White Paper on Tax Reform


Book Description

The 1987 tax reform package considered.







Tax Reform in Canada


Book Description

This document contains two papers which address the process of tax reform and its fiscal impacts on families at different levels of income. The first paper, which examines the tax reform process, argues that of the government's three primary objectives in tax reform (efficiency or tax neutrality, equity, and simplicity), concern with efficiency was dominant. The second paper focuses on the concern for tax equity.




A Tale of Two Taxes


Book Description

This book examines the Canadian province of Ontario's 1998 attempt to reform its property tax laws and provides strategies--such as restructuring education finance and introducing a new form of business taxation, at both the provincial and local levels--to help policy makers design a better future.




Canada-U.S. Tax Comparisons


Book Description

In the increasingly global economy, domestic tax policies have taken on a new importance for international economics. This unique volume compares the tax reform experiences of Canada and the United States, two countries with the world's largest bilateral flow of trade and investment. With the signing of the U.S.-Canada Free Trade Agreement and the tax reforms of the 1980s, there has been some harmonization of tax systems. But geographic, cultural, and political characteristics shape distinct national social policies that may impede harmonization. As the U.S. and Canadian economies become even more integrated, differences in tax systems will have important effects, in particular on the relative rates of economic growth. In this timely study, scholars from both countries show that, while the United States and Canada exhibit similar corporate tax structures and income tax systems, they have very different approaches to sales tax and social security taxes. Despite these differences, the two countries generate roughly the same amounts of revenue, produce similar costs of capital, and produce comparable distributions of income.




The Impact and Cost of Taxation in Canada


Book Description

"There is increasing interest in, and recognition of, the need for both tax reduction and tax reform in Canada. This book provides the rationale for tax reform and a road map for that reform. The book includes 5 chapters from leading experts in the field and provides a persuasive, compelling case for tax reform in Canada." "The Impact of Taxes on Economic Behavior by Milagros Palacios and Kumi Harischandra offers a broad overview of the incentive effects associated with taxes that affect our decisions to work more, to save, to invest, and to engage in entrepreneurial activity." "Compliance and Administrative Costs of Taxation in Canada by renowned University of Montreal economics professor Francois Vaillancourt and Jason Clemens provides readers with an understanding of the vast costs associated with administering, and complying with, our current tax system."--BOOK JACKET.




Tax Is Not a Four-Letter Word


Book Description

Taxes connect us to one another, to the common good, and to the future. This is a book about taxes: who pays what and who gets what. More than that, it’s about the role of government, about citizenship and our collective well-being, about the Canada we want. The contributors, leading Canadian practitioners and scholars, explore how taxes have become a political “no-go zone” and how changes in taxation are changing Canada. They challenge the view that any tax is a bad tax and provide broad directions for fairer and smarter approaches. This is a book that will be of interest to anyone concerned with public policy and public affairs, economics, and political science and to anyone interested in challenging the conventional wisdom that lower taxes and smaller government are the cures to what ails us.




Give and Take


Book Description

Can a book about tax history be a page-turner? You wouldn’t think so. But Give and Take is full of surprises. A Canadian millionaire who embraced the new federal income tax in 1917. A socialist hero, J.S. Woodsworth, who deplored the burden of big government. Most surprising of all, Give and Take reveals that taxes deliver something more than armies and schools. They build democracy. Tillotson launches her story with the 1917 war income tax, takes us through the tumultuous tax fights of the interwar years, proceeds to the remaking of income taxation in the 1940s and onwards, and finishes by offering a fresh angle on the fierce conflicts surrounding tax reform in the 1960s. Taxes show us the power of the state, and Canadians often resisted that power, disproving the myth that we have always been good loyalists. But Give and Take is neither a simple tale of tax rebels nor a tirade against the taxman. Tillotson argues that Canadians also made real contributions to democracy when they taxed wisely and paid willingly.




Designing a Tax Administration Reform Strategy


Book Description

Building on previous FAD work in the tax administration field, this paper defines broad criteria for diagnosing the problems in a country’s tax administration and formulating an appropriate reform strategy. To be effective, this strategy should be based on the size of the tax gap and the country’s particular circumstances. This paper discusses some guiding principles which have provided the basis for successful reforms, including: reducing the tax system’s complexity, encouraging taxpayers’ voluntary compliance, differentiating the treatment of taxpayers by their revenue potential, and ensuring the reform’s effective management. Also discussed are specific bottlenecks that hinder the effectiveness of the tax administration’s operations.




The Politics of Taxation in Canada


Book Description

The balancing of government budgets after years of chronic deficits has reopened public debates over tax levels, the size of government and proposals for tax reform. The Politics of Taxation in Canada explains the factors that have shaped the evolution of Canada's tax system since the 1960s and the issues that are likely to challenge governments in coming years. It outlines the nature and objectives of Canada's tax system, the organizational and institutional structures that define and control it, and the political processes that enable politicians to manage policy changes--subject to competing pressures from voters and organized interest groups. Political scientist Geoffrey Hale describes the major elements of Canada's tax system as parts of an "economic constitution" that affects the daily lives of Canadians as much as the political constitution that defines the powers and limits of governments and the rights of citizens. The principles of Canada's tax system reflect a loose and evolving political consensus on social and economic priorities. Hale suggests that to be politically and economically workable, proposals for major tax changes "must begin with the tax system as it is, not as we might wish it to be in the best of all possible worlds."