Colleagues and Cottages
I find myself often not relating with my colleagues at work and I am curious if anyone else feels like they don't fit in.
The people I work with are lovely but there are constant reminders that I am... well 'different'. As child of immigrants (born and raised in Canada/ US), I can't help but wonder if these cultural differences stem from being the only one in the room with an 'ethnic' background and hence a different experience growing up.
Perhaps it is socioeconomic because I am the only non-homeowner, (despite having a much higher family income due to my husband's private sector job...Strange times we live in).
Everyone was talking about cottages, and I let it slip that I didn't care about the 50% of capital gains being taxed when a cottage (if it's a second property) gets passed on to heirs. My manager was upset,
'So you don't care that a cottage that has been in a family for generations, all their hard work and all the money poured into it for years, blood sweat and tears gets robbed from them because they can't afford the tax bill?'
I replied that such heirs will have already inherited one property (the parent's primary residence) without any of those gains taxed, that's a huge amount of tax sheltering that I, as a life long renter, will never have access to. If someone stands to inherit more than one property, then they are more fortunate than most Canadians and even with the tax bill they are still better off than most.
As a renter, I have to work Extremely hard and I need to save more money than my peers for the privilege of being able to afford to not work until the day I die. As a non-asset holder with less tax sheltering opportunities, I think it's fair to have some form of tax on the wealth generated from a secondary property.
'You have to live in reality' my manager said. Now I was the heartless hater wishing that everyone loses their family cottage (I don't wish that at all and yes I get it we ALL hate paying taxes).
To defuse the situation, I apologized for my comments, reminded him that when my heirs inherit my RRSP it will be taxed as income (definitely less favourably than a cottage).
Inside my frustration builds, our income will always be taxed at 100% capital gains, the RRSPs will be taxed as income. Aside from my TSFA, as a renter I don't have access to anywhere near the amount of tax sheltering homeowners have. I am sorry but I can't bring myself to feel bad for people that are far wealthier than me and in a more tax favourable situation.
Since I was never exposed to the cottage growing up, I sat out the rest of the conversation to avoid further offending my colleagues.
Anyone else feel like they came from a different planet?
If so then please share!. So that I may feel a bit less alone, LOL.
