Wealthy Canadians sour on state of economy in wake of capital gains tax changes, poll finds

financialpost.com:

Ottawa’s changes to the capital gains tax appear to have gotten under the skin of Canada’s wealthiest wage group, an ongoing poll that tracks the financial outlook of Canadians suggests.

The latest reading of the Maru Household Outlook Index, taken two weeks after the federal Liberals released a budget that included a surprise increase in the inclusion rate for capital gains over $250,000, found respondents in the country’s highest-income group had a sharply lower opinion of the state of the economy and of their personal financial situations.

Only 31 per cent of those in the $100,000-plus wage group think the national economy is moving in the right direction, a nine percentage point drop from the previous survey. And their outlook for the economy over the next 60 days similarly soured, with 31 per cent — a massive decline of 15 percentage points from the previous reading — saying they didn’t see the economy improving.

“The group had a more pronounced down pitch in this report than in previous reports,” said John Wright, executive vice-president of Maru Public Opinion, which has run the poll since April 2020.

Though Wright could not conclusively say the that the change reflected in the poll — which was conducted between April 26 and 29 — was a result of the April 16 budget changes, he said it almost certainly played a role.

“I don’t think you can walk away from thinking that. I think it (the capital gains tax) is an ingredient,” Wright said.

Looking more broadly at the survey, Canada’s high-income earners aren’t the only ones whose outlook for the economy has slumped.

Only one-third of Canadians as a whole think the economy is headed in the right direction, down three percentage points from the previous survey in March