Adrian Myers: The legality of taxation
Why do we tax corporations?
Don't recoil – this is a tough question. The natural response is to argue that corporations are big and wealthy and can afford to pay taxes. In other words, they can be taxed so they should be taxed.
However, at some point, corporate income must make its way to shareholders, which means a corporate tax results in the same source of income being taxed twice – once at the corporate level and once at the individual level. While there's nothing inherently wrong with taxing the same income in two places, it's more complicated than taxing income once, at its final destination. Full Story
Sun Life's Asian expansion gathers steam
Sun Life Financial Inc.'s little deals and investments in Asia are adding up.
In the last three years Sun Life has committed nearly $1-billion to the region, said Dean Connor, chief executive of Sun Life. He has plans to make the Toronto-based insurer's presence in Asia a bigger part of his company, but making big bets isn't his style.
On Wednesday, Sun Life said it will buy the remainder of an Indonesian insurance business called PT CIMB Sun Life from Malaysian CIMB Group, the continuation of a joint venture forged in 2009. Investments like these can fly under the radar when deal values aren't announced and price tags are diminutive. In this case, the transaction was worth about $55-million.
But these bite-sized acquisitions have been compounding. This is the third deal announced in Asia in the last few months, following plans to increase its stakes in partnerships with large financial companies in Vietnam and India. Full Story
Barrick's Thornton takes pay cut
John Thornton has finally addressed the recurring outcry over his compensation – by taking a nearly $10-million (U.S.) cut in pay.
The executive chairman of Barrick Gold Corp. will receive $3.1-million for his work in 2015, a dramatic reduction from the $12.9-million he pocketed for 2014.
Shareholders have twice voted against Mr. Thornton's compensation package in recent years through non-binding "say-on-pay" resolutions, and he had vowed to address investors' anger on the issue. Full Story
ON THE MOVE
Mohr to retire
Patricia Mohr, one of Canada's most recognizable experts in commodities and a rational voice in a sector known for hyperbole, is retiring next month after serving 31 years as an economist at Bank of Nova Scotia.
Her career has spanned monumental shifts in the global commodities landscape in recent decades, marked by the rise of China's economy, the development of Canada's oilsands, surging oil and gold prices – and equally dramatic declines.
"Most of the work I do is fundamental in nature. I try to anticipate changing supply and demand conditions," Ms. Mohr said. Story
Goldfarb retires after Sequoia Fund hit by Valeant
An investment firm that was burned by its big stake in troubled Valeant Pharmaceuticals said its CEO is retiring.
Ruane, Cunniff & Goldfarb said in a letter that Robert Goldfarb would retire and be replaced by David Poppe. The change comes after a mutual fund that Ruane, Cunniff & Goldfarb manages, called Sequoia Fund, fell 24 per cent in the last year as Valeant's stock plummeted. Story