When will a Bill on tax averaging for artists become law?

To Fol­low

On May 31st, MP Tyrone Ben­skin (NDP, Jeanne– Le Ber) tabled Bill C-427 which seeks to mod­ify the Income Tax Act so that artists can aver­age their income over a max­i­mum of five years. The CCA is sup­port­ing this Bill and we invite our mem­bers to do the same by con­tact­ing the gov­ern­ment and the par­lia­men­tar­i­ans at the oppor­tune moment.

This request for tax aver­ag­ing is not new. For years, the CCA and a num­ber of its mem­ber orga­ni­za­tions have been call­ing for this mea­sure that bet­ter reflects the eco­nomic real­i­ties of artists. This Bill is not the first to address the social secu­rity safety net of artists: sim­i­lar ini­tia­tives have always been Pri­vate Mem­bers’ Bills.

Hun­dreds of pri­vate mem­bers’ Bills are tabled each term. Just to give you an idea, between 1993 and 2002 1,148 pri­vate mem­bers’ Bills were tabled and only 18 were adopted. In 102 years, since May 4th 1910 to today, a grand total of 235 Pri­vate Member’s Bills have been adopted.

We have the oppor­tu­nity again with Bill C-427, in the hopes that will be the 236th to pass the numer­ous steps mak­ing it into law.