Two commonly invoked reasons for the new tax on income trust distributions are: (1) to ensure fairness (indeed, the government introduced the new tax as the centrepiece of a "Tax Fairness Plan"); and (2) to prevent impairment of the "competitiveness and productivity" of the Canadian economy that would result from greater recourse to the income trust structure by Canadian companies.
In this online opinion article, I take issue with these justifications for the new tax.