Experts confirm Conservatives fleecing seniors on Income Trusts and Income Splitting

The Caledon Institute of Social Policy released a scathing report assessing the fairness of Canada's New Government's recent income splitting decision. The report authored by world-reknowned social policy experts Ken Battle and Ed Tamagno concludes that the Harper Government's proposal is Robin Hood in reverse, with Jim Flaherty effectively taking from the poor and giving to the rich.

Here is the conclusion of the report:

The Conservative government has opted for tax breaks that will provide windfall benefits to some of the wealthiest seniors, only modest benefits to middle-income seniors, and nothing at all to the poorest of Canada’s elderly who are
most in need of assistance. As this commentary has shown, using data from the Finance
department, a well-to-do couple with $100,000 in income from private pensions and RRSPs would get a tax break of as much as $7,280 from the proposed splitting of pension income. This is 23 times more than the tax break of $310 for a couple with a modest pension income of $20,000 – which is close to the average pension income of
all senior couples in Canada with such income.
The federal government has characterized its proposed changes as ‘tax fairness’. Tax
unfairness is the real result. The cost of this manifest unfairness is very high – by the Finance department’s own estimates, $6 billion over the next six years. Not one cent of this $6 billion will go to seniors with the lowest incomes – those who already do not pay income tax because their income is so low. In addition, there will be significant costs for the provinces and territories.
There is an alternative which would cost the same or a bit less than the government’s
proposals and which we believe would be truly fair. That alternative, which Caledon has described in this commentary, would provide tax relief to middle-income seniors and allow them to keep a little more of their retirement savings for themselves. At the same time, it would give muchneeded additional financial assistance to the
poorest of seniors who are, at best, just getting by and who need all the help they can get.
Canadians need to have a discussion about what tax fairness really means.

So not only did the Conservatives break their promise and steal over $30 billion in Canadians' retirement savings with their income trust decision, but they have made matters worse for average seniors.