Evidence of meeting #23 for Finance in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was federal.
A recording is available from Parliament.
6:25 p.m.
Liberal
The Vice-Chair Liberal Massimo Pacetti
You don't have a preference for how that money will be distributed then. It would be through negotiations with the provinces.
6:25 p.m.
National Director, Canadian Alliance of Student Associations
Yes; we would argue that it needs to be placed in a larger accord, accountable and transparent to the students and institutions that eventually receive the money.
6:25 p.m.
Liberal
The Vice-Chair Liberal Massimo Pacetti
Okay, thank you.
Mr. Stokes, in terms of your proposal on the splitting of income, as an accountant I can tell you that the tax system is not built on splitting income. How do we make that recommendation? We can't legislate that the pensions be allowed to be split. How do we incorporate it into the tax system to allow somebody to split income, or to allow a couple to split income? You don't have that choice right now; whatever your T4 or T5 says, that's what you have to report on your income tax.
I don't expect an in-depth answer right now--you can get back to us--but if you do have something, go right ahead.
6:25 p.m.
President, Canadian Activists for Pension Splitting
There are two ways here. One is to simply extend what CPP is already doing, where the government simply allows other pension administrators.... In my case, for example, when I originally asked the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board whether they could split my pension--I was sort of a guinea pig for the RTO--they told me exactly all the laws, provincial and federal, especially in the Income Tax Act, against attribution rules, mainly, that would prevent them from doing this.
So that is one way, that the pension administrator just simply sends separate cheques to spouses, as the CPP is doing now. That's not really favoured by a lot of advocates, because we would foresee a backlash from small pension administrators, small companies, because of the paperwork involved and so on.
The other way, which seems to be more favoured, is to simply put a few extra lines into the income tax return, allowing spouses to simply transfer, from one to the other, whatever income is necessary to equalize their incomes.
6:25 p.m.
President, Canadian Activists for Pension Splitting
You could call it joint filing, I suppose, or family taxation.
6:25 p.m.
Liberal
The Vice-Chair Liberal Massimo Pacetti
Thank you for your thoughts.
Thank you to all the witnesses. We know you put a lot of hard work into your briefs. Thanks for taking the time out of your day to be here. It is much appreciated. These are long days for us, but we appreciate your input.
We're back tomorrow at 3:30--and apparently until 5:30, not 6:30.
The meeting is adjourned.