What's stopping you from talking to your kids about money?

You don't know where to start.
Sure you do. While watching the NHL playoff game last night my daughter and I talked about how the Vancouver Canuck's horrific loss translates into huge financial gains for the owners, players and collateral businesses. This morning on our way to school, we talked about our summer budget. There is an opportunity for my daughter to go to a horseback riding camp but I explained that the $150 required to pay for it would have to come out of our Europe vacation budget. She got it. We can't afford both.

You are embarrassed because your finances are mess.
Chances are that if your finances are a mess, your kids already know it. They eavesdrop on our conversations and see the lines of worry on our faces. They know when we are stuck in our heads and floundering in a sea of negative thoughts. They know because they see that while we are in the room with them, we really aren't all there at all. Is hiding the mess really better than talking about it and modeling recovery? I don't think so.

You think that money is the root of all evil.
Think about your tongue. Do you use it to encourage and build up those around you? Or do you natter, criticize and tear down? Your tongue isn't inherently evil, neither is money. What matters is how you use it.

You assume they are learning about money in school.
Don't assume. Ontario is the only province in Canada that has made financial education a mandatory part of the curriculum. That's just getting underway in September and will include grades 4 to 12. So if you're in Ontario you can breathe a bit easier. As for the rest of us, we have to do the teaching at home if we want our kids to be financially literate.

You think that kids should figure it out for themselves, like you did.
I had to figure out the basics of personal finance on my own, but that's not how I want to parent. So about a year ago, I decided to begin debt-proofing my daughter by making her aware of the decision-making and self-control aspects of finance. I hope this awareness will help prevent her from developing habits that could lead to financial self-harm down the road. It seems to be paying off. After our conversation this morning about our summer vacation budget, she turned to me and said that maybe we shouldn't spend the $150 at all. "We could save it, Mom," she said.

Copyright 2011. Laura Thomas. All Rights Reserved.
For reprint permission contact moneyme@telus.net.

International Financial Literacy Conference Big 5 Themes

Ursula Menke's Welcome Address

Last week at the Westin Harbour Castle in Toronto, 400 delegates from around the world came together to talk about financial literacy on a big scale. I was fortunate to be able to scoop a media pass for this major event which was cosponsored by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC).

Over the two days I attended every keynote, plenary and workshop that I possibly could.I interviewed celebrities such as personal finance author Alison Griffiths (who hosted the conference) and neuroscience author Jonah Lehrer. I chatted with power brokers such as Ursula Menke, Commissioner of the FCAC, and key analysts from the OECD. I came home with a book full of notes, several hours of recordings and 16.8 pounds of literature.

I have a lot of writing to do in the coming weeks. In the meantime, here's a quick look at the top five themes that stuck out for me during this two-day international financial education event.

The Movement is Gaining Ground
Did you know that financial literacy was on the agenda at the 2006 G8 meeting? Or that Canada is a global leader in financial literacy? While there are still many countries which do not have financial literacy on their radars, there is no doubt that the international movement to educate and equip citizens around the world to make better financial decisions is gaining ground. Thanks to the work of a variety of stakeholders such as the OECD, policy makers in several countries have accepted the idea that a money-savvy citizenry is good for global and local economies.

This is great because it means that we can move from spending money on convincing politicians to act toward figuring out how to spend money on financial education. The question these days is not so much why but how.

Tests and Measurements
One of the main themes of the conference was evaluation. How do we know which financial education programs and projects are worthwhile? Presentations and workshops on this topic delved into identifying vulnerable populations, what money topics to teach and establishing best practices for implementation and evaluation.

There were also discussions about educational resources and how those should be evaluated. There was a plenary that looked at the importance of evaluating the many financial literacy projects that are springing up around the world. Are they cost-effective and efficient? The OECD along with policy analysts from around the globe are working on the evaluation issue, especially as it relates to bringing financial education to the school curriculum.

