Ottawa

Policy alert

Stephen Harper promises to allow income-splitting for families with children. So long as he’s Prime Minister in 2016.

Writing Monday on The Globe’s Economy Lab blog, Carleton University professor Frances Wooley said the policy risks triggering a “Mommy War.” “People sometimes think ‘the work done by parents who stay home looking after their children is valuable, therefore those people deserve a tax break.’ They’re already getting an enormous tax break. They’re getting thousands of dollars worth of in-kind income – the value of the work that is being in the home – and not being taxed on it,” the professor writes. “Mommy Wars, that pit at-home mothers against working mothers, women against women, are bitter and destructive,” she adds. “If we want to support families with children, then we can just introduce tax measures that support families with children, for example, an enhanced child tax amount. It’s that simple.”

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