Article content continued

The debate so far has focused on the lack of limits and disclosure around private donations. But lost in the shuffle has been a look at the costs to taxpayers of a political tax credit system that’s almost four decades old.

The program gives political donors a tax credit worth 75 per cent of their first $100 donation, 50 per cent up to $500 and 33.3 per cent for donations in excess of a $550 donation to a registered political party. The top end is a $500 tax credit, for which someone would have to donate $1,150.

“It’s really very generous,” said University of B.C. professor and tax expert Kevin Milligan. “A 75 per cent tax credit, you don’t get that for anything else, pretty much. For every $1 you give, (the party gets) $3 from the public chest. That’s a very generous tax credit.”

It’s far more lucrative than the tax credits for donating to a charity, which would give you a combined federal and provincial tax credit of $20.06 for a $100 donation, compared to $75 credit for the same donation to a political candidate, party or constituency association.

PNG

If you don’t hear anyone complaining, that’s because the publicly funded political tax credit is an incentive that virtually all political parties have enjoyed and promoted for decades.

“Tomorrow at midnight is your last chance to get a tax credit before an election year,” read a Dec. 30 fundraising email by B.C. NDP president Craig Keating.

“They don’t carry over; you’ve got one shot — and if you don’t donate by midnight tomorrow they just disappear. Don’t let them go to waste! Get back $7.50 at tax time — but only if you chip in $10 today.”