Come on... Wall Street doesn't get it? Of course they do, they have perfected the art of playing the system. It's all about the tax code.

Of course Wall Street gets it, they'll even tell you, it's right in this article. It's our tax code and the choices we make about how we arrange our affairs to cope with those rules.  Our tax system is not only so complex, it's designed to shape our choices. The people who draw up the rules will even tell you that's what they are doing. 

Why do you think we in Canada were introduced to a new tax credit this year called the Family Caregiver Amount?  It's designed to bolster up the perception that we're going to care for our family at home. This credit is designed to make sure we're making looking after family members a priority as are most of the other tax credits, designed to guide us because they know something we may not have figured out.  The message is that we can't afford to keep all those boomers in care facilities.  There aren't enough beds.

If I'd known as a teen what I know today about tax, I probably would have made completely different choices about how I arranged my life.

Our education system, at least here in BC, not sure about the rest of Canada, but ours doesn't provide teens with the opportunity to learn about tax.  Not saying that what they learn in school isn't valuable, but it sure isn't practical in terms of life skills if it doesn't include a healthy dose of how tax is going to affect the rest of your teens life.  Remember, tax free day isn't until when? June or something?  A huge chunk of what we earn goes to taxes.  Doesn't that deserve airtime?

We don't shares with teens how to complete a TD1 and why, so they can ask their employers to reduce the tax taken at source when they first start to work.

I doubt we talk about the long term dangers of the underground economy and how the choice to work for cash can influence a person's ability to ever even get a mortgage to own a home. Just ask any banker, and they'll tell you sad stories about people who only report $30,000 as income and now want a mortgage. The banks want nothing to do with them.

Why? Qualifying for a home in Vancouver, not on $30,000 income, unless there is a stash of cash for a huge down payment.  And the potential of questions by CRA...where did the money come from for you to afford that address?  Think they aren't watching? Hah.  CRA has a program that compares addresses and last names for who lives with who to find rental suites. It's only a short step from there.

Why do only commerce students and accounting students study tax?  Tax influences how all of us make choices, the least we should do is to expose our teens to how the system works, let them use their imaginations to find ways to use the system to their advantage.  After all, if you want to give them a leg up, studying tax code, that's what the folks on Wall Street did.