Canadian Politics Today

Wait, what? You said there would be NO MOVEMENT.

If you understand what the Benjamin Graham quote means then you understand what I mean: in the short run the market movea due to emotional reactions while in the long run it will be largely meaningless.

Well... yeah 99/100 is, I suppose a 'fraction' of the income. You seem to be taking the position, here and in previous posts, that taxation is of no interest to an investor, which is patently insane. Over a long term basis the stock market return averages out to about 7% per year.
Now you want to increase the tax rate from 50% to 100%, or in other words, instead of paying about 25% of that gain in taxes, I'd be paying 50% in capital gains. That CLEARLY has a huge impact on my gains. On $1000 gain it means I actually make $500 instead of $750.

I do not see how you help your cause by exaggerating tax rates.

The top tax rate in BC is around 48%. 

High?

Yes, but not 99% so stop attempting to be hyperbolic because it looks like stupidity to me.

As for taxation on gains - yes, of course a higher rate will effect the taxes.

But to claim that paying 48% on that 1% of interest being earned is going to affect your decision to try and make 7% from the stock market (where you currently pay 24% and perhaps will end up paying 36% if the inclusion rate was increased to 75%) is laughable.

Especially since the vast majority of people have their investments in RRSP's and TFSA accounts which would not be effected by this tax change.

And you pretend that's immaterial and no investor should care!?

To 95%+ of Canadians it will have little to no effect on them at all over the course of their entire lives since the majority will not have taxable capital gains since they have a tax free principal residence, a taxable RRSP account (upon withdrawal) and a tax free savings account.

And I pay income taxes on my primary income. And then take a portion of what is left over - that already taxed money - to invest in the market.

It's recognition that that money has already been taxed, and that in most cases, people are saving for their retirement, which is something to be encouraged.

BUT THE MONEY IS NOT GETTING TAXED AGAIN!

Honestly, this is one of the stupidest things I hear people say and it is extremely ignorant to say the least.

Think about it:

You make $1,500 and pay $500 in income tax.

So you have $1,000 that you then invest.

You buy ABC company for $1,000, earn a quarterly dividend of $50 and then sell the investment for $1,300.

You will pay tax on the $50 dividend and the $300 gain (gross - taxable $150 at the 50% inclusion rate). 

So, NO YOU ARE NOT PAYING TAX "AGAIN" ON THE $1,000 so stop being so god damned ignorant about it.

If you were getting taxed on it a "second" time then you would pay tax on the entire gain of $1,300.

BUT THAT IS NOT HOW IT WORKS.

If you ever did have a capital gain and ever did fill out your own tax return then you ought to know this.

Instead I think you live in the basement of your parents tax free principal residence. 

As for saving for retirement: use RRSP's to defer tax and TFSA's to save tax (in the future).

Any other investment gains are fair game for the government to tax accordingly and my argument is that since we now have TFSA's to supplement RRSP's, capital gains should be taxed at a higher rate since the vast majority of Canadians can shelter them from tax using RRSP/TFSA tax shelters.