyers, governments always become addicted to revenue and the origin of the tax is forgotten.
Future government: "We're short on money! We need more gambling and more foreign buyers!"
- dleslie 10y agoMembers of the BC Liberal cabinet are personally invested in the housing crisis; for instance, Mike De Jong and his 7 properties[0]. And maybe we should ask why the Ministry of Natural Gas Development is responsible for housing, as well[1]? It's like Minister Rich Coleman carries housing around with him wherever he goes; couldn't have anything to do with his sketchy behaviour[2]... 0: http://thetyee.ca/News/2016/01/11/Finance-Minister-Well-Invested/ http://thetyee.ca/News/2016/01/11/Finance-Minister-Well-Inve... 1: http://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/governments/organizational-structure/ministries-organizations/ministries/natural-gas-development http://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/governments/organizational... 2: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/b-c-minister-cleared-of-allegations-of-conflict-of-interest-1.715815 http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/b-c-minister-...
- dforrestwilson 10y agoHere in the U.S. people exploit an immigration loophole: http://www.ibtimes.com/eb-5-investor-visa-demand-booming-dominated-chinese-plying-cash-us-real-estate-1851706 http://www.ibtimes.com/eb-5-investor-visa-demand-booming-dom... I believe Canada has seen something similar? I'm very conflicted on this. I want the best people to come into my country, but I don't believe that being wealthy in an undemocratic country where corruption is more acceptable should qualify you for admission outright.
- hkmurakami 10y agoThey had this until a few years ago, but Canada ended the program with a prodigiously long waiting line. Predictably, there was an uproar in China. >The Canadian Immigrant Investor Program was created by the federal government of Canada to promote the immigration of business people and their families. It enabled qualified investors to obtain permanent resident status in Canada. Under the program, successful applicants and their families received permanent and unconditional Canadian residential visas and were then eligible to obtain Canadian citizenship. With the passing of Bill C-31 on June 19, 2014, the program was terminated and undecided applications were cancelled.[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Immigrant_Investor_Program https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Immigrant_Investor_Pr...
- aianus 10y agoThe program still exists in Quebec which is how they keep getting in.
- dluan 10y agoWould the inverse be better? Tax breaks for local buyers to incentivize naturalization, formal taxation, etc?
- SilasX 10y agoIs there a good general solution to making government leaders accurately account for the ephemerality (or danger) of a specific revenue source? Constitutional provisions? Equity stakes for decision makers? Better voters?
- hkmurakami 10y agoI think they intentionally chose a transaction tax over a higher annual property tax bill. The latter would be much more sustainable for the government but the former is like a nice sugar spike to the system.
- drpgq 10y agoYeah if they really wanted to solve the problem, they would increase property taxes and decrease income taxes like with the carbon tax.