Coming to a School Near You
I am beginning to believe that ten years from now personal finance education will be part of the primary and secondary school curriculum. In Canada, this is already underway. Starting this fall, Ontario teachers of grades four through twelve will be teaching personal finance in their classrooms. We are still a long way from a national movement in this direction, but at the conference I heard "off the record" that all of Canada's education ministers are on board.

Globally, Australia seems to be way ahead on this. They have had financial education in the schools for several years. Their advice to advocates from countries where the ministers of education are less open to the idea is to frame financial education as a "value add" to the existing curriculum and give up on the dream of making it a stand-alone subject. The other secret they say is to provide classroom ready resources so that teachers feel confident delivering the material.

Nudge or Educate Debate
Several plenaries and workshops dovetailed on the debate as to whether or not consumers should be educated or nudged towards making a particular financial choice. Education is straightforward and includes teaching kids about money in schools or providing consumers with educational materials or workshops or private consultations that will help them make smarter decisions.

A nudge, I learned, is more controversial. For example, should governments automatically enroll employees in a state-run pension plan and leave it to the employee to do the opt-out paperwork? This is a hot topic. The education advocates say that this is not really ethical, while the nudgers argue that this is an effective way to encourage more citizens to save for retirement.

Another part of this debate is the relatively new field of behavioural economics, the study of consumer choice at the brain level. Apparently, our brains are not well designed to handle credit cards and other tools of the modern financial system. And with the increasing number of complicated products and smart technologies, our brains are going to need some retraining.

Technology is Upping the Stakes
I understand that very soon it will be possible to make a purchase with a wave of your smart phone. There will also be easy access, instantaneous offers of small credit amounts that will be sent through your phone. Mobile banking is growing, too, and there is a great deal of concern over how low-income and at-risk populations will be able to cope.

Panels of industry experts talked about how financial education initiatives should address the issue. One workshop looked at how social marketing and communication tools might be used to improve the effectiveness of these initiatives asking how can social media influence and improve the financial awareness of consumers? What a great question and we don't have the answer yet.

Like I said, I have a lot of material to sort through and a lot of writing to do in the coming weeks. If you have any questions or comments about the conference, or have a topic that you would like me to address in  a future article, please email me at moneyme@telus.net.

Copyright 2011. Laura Thomas. All Rights Reserved.
For reprint permission contact moneyme@telus.net.

Youth FLY to Financial Literacy Conference

Lately, I've been reading the novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz to my daughter. When we got to the part where Dorothy and the gang have green-coloured glasses locked on to their heads by the gatekeeper of the Emerald City, I couldn't help thinking about the mysteriously glamorous world of financial products and services. My daughter and I agreed that the green-hued glasses are simply wrong. I think she even said they were "creepy."

Letting kids grow up without money skills is creepy too. But thanks to non-profit organizations like FLY (Financial Literacy for Youth), kids don't have to wait for we grown-up gatekeepers to unlock the green-coloured glasses and let them see the financial landscape as it really is.

Seriously, Youth Want to Learn About Money
It may seem counter-intuitive to some, but I have proof that kids want to learn about money. On May 14th, hundreds of high school and university students spent an entire day at McMath Secondary School in Richmond, BC furthering their financial education at a conference called "Finding Your Financial Piece of Mind." FLY directors Ampere Chan and Iris Lo said, "We're very impressed with the students who took initiative to come to the conference. Not only were more than 220 students willing to give up a Saturday, the attendees this year were the most engaged that we've ever had. Kudos to all the students who made the conference what it was!"

We arrived an hour or so after the conference kicked off. There were icebreaker activities going on in the gym. I could tell from the noise level that the students were having fun. After the icebreaker, the participants were sent off in teams to workshops led by accountants, investment bankers, financial consultants, credit counselors and finance managers.

Between workshops there were more large group games and activities focusing on financial vocabulary and reviewing the basic principles of saving, investing, earning and spending. There was also a trade show with a game that encouraged students to talk to the business professionals manning the booths.

Overall, the conference was well-done, highly professional and very youth-friendly. I was impressed and plan to get involved in future FLY events.

