Category: Uncategorized

Tax fairness and economic inequality in the spotlight in Canada The Toronto Star, the CBC, and other media organizations across the world have shone a bright light on tax fairness with the release of the so-called Paradise Papers on Sunday. Millions of leaked documents were acquired by the U.S.-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. Following…

The federal government flubs the politics of tax reform The federal government has gradually been trimming their fair taxation proposals. They are trying to focus on the top 3% of Canadian Controlled Private Corporations and are backing off on taxing so-called passive investments. Unfortunately the federal government seems to have completely botched the politics of…

On Monday, economist Andrew Jackson had an article in Globe and Mail, “Census shows income inequality is on the rise” which documents increasing Canadian market income inequality. From 2005 to 2015 median individual incomes rose 12.7% but the top one percent increased their market income by 16.4%. The good news is that the Organization for…

Good column by Toronto Star business columnist David Olive dealing with some common myths about the Federal Government’s tax reforms. It looks more and more that the federal government will cave on substantial parts of their tax reform package. Of course they needed to fix a few glitches and implement fair transition periods for the…

University of Ottawa Economics Professor Michael Wolfson has studied equity issues his whole career and much of the current policy discourse is due to his research. His recent posting at the Evidence Network asks, “Should the loudest voices prevail on proposed tax reform?” It looks like the Federal government has not played its politics very…

There are a lot of myths about the government’s policy proposals. Some of them concern so-called “income sprinkling”, that is corporations giving income to family members who do not really work for the corporation. According to a new study by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives: “Nearly all of the families who benefit most from…

Columnists across the political spectrum support the Federal tax proposals There is broad political support for fairer taxation. Even though Conservative leader Andrew Scheer has launched his fall offensive on these issues, many conservatives do not support him. National Post columnist Andrew Coyne noted that whatever levels of taxation or quality of government services one…