Tax on Foreign Income

The following is my tax situation which I think is worth sharing.

Following a currency conversion using the prescribed BoC US$ exchange rate of 1.0748, my US dividend income is $326 and my withholding tax deducted is $50--damn you IRS.

Since I was a student in 2007, my basic federal tax amount on my T2209 (used to claim foreign tax credit) is only about $171. My combined federal and provincial foreign tax credit wasn't even $5.

So for my foreign dividend income, I ended up paying:
50 + (326 - 45) * 0.15 - 5 = 87.37!!!!

That is a whooping 26%+ tax rate! DOUBLE-YOU-TEE-EFF!!!! By the way, the 45 is a foreign tax deduction allowed by section 20(12), which can be applied because my foreign tax credit isn't large enough to recover all of my foreign tax paid. See: IT506

The moral of the story is that for a young investor with a very low income and lots of tuition tax credits, withholding tax BITES. You will likely not have enough foreign tax credit to recover the 15% withholding tax and end up getting double taxed. Think this scenario over before investing in foreign markets.

CIA Granting Prelim Credits via University

Future Education Model for the CIA

Some might be surprised that I don't like this idea even though I complain about the SOA's exam fee far too often. It just too dangerous: a get out of jail free card if I may say so.

Drawing upon my own experience, this arrangement is similar to IB, which relies on local schools to deliver the IB syllabus. However, the IBO has an extensive system of external assessments and final examinations--the CIA system will have none of the above. I have first hand experience at how poor the delivery of a top-notch syllabus can get at the lower levels. Even though I would like to think that an university education will always be of the highest caliber, a lot of times it's just not (*cough* business... *cough*). What's the big deal about writing another easy exam anyways if you already know your stuff?

My other objection is why is it an university's job to churn out practicing actuaries? I have always firmly believe that an university is place of learning--and thus why I think business faculties are a joke. I don't think an university's curriculum should be controlled by anything, let alone the CIA. There is big gap between academic and business, and I'm not sure whether bridging this gap by allowing a business-oriented professional organization to meddle in academic affairs is such a good idea--nor necessary.

When I first saw this document on AO, my first thought was, "The SOA will NEVER go along with this." Actuarial education is piss poor in the states and it would be too weird for the SOA to allow Canadian students to get special treatment. I wonder how far can the CIA go with this plan without SOA support. Make it possible to be a FCIA without completing all the FSA requirements? Create their own education system? If they do, will anyone care :P?

B-2 Stealth Bomber Crashes at Guam

B-2 Stealth Bomber Crashes at Guam Air Base; Pilots Are Safe
By Sophie Tan

Feb. 23 (Bloomberg) -- A B-2 stealth bomber crashed at Andersen Air Force Base in Guam and both pilots were safe after ejecting, the Pacific Air Forces said today in a statement on its Web site.

The Pacific Air Forces said a board of officers will look into the accident and more information will be made available later. The pilots were from the 509th Bomb Wing and are in ``good condition'' after medical checks were carried out, the statement said. The aircraft was sent to Guam from Whiteman Air Force base in Missouri, its only operational base.

The B-2 stealth bomber, which costs about $1.2 billion, can carry conventional and nuclear bombs, according to a fact sheet on the same Web site. The design, materials and coatings make its detection by defensive radar systems difficult.

The aircraft involved in the crash was destroyed during the accident, the Air Force Times reported, citing an unidentified official at Andersen Air Force Base. Calls made to the two phone numbers listed in the statement by the Pacific Air Forces weren't immediately answered.

The accident happened at around 10:30 a.m. local time when the aircraft was leaving the base in Yigo, Guam, the U.S. territory's local media Kuam News reported. It was the second military plane to crash in a month after a Navy Ea-6b Prowler from the USS Kittyhawk went down 20 miles from the base Feb. 12, Kuam News said.

Thick black smoke was visible near the air control tower of the base, the Associated Press said, citing a woman who was visiting her husband. The U.S. Air Force has 21 stealth bombers, the AP said, without stating the source of the information.

Northrop Grumman Corp., the third-largest U.S. defense company, is the main contractor of the current fleet of B-2 Spirit stealth bombers, according to the fact sheet.

Bloomberg

Kamen Rider Kiva Girl

From this freak AKA "Sailor Luna":


to the new Kamen Rider Kiva damsel:


Almost didn't recognize her.

Crazy Transit = Crazy First Day

I got to Waterfront 2 minutes shy of the 5:30pm train. So I decided, "Fine, I'll take the Skytrain to Braid and switch to the 169 rather than waiting for the 6:20pm train. Mistake #1: it probably takes the same amount of time if I had took the 160, except I would have to walk up Mariner from Coquitlam Center.

I got on the Skytrain, and I decided to switch to the Millennium Line on Broadway; this is mistake #2.

There was an announcement on the PA, but I couldn't make it out since the PA system on Skytrains is TERRIBLE. "Static... buzz... This is Skytrain control... BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP!(from the doors)... buzz... Sperling... buzz." That was all I heard. I could've turned around and went back to Waterfront and catch the 6:20pm WCE if I had heard the PA.

Well it turns out there was a gas leak between Production and Lougheed so all Skytrains were to stop at Sperling and turn around; thus, I was stranded. The Skytrain attendants were hopeful that there would be connecting buses but after about ten minutes I said fuck it and took the 144 to SFU and then switched to the 143.

I finally got home at 7:30pm. OMGWTFBBQ!!!

AVPR Sucks

To the person who threw a banana peel while driving down Mariner today: please go kill yourself.


I don't know how but they managed to make AVPR worse than AVP. The dialogues, the plot, even the action are all ridiculously bad. I don't understand this. This combined franchise has all the ingredients for a great suspenseful thriller/action/horror flick; yet frigging Fox keeps failing to deliver it.

I read a review that said AVPR is decent when no one is talking. I don't agree with that because I think it's a bad movie overall, but the badness is amplified whenever a line is muttered. The screenplay has some of the laziest lines I've ever heard in a movie; it's so bad that it's funny. A lot of lines are awkwardly delivered because they are unexpected and feel out of place--the "government doesn't lie" line anyone? They even ruined Arnold's famous "Get to the chopper!" line. Abysmal.

I don't want to go into the plot because it is full of holes; an hospital helicopter with a light that says "rocket sight" is one example. I'm going to dive right into the action. The Alien franchise did not succeed because of chestburstings and facehuggings. It succeeded because of the setup that led to these scenes. AVPR just uses these scenes over and over. In fact I would argue that this is exactly what this film is about: a bunch of show-off scenes barely linked together by terrible dialogue. The predator action scenes did not fare much better. There was one scene that had incredible promise; when I saw it I was like, "Shit this laser net thing is going to be awesome!" But nope the scene sucked. It waste probably five minutes of setup for a resolution that was underdeveloped and extremely unsatisfying. The rest of the action scenes are all dark so you can't see anything, unimaginative, without suspense, without coolness, and makes the predator look like a pussy. The plasmacaster is supposed to own. Period. Actually I would've loved to see some human army verses alien action and was surprised that I didn't get any. I hope it was due to budget constraint and not some bonehead writer that thought such scene would not be cool.

I think the ideal AVP movie is a movie with just predators and aliens; no more red-shirt humans who just gets in the way. The the next step will take a great screenwriter and soundtrack but get rid of dialogues; I don't even want captions when the predators speak because doing so would defile the franchise. This setup should add depth to the film and revive the suspense and thrill of the originals. I hate how Fox reduced the two franchises to a teen horror flick. And please let there be a winner this time. I know they don't want to piss fans of either franchise off but enough is enough: predators are supposed to slaughter aliens.