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Your home in Canada just recently demanded blind trusts all report their members personal information to the government. Far from engaging only the rich, that d

by tensor 3y ago

Your home in Canada just recently demanded blind trusts all report their members personal information to the government. Far from engaging only the rich, that demand hit millions of every day citizens with shared bank accounts with their parents or kids. Those are setup for a variety of reasons, one of which is to circumvent probate tax! Yep, by everyday non-rich people! However, note that the CRAs information collection did not make your personal bank account information public. Would you prefer that it had? I used the example of a blind trust here because "non-blind" trusts are one of the common uses of non-commercial corporate entities. Also, I never once said "total privacy from oversight", all these corporate entities already supply financial and ownership information to the government, whose job it is to hold them to account. This is not the same and making information public so a rabid mob of people can enact vigilante justice, or whatever people like you hope comes out of it.

diordiderot 3y ago
People should pay their probate tax
- Sleepful 3y ago
  Sounds like something said by a tax collector :)
- solidsnack9000 3y ago
  Say a couple lives in a house. They have a son, who lives with them. The wife passes away. 1. Should her husband pay tax on her share of the house when it passes to him? Assuming these are not wealthy people, this may force the sale of the house. 2. Should the house go through probate? Should everyone move out while that happens? The old man wants to leave the house to his son. 3. Should the son pay tax on the house when his father passes away? 4. Should he move out while the house goes through probate? It is because of cases like these that we have ways to avoid going through probate.
no_wizard 3y ago
>Your home in Canada just recently demanded blind trusts all report their members personal information to the government. Far from engaging only the rich, that demand hit millions of every day citizens with shared bank accounts with their parents or kids. Those are setup for a variety of reasons, one of which is to circumvent probate tax! Yep, by everyday non-rich people! How does this hurt anyone though? That is not clear at all. The thing you're upset about here is that blind trust members information is reported to the government, but with no clear statement how this hurts anyone, wealthy or not. Chances are, the information turned over the government has anyway. If this is a legal mechanism to circumvent probate taxes, then its not a problem. If not, well, even regular people should pay their taxes, no?
- Sleepful 3y ago
  > even regular people should pay their taxes, no? Taxes aren't an ethical or moral topic, they are a legal topic. If you can avoid a tax through some legal structure, you are within your rights to do so and you can't judge this as some sort of shady business. Taxes are mostly used to create incentives and collect money, if people are allowed a legal structure to avoid a probate tax, then that might be an incentive on purpose. Just because you did something to pay less taxes does not mean that you are some bad actor exploiting a loophole. For example, taxes are only paid on profit, so companies are incentivized to spend their money and pay less in taxes. No one sees this as a legal loophole that needs to be fixed, it is very much intentional. Also you are making the false dichotomy here of "regular people" as something different from "somewhat versed in financial entities people". That's weird.
  - Mashimo 3y ago
    > If you can avoid a tax through some legal structure, you are within your rights to do so and you can't judge this as some sort of shady business. Sure you can. Legal tax avoidance gets judged all the time. See the Jimmy Carr tax "scandal" that was legal, and yet he received public pushback.
- IG_Semmelweiss 3y ago
  >>> How does this hurt anyone though? That is not clear at all. Allow me to make it clear. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/1938-nazi-law-forced-jews-register-their-wealthmaking-it-easier-steal-180968894/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/1938-nazi-law-forced-...

by tensor 3y ago

diordiderot 3y ago

People should pay their probate tax

Sleepful 3y ago
Sounds like something said by a tax collector :)
solidsnack9000 3y ago
Say a couple lives in a house. They have a son, who lives with them. The wife passes away. 1. Should her husband pay tax on her share of the house when it passes to him? Assuming these are not wealthy people, this may force the sale of the house. 2. Should the house go through probate? Should everyone move out while that happens? The old man wants to leave the house to his son. 3. Should the son pay tax on the house when his father passes away? 4. Should he move out while the house goes through probate? It is because of cases like these that we have ways to avoid going through probate.

no_wizard 3y ago

>Your home in Canada just recently demanded blind trusts all report their members personal information to the government. Far from engaging only the rich, that demand hit millions of every day citizens with shared bank accounts with their parents or kids. Those are setup for a variety of reasons, one of which is to circumvent probate tax! Yep, by everyday non-rich people! How does this hurt anyone though? That is not clear at all. The thing you're upset about here is that blind trust members information is reported to the government, but with no clear statement how this hurts anyone, wealthy or not. Chances are, the information turned over the government has anyway. If this is a legal mechanism to circumvent probate taxes, then its not a problem. If not, well, even regular people should pay their taxes, no?

Sleepful 3y ago
> even regular people should pay their taxes, no? Taxes aren't an ethical or moral topic, they are a legal topic. If you can avoid a tax through some legal structure, you are within your rights to do so and you can't judge this as some sort of shady business. Taxes are mostly used to create incentives and collect money, if people are allowed a legal structure to avoid a probate tax, then that might be an incentive on purpose. Just because you did something to pay less taxes does not mean that you are some bad actor exploiting a loophole. For example, taxes are only paid on profit, so companies are incentivized to spend their money and pay less in taxes. No one sees this as a legal loophole that needs to be fixed, it is very much intentional. Also you are making the false dichotomy here of "regular people" as something different from "somewhat versed in financial entities people". That's weird.
- Mashimo 3y ago
  > If you can avoid a tax through some legal structure, you are within your rights to do so and you can't judge this as some sort of shady business. Sure you can. Legal tax avoidance gets judged all the time. See the Jimmy Carr tax "scandal" that was legal, and yet he received public pushback.
IG_Semmelweiss 3y ago
>>> How does this hurt anyone though? That is not clear at all. Allow me to make it clear. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/1938-nazi-law-forced-jews-register-their-wealthmaking-it-easier-steal-180968894/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/1938-nazi-law-forced-...