Help Spread the Word
There are several ways for teachers, professionals, businesses and parents to get involved with FLY. Teachers can partner by piloting the FLY curriculum (developed by students for students) in their classroom. Businesses and professionals can purchase sponsorship packages that include trade show space at the annual conference. Parents can help out, too, by letting their kids in high school or university know about the conference and telling other parents.

For more information and to stay in the loop, visit FLY online or join their Facebook page "Financial Literacy for Youth."

Remember, it's for a great cause: helping our kids see the financial landscape as it really is.

Copyright 2011. Laura Thomas. All Rights Reserved.
For reprint permission contact moneyme@telus.net.

Who is Responsible for Financial Education in Canada?

Financial Literacy in Action
This week delegates representing governments and financial education stakeholders from around the globe will be spending two days in Toronto talking about financial literacy at a conference called Partnering to Turn Financial Literacy into Action. As I flip through the agenda for this by-invitation-only event, there is one workshop in particular that catches my eye. It's called "Financial Education in Schools: How do we bring financial education programs into the classroom?"

In this workshop the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) will be presenting its Guidelines on Financial Education in Schools. The panelists will debate the pros and cons of different methods for integrating financial education into existing curricula around the world. They will also talk about the challenges of training teachers and discuss the development of teaching resources.

This workshop--coupled with some recent financial literacy presentations that I have made to primary school teachers and parent groups and some interviews with financial educators such as Gail Vaz-Oxlade--has got me thinking about who is ultimately responsible for making sure that every child is financially literate by high-school graduation.

Whose job is it?
Is it Mom and Dad's? Most parents I've talked to believe that personal finance should be taught in school. On the other hand, in a poll of 40 primary school teachers that I did a few weeks ago, half said that parents are ultimately responsible for their children's financial education. But what if mom and dad aren't financially literate? What then? Can teachers fit more curriculum into existing instructional hours? Should they?

Should it be our ministries of education? When I asked financial education self-help guru, Gail Vaz-Oxlade this question, she said that parents should be teaching this stuff to their children because "not everything should be taught in school." She used the example of how schools teach kids about the food pyramid and how that knowledge is meaningless and out of context for them because they (the kids) don't make the food choices at home. Mom and Dad do.

Money choices are the same, Vaz-Oxlade said. Teaching kids about money when they have none of their own is be pointless. Nonetheless, Manitoba and Ontario are introducing personal finance this fall, K-12 in Manitoba and grades 4-12 in Ontario.

Are we expecting our kids to be self-taught? Some of the most interesting and successful people that I have talked to about financial literacy are self-taught. Everything that I know about money I have taught myself. We never talked about money at home. I didn't learn anything about it in school. As a result I've made a lot of mistakes on my way to financial stability, but at least I've made it. Is this the best option? I don't think so, which is why I spend so much time talking to my daughter about money, and making sure that she has her own money to practice with. 

Should entrepreneurs step up and develop lucrative products that will do the job? There are a few small companies in Canada that are currently developing financial education products and services. (I know. I've been approached by a few). But the question remains, who should those products be aimed at? Can you make any money developing financial education products for schools? Or would it be better to create products that will help parents teach their kids about money? Which is the better investment?

Responsibility Leads to Action

This is a funny place that were are in right now. It reminds me of the whole sex-ed dilemma. Whose responsibility is it to teach kids about sex these days anyway? The family? The school? There is an uncanny parallel between sex and money in education. What is it about teaching kids the "facts of life" that sets parents' and educators' teeth on edge and makes them pass the buck back and forth?

It will be interesting to see where the discussions lead at the "Turn Financial Literacy into Action" conference next week. Seriously, if we don't agree on who is ultimately responsible, it will be impossible to point the finger at anyone and say, "Okay, Dude, open up your wallet and spend some money on financial education." Without responsibility, there is not likely to be any action and I'm not sure the global economy can afford that.


Copyright 2011. Laura Thomas. All Rights Reserved.
For reprint permission contact moneyme@telus.net.

