Dear Editor:
Re: Why not defer your taxes, Letters to the editor, Burnaby NOW, June 20.
First let me extend my thanks to Russ Leach for a valuable peace of information regarding tax deferral. I would have guessed that senior citizens were an intelligent and well-read group of people (and I stand uncorrected).
Just because the government was smart enough to come up with multiple choices on how to take our money doesn't make it right for it to keep on raising taxes to the point where people are forced to defer their taxes in order to survive and remain in their homes. We work hard all of our lives to own our homes. We shouldn't be put in a position where we, at the end, have to give a portion of it to the government.
Of course we can defer our taxes. We can sell our houses and downsize to a condo. But that, in my opinion, should be a personal choice, not one forced upon us by our government simply because the elected officials mismanage the revenues.
That said, I don't want to obfuscate/ denigrate the whole idea of property tax deferral. In some cases, where people have no other avenue, for whatever reason, it could be a practical solution.
Frank Di Cesare, Burnaby
