Commentary
Canadian government support for small and medium-sized businesses includes tax preferences, one of which is the small business deduction. This article argues that there is little evidence supporting the efficacy of the small business deduction, that equivalent benefits are generally not available in other countries, and that the small business…
Today, Finances of the Nation releases an updated and expanded version of its Government Revenue, Expenditure, Assets and Liabilities (REAL) data. Covering 55 fiscal years from 1965/66 to 2019/20, the REAL data give a detailed picture of the finances of federal, provincial, and territorial governments in Canada.
As the Trudeau government prepares its fall fiscal update after months of record spending to address the health and economic crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic, recent progress toward a vaccine should sufficiently mitigate uncertainty to enable a fiscal plan that shows Canadians how Ottawa will achieve its policy goals while…
In the first commentary in this three-part series, I discussed the supply side of the capital market in Canada, and the personal taxation of dividends and capital gains. Here, I turn my attention to the demand side, and the corporate income tax. Specifically, I argue that replacing the current CIT…
In both Canada and the United States, net fiscal transfers across jurisdictions are largely the result of differences in economic strength and demographics, not unequal treatment by the federal government.
Ontario recently published its 2020 budget, and it contained a lot of bad news. The cash deficit will be around $100 billion over the next three years. This commentary examines options for bringing the province back to sustainability by either reducing spending, raising taxes, or some combination of both. The…
This commentary examines the economic effects of the taxation of dividends and capital gains collected via the personal income tax, applied to the supply side of the capital market. I show that taxable dividends and capital gains are highly concentrated at the top of the income distribution, much more so…
Recently, a proposal to end essentially all pandemic-related restrictions on the activities of young and healthy people has attracted significant attention and criticism. This commentary presents data which shed light on the question of whether (public health effects set entirely aside) implementing this type of proposal could actually meaningfully boost…
This Commentary presents calculations of effective marginal tax rates on earned income for recipients of the Canada Recovery Benefit.
Canada’s federal deficit is currently forecasted to be $343 billion in fiscal year 2020-21, or more than 15% of gross domestic product (GDP). Not surprisingly, this deficit and the associated accumulation of debt is attributable to the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Federal budget deficits are, however, expected to continue…