Moola Lingo: Derivatives

Derivatives is a money-word that bounces around quite a bit in the business news, often in the context of traders' "bad behaviour" and the "blind greed" of the American bankers who drove the U.S. into the mortgage meltdown and the rest of us into the global financial crisis of 2008. But, seriously, I had no idea what a derivative was until I decided to invest far too many kid-free hours of the last two days into not only finding out what it means but how I might translate into something that the average financial illiterate (and his or her five-year-old) can understand.

Yes. You read that right. I'm not only working on how to teach we grown-ups what a derivative is, I am also taking a crack at introducing it to five-year-olds. If you are thinking that I'm crazy, you are not alone. Last week I had the chance to ask 40 elementary school teachers whether or not kids in primary school should be introduced to moola lingo such as ETF, liquidity, T4, bonds, passive income, equities, overdraft, capital gains, etc.

Almost all of the teachers said, "No way!"

I disagree, of course. For me financial literacy comes down to two things: vocabulary and confidence. It's never too soon to start building either of those highly valuable personal commodities. And as someone who has logged many hours as a coach, I know that sometimes we grow the most when the bar is set higher than we think we can handle. When it comes to moola lingo, the word "derivatives" certainly fits the bill as a training tool. So put on your helmet. Here we go.

Not the Real Thing

A derivative is NOT an original thing. A derivative gets its meaning and its value from something else. In science, think of opium's derivatives: morphine and codeine. In etymology (the study of words), think of the Latin word "aqua" and its many derivatives such as aquamarine, aquatic, aquarium and Aquaman. Just think, without the Latin word for water (aqua) Norris and Weisinger might have named their underwater hero Soggyman or Wetman.

In moola lingo, it's the same idea. Derivatives cannot exist or have meaning or value without the thing that it is based on. There must be real wheat for flour and real pork bellies for bacon before you can create and trade in corn futures or pork belly options. (Options and futures are the two most common kinds of derivatives.)

According to Investopedia.com a derivative is "a security whose price is dependent upon or derived from one or more underlying assets. The derivative itself is merely a contract between two or more parties." Here's an example.

Short & Long on Balls

Imagine a market where everything baseball is bought and sold. A coach needs new balls for her team. There is no avoiding it. She will have to spend money on balls but, hopefully, not too much. The annoying thing is that the price of balls goes up and down all the time. Sometimes they cost $2 each, sometimes they go as high as $10 each. She does not want to pay $10 for each ball. She needs 100 balls, so that would cost $1000!

The day the coach goes to the baseball market, balls are selling for $5 each. She doesn't need the balls today (she doesn't even have enough money to buy today) but she wants to buy the balls at today's price. She goes up to a ball guy and tells him that she will buy 100 baseballs from him at $4 each and that she will need them delivered to the field on opening day. The guy agrees because he thinks that the price of balls is going to go down to $3 when all the other ball sellers come to the market next week.

The coach and ball guy write all of those details on a piece of paper. That piece of paper is now called a "futures contract" and it's a kind of derivative. Like the word "Aquaman" depends on the existence of the Latin word "aqua," this piece of paper depends on the existence of real baseballs and how much they cost at the market on any given day.

The coach is called a "speculator" who is "long" on balls, which means that she thinks that $4 is a good deal because the price of balls will probably go up. The ball guy is called a "hedger" who is "short" on balls, which means that he thinks the price of balls is going to go below $4 and he wants to get as much money for his balls as he can.

On opening day, the price of balls at the baseball market is $10. The ball guy delivers the 100 new balls. The coach pays him $400 dollars and is really happy. She saved her team $600 dollars. The ball guy is not happy. He lost $600 because the futures contract says that he must sell 100 balls for $400 when he could have sold those 100 balls that day at the market for $1,000. Poor guy. But what if the price of balls on opening day had been $2 each. Then the ball guy would be happy that he had the coach locked into paying $4 per ball. The coach would have been annoyed at paying $400 instead of $200.

