The World Health Organization has advocated the earmarking of health-related taxes to mobilize revenues to be spent on public health spending. While there are certain advantages and disadvantages in the use of earmarked taxes to fund healthcare, its ability to mobilize revenues will depend on...

This paper examines how the corporate income tax base is to be shared with the proposed global corporate minimum tax, which has been agreed to by more than 130 countries. The aim of the global minimum tax is to reduce the incentive for profit shifting by putting a floor on corporate tax rates so...

With Toronto City Council due to discuss an increase in the land transfer tax (LTT) on highend homes at an upcoming meeting, this independent analysis of the impacts of such a move is intended to help inform the deliberations. In this E-Brief, we evaluate the economic cost of raising LTT...

To put it in simple terms, Canada’s corporate income tax is a mess. It discourages capital investment most heavily in many service sectors, is highly distortionary and overwhelmingly complex, impeding economic growth. With current inflation rates, these distortions are even larger. With so...

In “Damage Control: Options for Reforming the Land Transfer Tax in Manitoba,” authors Bev Dahlby and Jack Mintz examine the land transfer tax in Manitoba and consider three options for its reform. “Compared to other Canadian cities, the land transfer tax in Winnipeg for a property sold at...

Governments, including Canada’s, offer tax benefits to small businesses, such as lower rates, in the belief that these benefits encourage growth, but these attempts can easily have the opposite effect. Small businesses that face steep “tax walls,” meaning a sudden and sharp increase in tax...