OK, there has been no such call. Yet. But mark my words, this panel will call for tax cuts as the federal government’s fiscal stimulus, and the government will deliver. The Economic Advisory Council is not exactly a representative group. No labour representation, no Aboriginal reps, no one from the social or non-profit sector whatsoever. Thus, the groups most likely […]
Read moreAs Andrew Jackson has written recently on this blog, the New Brunswick government is proposing a set of truly dreadful tax reforms. The proposals include: a 10% flat tax for personal income, or a two-tier rate at 9% and 12% reducing the corporate income tax from 13% down to as low as 5% a carbon tax increasing the provincial sales tax by […]
Read moreThere is a lot of the colour green all over Dion’s Green Shift plan. But after reading it, the greenery appears almost as superficial as the green shift caps that Liberal MPs wore awkwardly with their business suits at the launch yesterday. Dion’s plan is really a proposal for a tax shifting budget and doesn’t contain any new proposals to […]
Read moreAs Andrew, Marc, Toby and I pointed-out at the time, despite the low up-front cost of Tax-Free Savings Accounts, they will become exponentially more expensive over time. To obnoxiously quote myself, “this measure could burn a significant hole in future government revenues.” It is worth noting that Jack Mintz, a huge fan of Tax-Free Savings Accounts, suggests essentially the same […]
Read moreIn a new report released today for Sustainable Prosperity (a new research institute), Jack Mintz and Nancy Olewiler pitch a federal carbon tax constructed by broadening the base of the federal excise tax (which currently raises over $5 billion per year based on a tax of 10 cents per litre of gas and 4 cents per liter of diesel) to […]
Read moreThree weeks ago, I wrote, “Budget 2007 used the federal spending power quite aggressively to pay provincial governments to eliminate their Corporate Capital Taxes. A similar use of the power will be needed if the Conservatives are serious about harmonizing provincial sales taxes with the GST.” The front page of Friday’s National Post reported, “The Conservatives will encourage the five […]
Read moreIn successfully seeking the 1980 Republican nomination for President, Ronald Reagan embraced the Laffer Curve theory that tax cuts would increase tax revenues. At the time, rival candidate George Bush Sr. derided this notion as “Voodoo economics” and it has been since been discredited many times. Jack Mintz struggles to revive the theory in today’s 2007 Tax Competitiveness Report, declaring […]
Read moreAs noted yesterday, Canadian advocates of corporate-tax cuts have proliferated alternative measures of corporate taxes. The C. D. Howe Institute’s “Tax Competitiveness Program,” which largely consists of papers by Jack Mintz and Duanjie Chen, has focused almost exclusively on marginal effective tax rates (METRs) on capital, expressed as percentages of pre-tax rates of return. There have been a couple of […]
Read moreProgressives often present corporate-tax cuts as having transferred billions of dollars from the Canadian government to big business. This characterization is largely correct, but neglects the fact that many foreign-based corporations operating in Canada are also taxed on a worldwide basis by foreign governments. To the extent that corporations in Canada are affiliates of American and Japanese multinationals, Canadian corporate-tax […]
Read moreRecently, CLC President Ken Georgetti sent the following letter to Jim Flaherty: May 8, 2007 Honourable Jim Flaherty, P.C., M.P. Minister of Finance House of Commons Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6 Dear Minister: On behalf of the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC), I write to express our support for your promise, in Budget 2007, to end the corporate-tax deduction for interest on […]
Read moreIn yesterday’s Financial Post, Jack Mintz repeated the notions that the Budget featured “no broad tax relief” and big spending. He wrote, “Certainly, the idea of making the tax structure more efficient, fair and simple takes a back seat to the rash of special politically driven measures.” However, the tax measures that Mintz specifically endorses – the Child Tax Credit, […]
Read moreThe dust has now settled on the Tories’ decision to tax income trusts. The government deserves credit for dealing with this issue even though they had promised to do otherwise. While there is some fury on Bay Street and among some retirees, the reality is that the government and corporate Canada were playing a game of chicken, and at some […]
Read moreThe Conservatives are at it again. As reported in the Globe and Mail on October 31, federal Finance Minister Flaherty is reviving and polishing-up the Conservative Party’s ill-conceived election proposal to end taxation of individual capital gains if the proceeds are re-invested. Light taxation of capital gains compared to wages is undoubtedly a gift to the rich. In the 2003 […]
Read moreIncome Trust Conversions: Estimated Federal and Provincial Revenue Effects By Jack M. Mintz (1) The recent announcements by TELUS and BCE have given rise to the question as to how much federal and provincial taxes have been reduced by corporations converting into income trusts. Since the time of my last estimate of about $500 million in the fall of 2004 […]
Read moreJust weeks ago it was Telus that was the biggest ever conversion to an income trust. Now BCE jumps to the top. This mania for income trusts has me wondering how the rash of conversions from corporate entities to income trusts can make good economic sense. Income trusts are clearly a vehicle by which corporate taxes can be avoided, that […]
Read moreThe Howe released today yet another study on marginal effective tax rates on business (METRs) by Jack Mintz today, this time calculating METRs for many countries. http://www.cdhowe.org/pdf/ebrief_34.pdf The CD Howe’s METR findings and methodology seem to be taken at face-value almost universally these days eg cited by the Department of Finance and the latest OECD Economic Review of Canada. Yet […]
Read more