The latest issue of the Canadian Tax Foundation’s newsletter, Perspectives on Tax Law and Policy, examines from different perspectives whether Canadian corporate tax rates are too high, too low, or just right. My contribution to the newsletter is linked below. It comes from my perspective that incentives matter very much – we need to […]
Canadian News
Week in Review - June 19, 2020
The United States Withdraws From Global Digital Tax Negotiations: This week in tax news was defined by the US government's decision to withdraw from multilateral international discussions regarding a potential "digital tax" deal, which could result in a wave of new taxes on US tech giants like Amazon, Alphabet Inc. (Google), and Facebook. US […]
Paying for COVID Relief and the State of Corporate Taxation
One of Canada’s most prolific commentators on tax matters in Canada, particularly international tax developments as Canada is affected by them, is Nat Boidman, who practices at Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP in their Montreal office. Nat’s comments regularly are a catalyst for hard thinking about tax matters. In a recent Letter to […]
The Tax Implications of Hiring Remote Employees from Outside of Canada
A popular trend that advertising agencies, startups, and other organizations have adopted (especially with the rise of COVID-19) are remote employees. Software-as-a-service (“SaaS”) tools have made working remotely seamless — to the point that some businesses run 100% remotely with no physical location. Entrepreneurs and their fully remote offices commonly miss the legal implications […]
Performing Functions of Government – What is a Government Instrumentality?
Recently, the Federal Court of Appeal addressed the nature of a government instrumentality. This classification, expressed in various ways in the Income Tax Act, is important because, broadly, governments generally do not tax each other. This is notable in various paragraphs of section 149 of the Act, and is a longstanding exception to the […]
Should Canada Have a Wealth Tax?
Yes. No buts. No ifs. Just when. A minimum set of questions should be asked to decide whether Canada should have a wealth tax. What’s the purpose of a wealth tax? If one thinks a wealth tax is there solely to raise revenue, one just might be disappointed. Don’t get me wrong – it […]
Universal Basic Income: A Fitting Rebuttal to COVID-19’s Economic Consequences?
“A universal basic income seems a fitting rebuttal to the universal hardship wrought by the current pandemic.” The latter statement, which served as the concluding remark in an Macleans opinion piece discussing the legacy of the COVID-19 pandemic, once again adds fuel to the impassioned discourse surrounding the implementation of a universal basic income […]
Wealth Taxes – A Poor Solution for Canada
As a Canadian tax policy commentator, I am troubled when U.S. policy proposals are reflexively promoted by some in Canada, without necessarily examining whether the underlying rationale applies in this country. For example, the wealth tax proposals advocated by Democratic primary candidates Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders were developed in the U.S. context of […]
Eligible Dividend Designations – Let’s Change the Default Rule for Public Corporations and their Subsidiaries
Some of the annoying complexity of our tax system stems from how we integrate corporate taxes and personal taxes when a corporation pays a dividend to an individual shareholder. Our integration system grosses up the dividend (to reflect the assumed amount of income earned by the corporation before its corporate taxes), applies the personal […]
Should the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) be extended a few more months?
That’s a question for the moment for Canada. Headlines like “Extending CERB for months could double $60-billion budget, PBO report suggests” would make deficit hawks scream. In order to start having a meaningful public discourse about this, a minimum set of policy questions is needed to be asked. What’s the policy purpose of Canada […]