As you can see, how it works out for the speculator (the coach) or the hedger (the ball guy) totally depends on how many balls and how many coaches needing balls will be at the market on a certain day. No one can control how much something like a baseball will cost tomorrow, the next day or next Wednesday. This is why derivatives are considered useful.

Sellers like the ball guy want to be sure they get a good price for their balls at the market. Buyers like baseball coaches want to buy their balls for as little money as possible. They talk, come up with a price for baseballs that they both like and set a date for the balls to be delivered to the buyer. Maybe having a futures contract helps them both sleep better at night knowing that no matter what the price of baseballs is tomorrow, they have a deal.

Where a speculator or hedger might lose sleep or have nightmarish flashbacks to 2008 is when the contracts themselves are bought and sold on the derivatives market (this is not something that I can visualize yet) or when a contract comes due and there isn't enough money to pay it out (apparently when buying a derivative, you don't need to have the all the cash on hand, just a small percentage of the face value of the contract).

As you can imagine, my fellow financial illiterati, there is much more collateral lingo attached to derivatives that we can learn. But not today. I think we've done enough of a workout. I know I have...

Copyright 2011. Laura Thomas. All Rights Reserved.

For reprint permission contact moneyme@telus.net.

The Collective Canadian Pocket & Why Voting Matters

I just finished writing a financial literacy lesson plan for preteens called "An Intro to Making Money." In this lesson I use a pocket to demonstrate what income and expenses are: income puts money in your pocket while expenses take money out.

With today being election day, I got to thinking about our collective Canadian pocket and how an election is all about deciding which party will be in charge of what goes in and what goes out. By the way, did you know that in the recently defeated budget our collective pocket takes in $235.6 billion in total revenue and pays out $276 billion in total expenses. That's a lot of loose change!

The funny thing (or perhaps disturbing thing) is that about half of us don't really seem to care about which party controls our collective cash. According to Elections Canada, only 58.8% of eligible voters turned out for the last federal election in 2008. Are we going to do any better this time?

I know the old complaint (often made by really smart people who are really good at managing their personal pockets) that the parties are all the same so there's no point in voting. Well, I'd  like to challenge that truism with some examples of how significantly the parties differ in how they want to manage Canada's cash.

How the Parties will Manage OUR Money

Arts & Culture

The Conservatives will establish a Children's Arts Tax Credit of up to $500 per child. The Liberals will double the annual budget of the Canada Arts Council from $180 million to $360 million over the next four years. The NDP will increase public funding for the Canada Council and implement tax averaging for artists and cultural workers.

Education

The Conservatives will extend support for the Canada Youth Business Foundation which provides loans and mentoring to young entrepreneurs. The Liberals will establish a new Early Childhood Learning and Care Fund beginning with $500 million in the first year, rising to an annual commitment of $1 billion by the fourth year. The NDP will raise the education tax credit from $4,800 per year to $5,760 per year.

Families & Households

The Conservatives will establish a Family Caregiver Tax Credit, on the amount of $2000, to support Canadians caring for infirm loved ones. The Liberals will invest $1 billion annually in a new Family Care Plan. The NDP will improve Family and Maternity Leave Benefits.

Health & Health Care

The Conservatives will double the value of the Children's Fitness Tax Credit up to $1000 per child. The Liberals will invest $40 million over four years to implement a new Healthy Start program to help children from low-income families access healthy, home-grown foods. The NDP will introduce an intergenerational Home Forgivable Loan Program to help up to 200,000 families a year retrofit their homes to create self-contained secondary residences for senior family members...up to a maximum of $35,000 per family.

Yours, Mine & Ours

You can do more party platform comparisons online and I hope you do. I mean really, if you care about money at all, yours, mine and ours, this is a great way to show it. The winners today will be in charge of our collective pocket. And having your say in which party is going to have that control is worth a trip to the voting booth. After all, your personal pocket has a stake in it too.

And don't forget to drag the kids along. As with financial literacy and the language of money, you can start teaching your kids to speak democracy at any age.

