Dr. Michael Graham: On Budget 2018 and Cross Border Taxation

What did Budget 2018 cover that tax and financial advisors need to know now? What did it fail to address? Dr. Michael Graham weighs in on what we might anticipate in cross-border trade, U.S. tax reforms, the implications of Budget 2018 on small businesses in Canada.

We continue to evaluate and apply the provisions in Budget 2018 to our professional practices, and assess the impacts of the U.S. Budget updates on the Canadian economy. However, it’s important to hear different perspectives. We are pleased to share an excerpt from an article by Dr. Michael Graham, of Michael Graham Investments, “Staying the 2018 Course: NAFTA, Tariffs, and Other Issues Aside.”

Addressing the important issues, including cross-border trade between Canada and the U.S. and the implications of the Canadian federal budget provisions, Dr. Graham writes:

“Lying immediately ahead are President Trump’s proposed slash-and-burn tariffs on steel and aluminum, which he is also brandishing as NAFTA bargaining chips. In Canada there is the Kinder Morgan pipeline issue between Alberta and British Columbia, which Prime Minister Trudeau urgently needs to resolve, having reaffirmed his government’s authorization of the twinning of this key link from the oilsands to the Pacific Ocean. The boost to morale in a ‘trapped’ Alberta, and indeed all of Canada, would be immense; and our international investment reputation would doubtless be lifted too, as I believe would be the entire Canadian equity market.

“There’s also the 369-page federal budget and its hundreds of line-item proposals on which Finance Minister Morneau and the investment community need to discourse better. I read that not until page 288 was there much, if any, mention of the vital economy-building and job-creating importance of investment. How I wish this voluminous epic had reflected more awareness of the critical role of private investment as the true engine of lasting economic growth. I’d also hoped the budget might have followed the U.S. example of introducing accelerated write-offs on new investment, particularly to encourage Canadian small business. But, alas, nothing along these lines that I could see; instead only the comfort that Mr. Morneau had got the message in backing away from last year’s punitive tax-increase proposals on small business, and that he was studying the potential impact of the sweeping U.S. tax reforms on Canada.”

Dr. Michael Graham, PhD, is a two-time Knowledge Bureau Distinguished Advisor Conference guest lecturer and President of Michael Graham Investments Inc.

Post-budget strategies and cross-border tax issues will also be the subject of Knowledge Bureau’s Spring CE Summits. Knowledge Bureau also offers a certificate course in Cross-Border Taxation.

©2018 Knowledge Bureau Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Refer a Friend	Research	Calculators	Course Trials