Fact check: BCE and Telus pay ZERO taxes

Flaherty’s flagrantly false fear mongering; (November 1, 2006) “You have to either leave it alone or fix it,” Mr. Flaherty shrugged Wednesday. “We were going to see the two largest telecommunications companies in the country not pay corporate taxes. That's a clear and present danger to fairness in the Canadian tax system. I thought we had to act.”

Sounds like Flaherty flipped a coin?...... and got it wrong, because had he been able to read an income statement or a cash flow statement, he would have realized that the PUBLIC FACTS are otherwise

Fact 1: “ "Bell expects it will have no significant federal cash taxes through 2010, due to organizational simplification enabling accelerated use of Bell's R&D tax credits." BCE Press release of Forward Looking Statements on December 12, 2006

Fact 2: “"Based on a an updated review of the company's tax loss position, TELUS now expects minimal cash tax payments in 2007, a preliminary estimate of approximately $100 million in 2008 with the payment of significant cash taxes largely deferred to 2009, rather than 2008 as previously anticipated." Telus Press Release of Forward Looking Statements on December 14, 2006

Conclusion: Some Finance Minister we have here, who claims one version of reality as the basis for a tax that caused taxable Canadians investors to lose $35 billion and the true reality is tha exat opposite. That is the definition of INCOMPETENT. Meanwhile as trusts these two companies would have generated an additional $3.8 billion in tax revenue for Ottawa, as follows (from caiti.info):

This is a very simple analysis to conduct. As you can see below, Ottawa would have collected $2.7 billion more in taxes from BCE over the next four years as an Income Trusts (relative to zero as the corporation it will remain) and $1.1 billion more in taxes from Telus over the next two years as an Income Trusts (relative to zero as the corporation it will remain) for a total loss in taxes of $3.8 billion.

BCE Ownership: 15% foreign
35% Canadian tax deferred
50% Canadian taxable
Tax Rates: 38% blended tax on income as per Department of Finance Consultation Study dated Sept 28, 2005
19% blended tax on dividends
Distributions on 900 mm shares outstanding Trust distribution rate: $2.55 per unit
Corporate dividend rate: $1.46 per share
Federal Taxes (including deferred taxes paid on retirement accounts):
BCE as an Income Trust: $793 million per year federal tax
BCE as a Corporation: $240 million per year federal tax
Foregone Federal taxes: $553 million per year
Foregone Taxes over BCE's 4 year corporate tax holiday: $2.2 billion
Foregone Capital Gain on Conversion to Trust: $428 million (based on $5.00/share gain)
Total Foregone BCE Taxes: $2.6 billion

Given that Canadians lost $35 billion in their hard earned savings as a sole result of Mr. Flaherty's so called Tax Fairness Plan, perhaps the loss of $2.6 billion in taxes is considered a mere drop in Ottawa's bucket. What happened to strengthening Canada's social security system for Canada's seniors? What became of avoiding the shifting of tax burden onto the shoulders of the average Canadian?