Welcome to Tax-mas, but it doesn't have to be that way

financialpost.com:

As the holiday spirit fills the air, the federal government has left a few so-called gifts under the tree, but before we unwrap them, we should ask: Are these truly presents to celebrate or merely expensive ornaments designed to dazzle while adding to our country’s burdens?

Tax planning often takes centre stage at year-end, but our focus should be on understanding and managing taxes throughout the year, rather than just during this season of reflection, resolution and handouts.

Let’s talk first about those gifts: the much-publicized GST/HST “holiday” means Canadians can enjoy a two-month tax reprieve on a curated list of items, and there’s also a promised cash rebate for certain people next spring.

On the surface, it sounds generous, until you realize this $6-billion handout is funded by borrowed money, with interest costs that all Canadians will shoulder. Instead of meaningful relief, it is a vote-buying gimmick wrapped in shiny paper.

Our government wasted no time patting itself on the back for these gifts. The Opposition — and most people I have talked to recently — rightly saw through them and rejected the measure outright. Yet, like clockwork, the Liberals and NDP spun this opposition into a political attack, accusing critics of indifference toward struggling Canadians. It’s an all-too-familiar script in today’s era of gotcha politics, where meaningful discourse gets drowned out by partisan noise.

This is not new, however. The Liberals — and virtually all governing parties — use our tax system to try to score political points. But this version of the government has taken it to the extreme and is becoming famous for using our tax system as a political wedge.

For example, it introduced capital gains inclusion rate