Sunday, January 23, 2011

Nortel Canada Disable get a tax break on HWT payout

The following story was presented in the Toronto Sun last week. According to the reporter, the Nortel disabled employees in Canada will get a small break here in that they won't have to pay tax on any payout from the HWT trust.

News Canada
Nortel disabled benefits to be tax free
By SCOTT TAYLOR, QMI Agency

Last Updated: January 13, 2011 8:48pm OTTAWA
- The tax man is giving disabled Nortel employees a break.

Canada Revenue Agency won't be collecting taxes on the payments the workers get from their underfunded health and welfare trust.

On Dec. 31 the roughly 400 disabled employees lost their disability, health, life, dental and pension benefits. They're now left as common creditors, meaning they'll get only an average of about 34% of what they had been living on.

Many are afraid that they won't be able to afford their everyday bills, much less expensive medications. Most are unable to work.

"This is the first really good news we've heard," the workers' court-appointed representative, Sue Kennedy, said Thursday. "Any little help is better than no help at all."

Kennedy also said that she recently met with Government House Leader John Baird, who said the government is looking into ways to further assist the workers, though as yet nothing concrete has been offered.

The employees were thrust into this position because Nortel drastically underfunded its trust fund.

A group of about 30 of them have been fighting to move closer to the head of the line when the company's assets are doled out.

The Ontario Court of Appeal denied a leave to appeal motion brought by a group Jan.7. They were given 60 days to decide whether to take their case to the Supreme Court of Canada.

Meanwhile, Nortel said it will incur a $2-billion charge for a new accounting method related to the sale of its operations.

scott.taylor@sunmedia.ca

2 comments:

  1. Don't forget that the pensioners are contributing to the LTD income loss by grabbing about half of the deeply depleted HWT trust fund assets for death benefits for pensioners who are still alive! This cuts Survivor and LTD income to about 27% of their pre insolvency income, rather than about double that, so that each pensioner can receive about $3500 each.

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  2. nice_nhb87@yahoo.comDecember 15, 2011 at 2:31 AM

    Hi iam Hom BAHADUR PUN From NEPAL. Iam disable person & Iam 32yrs old. I want to be work disables people in Nepal but 1st i want to be traning about it so if u would like to help plesae send me mail.... Because Nepal is so poor country so our Government policy is bad. here political condation is not good so that please i am waiting ur mail byeeeee.......

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