The recent appointment of Michael Sabia as the new Deputy Minister of Finance invites reflection on what his personal experience and evident policy inclinations might mean for the economic reconstruction necessary to recover from the fiscal strains imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. In a former government role and evidently in a prior private business […]
Monthly Archives: December 2020
Key Takeaways from the Report of the UK Wealth Tax Commission
Faced with significant government spending to tackle Covid-19 in the UK, the UK Wealth Tax Commission was set up to explore the desirability and feasibility of a wealth tax. The final report was issued on 9th December 2020.[1] The Evidence Papers are available here.[2] The proposal was to implement a one-off wealth tax of […]
“Modernizing the General Anti-Avoidance Rule” in the Fall Economic Update: Time for An Economic Substance Doctrine?
On November 30, 2020, the Government of Canada released its Fall Economic Statement 2020. The Statement is titled “Supporting Canadians and Fighting COVID-19” and part of Chapter 4 addresses “modernizing anti-avoidance rules”. In one short paragraph, the Government of Canada expresses concerns about any complex tax structure “that does not serve an economic purpose, […]