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Fredericton Daily Gleaner ~ Capital Appreciation ~ Column Introduction ~ June 19, 2006 - 10 Jul 2006 by TaxHelp
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Hope you find this informative AND entertaining.
Roger Haineault – “Capital Appreciation” – June 19, 2006.
capital appreciation – 1) a rise in the market price of an asset; 2) to be pleased about the opportunity to be involved in Fredericton.
If the technology, logistics and timing are congruent, you’re reading this new piece of literary real estate Monday morning. I’m hoping that each week you’ll make a date to join me here under the “Capital Appreciation” banner. And as noted above, there is more than one appropriate definition available. If you’re looking for some slice of life stories that usually are grounded in the financial, tax or business community – look no further. But before we begin to move forward, I should share with you some of where I’ve come from.
Like many of you, I have a family. For some of you, we’re in the same stages. For others, I’ve already been there and I’m still paying for the shirt. For still more of you, I’ve yet to enjoy some of where you’ve been. I’m from a small city like here, of French-Irish stock and was born smack dab in the middle of the baby boom. My wife, Betty, has put up with my shenanigans for almost three decades. We have a daughter, Jennifer, who has just graduated from Mount Allison and now lives in Cape Breton. We also have a son, Rob, who is in the engineering program at Dalhousie and is with us for the summer. We also enjoy the company of our miniature schnauzer Pal. Unlike the other kids, Pal does not provide us with a university tax credit. On the other hand, he is less expensive, is easier to please and never brings the car home with an empty tank.
About one hundred years ago I started out as a teacher. However, I ended up in the corporate world, spending virtually all of it in the financial services sector working throughout Ontario. We moved so often, that by the time Rob was six he had been in four different cities for Christmas. Betty and I were looking for a change that would settle us. We had vacationed in New Brunswick and fell in love with the place. Frank McKenna was projecting a dynamic, national presence with a can-do attitude at the time, so we looked for an opportunity somewhere in the province. We ended up acquiring arguably the largest single franchise in the tax business, where I could marry my experience into providing a needed service. Having been around the block, we decided to divest the business and start a new higher-touch, more affordably objective tax and financial advisory service, which better met our wishes for what we wanted to deliver to our clients.
We’ve enjoyed our experience with our offices in Saint John to date. And we could hardly wait to come to Fredericton. It looks like that time has now arrived. The community is vibrant, and whether we’ve visited in the winter for hockey tournaments or the summer for softball games, this is one of the nicest places we’ve been in all our travels. In a way it reminds me of Innsbruck without the mountains.
So like I said, I can probably relate to your situation. I’ve been employed and I’ve been self-employed (and I’ve also been unemployed, but that’s for another day). I’ve been single and I’ve been married. I’ve had little kids that have grown up to become bigger kids. I’m fortunate enough to still have my parents, brothers and more than a few siblings I’ve inherited through Betty, as well as my in-laws. So I have stories – lots of stories that people share with me. Sometimes it’s Sunday morning after church when someone approaches me with a particular tax problem they have. Other times it’s a phone call from a friend who wants to know if buying a condo in Florida makes financial sense, as if that should matter.
So before I let you go today, I should share some local income tidbits that you might find interesting. Based on the last Canadian largest cities report (tax returns filed April, 2003), Fredericton represents 6.9 per cent of all returns filed in the province. While 52 per cent of New Brunswick returns report incomes of $20,000 or less, only 46.2 per cent of the city returns are in that strata. Conversely, 11.5 per cent of all provincial returns report incomes of $50,000 and more. Fredericton, not unexpectedly, has 17.4 per cent of all returns in this category. However, you might be surprised to find out that Moncton only has 13.2 per cent and Saint John is even less at 11.7 per cent. Of course, as economies swing (the current Saint John industrial building boom for example) these numbers will change, but here in the city we have the good fortune of relative stability. And with that, on average, we pay the highest percentage of tax relative to income.
Anyway, I hope you can find the time to join me here each week. I’ll try to deal with relevant financial issues in an informative and entertaining fashion. You may have some comments or ideas you’d like to share or have an opinion on. Feel free to get in touch with me either through the Gleaner or at the contacts below.
Roger Haineault is with Help 4 Taxes. He can be reached by email at roger@help4taxes.ca or by calling 1-888-450-1212. His column appears Monday. |
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