Flaherty's Missed Opportunity

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty’s business tax relief goals are a welcome start to tax relief, but should be accompanied by a broadening of the corporate tax base to make taxes more neutral and fair and enable future reductions, according to a report from the C.D. Howe Institute. In Flaherty’s Missed Opportunity, Duanjie Chen, George Weston Analyst in Tax Policy, says the federal government’s Economic Statement made good progress in October by promising a reduction in federal business tax rates by 2012, from 22.1 percent to 15 percent. Even after this reduction, however, the Canadian effective tax rate on most services will still be sixth highest among the 30 member countries of the OECD.