Copyright 2011. Laura Thomas. All Rights Reserved.

For reprint permission contact moneyme@telus.net.

Love and Money

Have you ever wondered what life is like when a thrill-seeking "High Roller" marries a risk-averse "Security Seeker" or when a sweat-pant-wearing "Dawdler" starts dating a research-crazy "Systematic Striver"? The five Vancouver women who make up the Smart Cookies financial self-help team have considered these and many other questions about love and money in their new personal finance book for couples. It's worth the cover price...especially if the idea of talking to the one you love about money makes you want to throw up or call off the wedding.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading the book. It was straightforward without being boring and had some good old fashioned you-can-do-it encouragement along with some solid money management advice that can help you get control over your finances even if you are currently flying solo or just dating.

My favourite parts are the two introductory chapters and the "Perfect Day" exercise on page 46. The first chapter was great because the Cookies spent some time talking about why money is so hard to talk about in the first place. There are some interesting statistics and insights to be found there. Chapter Two I liked as well because it got me thinking about how we learn about money from our parents, mostly by observation, and how what we see and hear about money growing up shapes the financial baggage we bring with us into relationships.

In the third chapter, which outlines some suggestions for personal and financial compatibility, there is an exercise called "Picturing Your Perfect Day Together." You and your partner are asked to imagine your life five years from now on a weekday and then use the Cookies' eleven questions to ignite a conversation about the financial reality that those fantasies entail. It's a fun exercise, well worth doing over a glass of wine or a cup of tea after you've both had a long hard day.

While these were my favourite parts of the book, the rest of the book does not disappoint. Whether you are planning to pay for your wedding or pay off debt, are buying your first home, starting a family, or learning to invest, you will find a lot of practical advice...and it's written for Canadians. Yay!

At $19.95 CDN, this book gets 5 out of 5 dollar signs for value and 5 out of 5 stars for readability. It's all about love and money, but you won't find any intimidating vocabulary on any of its 220 pages.

Moms and dads, if your son or daughter is old enough to fall in love but still has no idea what a RRSP or mortgage is, you may want to pick up this book and read it together as a family, which would be a great way for you (Mom and Dad) to talk to your grown up kids about how you handle love and money in your own intertwined lives.

Copyright 2011. Laura Thomas. All Rights Reserved.

For reprint permission contact moneyme@telus.net.

Kevin O'Leary's Tough-Love Approach to Kids and Money

Twice now I've heard Kevin O'Leary talk about about how he makes his kids fly coach while he enjoys the softer seats and sumptuous service of first class. He tells them that they can't sit up front because they don't have any money. If you're familiar with Kevin's work on Dragons' Den, Shark Tank or on The Lang & O'Leary Exchange you won't be surprised because you'll know that with Kevin "it's always about the money," even with his kids it seems! Let's call it O'Leary's tough-love approach to financial education.

BC HRMA Conference April 2011

While I don't agree with every aspect of Kevin's "business is war" philosophy, I do admire his realistic approach to talking to kids about money, which is why on April 13th I took my seven-year-old daughter to see him do a presentation called "Up Close and All Business with Kevin O'Leary" hosted by the BC Human Resources Association  at the Vancouver Trade and Convention Centre. Actually, I didn't really take my daughter to the presentation, she had to take herself.

One Tough Mom Equals One Tough Kid
When we first heard about Kevin's talk, my daughter was anxious to go. She's a big fan of Kevin's sense of humour, especially when he is being tough on pitchers in the Den. I thought it might be fun to go, too. I've been hoping to interview Kevin for this blog for quite a while. But when I saw the ticket price was $57 plus HST I decided against it (parking would be another $25!).

My daughter persisted so I told her that if she paid for her own ticket, we could go. The funny thing is that even though she is a shareholder and has a healthy pile of cash in her ING kids account, she said that she didn't want to spend her savings. That left us with figuring out how she could earn $57 plus HST.

