The Commons finance committee is being called back in a rare emergency meeting to try to defend a small business tax cut, says Blacklock’s Reporter..Finance department bureaucrats are questioning the validity of a tax bill already passed into law..“I am one who believes Parliament is supreme,” said Liberal MP Wayne Easter (Malpeque, P.E.I.), chair of the Commons finance committee..“Parliament is above cabinet, it’s above the Department of Finance. We can’t allow that to be undermined.”.The Senate passed into law on June 22 Bill C-208 promising an estimated $178 million-a-year tax cut for farmers, fishing corporations and small business. The bill allows net profits on the sale of property to family members to be taxed at a 25% capital gains rate instead of the current 45 percent taxable dividend rate..The bill became law June 29 with Royal Assent. The finance department on June 30 issued a news release questioning whether it was valid since “it does not include an application date,” and said cabinet would try to amend it..“The debate on Bill C-208 is done. When a bill receives Royal Assent as this bill did, it comes into effect on that date,” Easter said in an interview..“Accountants have told us this is fairly airtight. I have a lot of respect for the officials in the finance department, but when we said, OK, if you want amendments to the bill, give us some amendments, if you want Parliament to close what you perceive as some loophole, they didn’t submit any.”.“I have never seen this. It is quite unusual for a finance committee chair to call a meeting like this, but I think it is necessary to do so.”.Hearings are scheduled for Tuesday and Easter said the committee will summon finance department bureaucrats to explain themselves. Now-retired Liberal MP Peter Milliken (Kingston and the Islands, Ont.), former four-term Commons Speaker, will also testify on Parliament’s right to overrule departments in amending laws..Conservative MP Larry Maguire (Brandon-Souris, Man.), the sponsor of the bill, earlier called the finance department news release a “ruse” to reopen a bill they opposed in the first place..“The idea that the bill is going to destroy the tax system is just ludicrous,” said Maguire..“I didn’t know the government hated small business that much..“It has been passed by the House and Senate. Parliament has spoken and it is the law. The only one to oppose it was the Department of Finance.”.Department officials in March 11 testimony at the Commons finance committee claimed the bill could be manipulated for tax avoidance by large corporations..Dave Naylor is the News Editor of the Western Standard.,dnaylor@westernstandardonline.com,.Twitter.com/nobby769
