Canada’s innovation policy framework could be changed for the better. Unfortunately, not all the measures proposed in the Conservative platform offer clear-cut improvements. Read this articleThe Conservative Party’s innovation platform: a mixed bag of good, bad, and indifferent policies
Part II: The underlying problem is the differential that exists today between personal tax rates on taxable dividends as opposed to capital gains. Read this articleSurplus stripping: We need to fix Canada’s tax rules
Part I: A recently approved private member’s bill is deeply flawed and opens the floodgates to aggressive surplus stripping schemes. It should be fixed. Read this articleUPDATE: Surplus stripping and the new, costly tax loophole for intergenerational transfers
The rise of small-business incorporation is suppressing taxable incomes of rich Canadians. The growing gulf between top personal tax rates and the low rates paid by small CCPCs is driving the rise of incorporation. Read this articleAre the rich really getting poorer in Canada?
This is the final commentary in a three-part series examining possible reforms to Canada’s approach to taxing capital income. In this third commentary, I bring the material from the first two commentaries together and describe a tax reform package applied to the two sides of the capital market that would make Canada’s income tax system more attractive when viewed through the lens of the equity-efficiency trade-off. Key to the analysis is the decoupling of the supply and demand sides of the market in a small open economy like Canada. Read this articleThe Taxation of Capital Income in Canada Part III: Bringing it all Together
Federal emergency wage subsidies are poorly targeted, resulting in a fiscal cost of about $14,500 for each person-month of employment saved through the program, or $188,000 per job year. Reductions in subsidy rates which began in September had only small impacts on employment, while reducing the fiscal cost of the program substantially. More recently, the government has backed away from those reforms, freezing subsidy rates and extending the program in 2021. The decision to back away from the September reforms was a mistake and a gradual phaseout of subsidies should start again now. Read this articleNews about CEWS
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 with a tax on “economic rents” earned by businesses can make our tax system more efficient and equitable. Read this articleThe Taxation of Capital Income in Canada Part II: The Corporate Income Tax
Federal emergency wage subsidies are poorly targeted, resulting in a fiscal cost of $25,000 or more for each person-month of employment saved through the program so far. Recent reforms attempt to target subsidies better to reduce fiscal costs, but the new approach creates disincentives for business growth that put the economic recovery at risk. The program should be wound down at the end of the year, and future programs should be designed to direct payments to incremental jobs saved or created by the policy. Read this articleBoos for CEWS