Ella-Rose's Tip #2

To make a long story short, she spent the second week of March break providing money-saving tips to a group of subscribers (which included David Chilton, author of The Wealthy Barber, family, friends and a few of my blog followers) at the rate of $2 a day for 5 days.

I helped her choose her money-saving tips and did the uploading and emailing (some of the tips were images, some were videos) but the creative piece was hers alone. There were days when she came home from art camp and did not want to "work" but she did it anyways and ended up raising $80, which was more than she needed.

I was proud of her and pleased that she was willing to work so hard to earn money to do something that she wanted to do. She didn't complain. She didn't argue with me about why I was making her pay for her own ticket. She was able to deal with this "tough-love" money lesson with a tremendous amount of fortitude. I imagine that Kevin's kids can do the same.

Up Close & All Business with Kevin O'Leary

It wasn't until Kevin mentioned the "I make my kids fly coach" story again at the presentation that I realized that I have been using O'Leary's tough-love approach to financial education without being aware of it. One of my parenting catch phrases is, "Sorry. Mom's job is to buy the stuff you need,  not the stuff you want."

It seems to be working.

The cool thing about the tough-love approach to financial education is that it doesn't matter how wealthy your family is. Whether it's a first class plane ticket worth thousands of dollars or a front row seat at a Kevin O'Leary talk for $57 plus HST, the point is that you make your kids hungry to get there...and then you step back, do a little coaching and watch them go.

Copyright 2011. Laura Tomas. All Rights Reserved.
For reprint permission contact moneyme@telus.net.

Laura Thomas on Financial Literacy

Moola Lingo: Corporate Tax

Watching the leadership debate last night made me realize that politics is really just about about money. The May 2nd federal election isn't about ideas, it's about who has the power to decide how we earn, spend, grow and share our collective cash. And that was very evident when the word "corporate tax" was brought up last night. Should the corporate tax go up? Should it go down? Should it stay the same?

Which is why I thought to myself, hey, if this is such a pain-in-the-budget topic, I should probably take a minute to understand exactly what the word means before I cast my vote.

What is corporate tax?
Just as we the people have to pay tax on our income, companies have to pay tax on the money they earn as well. They pay tax on "profit income" and on capital (cash or goods used to generate income).  And, just like us, corporations have to file a tax return, a T2. If you've ever wondered what a T2 looks like you can check it out here.

Who has to file a T2? Any corporation with a Canadian address (except registered charities) has to file a T2 every year even if there is no tax due. This includes non-profits, tax-exempt corporations and inactive corporations.

And, in case you wanted a history lesson, it seems that corporate tax has been around longer than individual income tax in Canada. Corporate tax was introduced at the end of the nineteenth century while income tax was introduced in 1917 as a "temporary" way of funding World War 1.

Corporate tax rates, by the way, are:
19.5% effective January 1, 2008
19% effective January 1, 2009
18% effective January 1, 2010
16.5% effective January 1, 2011
15% effective January 1, 2012

Individual tax rates in Canada for 2011 are:

15% on the first $41,544 of taxable income

22% on the next $41,544

26% on the next 45,712

29% on taxable income over $128,800

Our Parities & Our Pain-in-the-Budget
The Liberals vow to keep the corporate tax rate at the 2010 level of 18%. The NDP promises to keep the combined federal/provincial corporate tax rate (which is about 26%) below the U.S. federal corporate tax rate of 35%. This means that the NDP will boost the federal corporate tax rate to 19.5%. The Conservatives will keep lowering the rate to 15% in 2012. The Bloc Quebecois and Green Party do not have explicit plans to either raise or lower the corporate tax rate.

There is some additional vocabulary that comes up when individual and corporate tax obligations collide including: dividends, shareholders, tax credit, double taxation, capital gain, capital cost allowance and income trust. But I am not going to touch on any of that moola lingo today. The point of this post is to clarify what corporate tax is so that we can better decide which party's earning-spending-growing-sharing plan we want to support on May 2nd. Happy voting!

Copyright 2011. Laura Thomas. All Rights Reserved.
For reprint permission contact money@agentstory.net.