Should civic politicians get a third of their pay tax free?
KAMLOOPS — Municipal politicians receive a benefit a lot of people might not know about — a third of their stipend is tax free.
It’s been that way since I remember, and it’s there in consideration of the day-to-day expenses incurred by municipal office holders. Under the federal Income Tax Act, elected members of provincial and territorial governments, school boards and some other bodies receive certain breaks as well — referred to as “non-accountable allowances.”
Justin Trudeau proposes to take that away as of 2019, which basically means at the beginning of the next term. There’s good and bad in this.