Squawk Box took a remarkable new direction this afternoon, with a special edition focused on the issue of fair taxation of stock options in Canada. The heart of the issue is simply this: in Canada the gain on a stock option is taxed as employment income, not capital gain, which means that any losses from that stock should you choose to exercise and hold the stock, cannot be written off against the gain. In practical terms, this has led to a litany of hardship for ordinary Canadians.
Our guest Ragui Kamel explained the issue, and then how it is affecting many ordinary people who are being forced to mortgage or sell homes, and liquidate RRSPs in order to pay tax on income they never received. Ragui and his group have met with MPs, ordinary people affected by the situation, business leaders and more.
Once you’ve listened to this podcast, then please visit:
CFET – the site of the organization Canadians for Fair and Equitable Taxation. Read the impact statements, check out the slide presentation, and sign the petition.
The CFET Facebook Group – join the group, and contribute to the discussion.
And stay tuned. We’ll do another call to talk about the progress on this issue in the future.
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