Finance committee  Well, we do apply, for example, our top threshold. Indeed, Chris would know this, but I think we're a little out of line with the OECD. I've heard people say that our tax threshold is quite low—and it is low compared with the Americans, but not low compared with the other industr

Finance committee  Yes, I would add a couple of rates at the very top end. Exactly.

Finance committee  There's lots of revenue to be made up there, and our rates—

Finance committee  I like the services they buy for us; we benefit enormously from them.

Finance committee  I have two really quick comments. One is that I don't think the tax had very much to do with it. A whole series of factors led to that growth of direct investment in Ireland. Among many others, they just got their timing right. It just happened to be at the time when these large

Finance committee  No, I don't think it should be a dedicated tax. I think the government should design a tax system that is as equitable and as efficient as possible to collect the amount of revenue they need and then allocate that money to spending programs based upon their priorities. But I don'

Finance committee  Exactly. And indeed, even on EI. I don't understand why we have EI premiums, because it's totally unrelated to the benefits. So you either go to a system where you experience rate, which some people are in favour of.... I'm not. What I would do is take those EI premiums and just

Finance committee  Exactly. Go systematically through them, and if there's no legitimate government objective being served by these tax expenditures—as I say, there are over 150 of them in the act—they should just be taken out.

Finance committee  The only way to reach low-income people is through transfer programs. For example, it would have been much better policy not to reduce the GST but in fact use that revenue to increase the working income supplement, which I think is a very good program and can be substantially inc

Finance committee  Food is exempt. Most of the necessities are exempt. That can't be the justification. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be partisan.

Finance committee  Not surprisingly, I like excise tax. I like all taxes.

Finance committee  Sure. I love paying my taxes. I think they buy us the kind of society I like to live in. I think taxes are useful in terms of getting prices right. If some activity is generating negative externalities, a market economy will only function efficiently if prices reflect the full c

Finance committee  I think pricing carbon and activities that in effect cause social externalities is important. We've got to get the prices right, and therefore I'm not opposed to pricing any product that in effect generates negative externalities by imposing a tax on it. That's what excise taxes

Finance committee  Well, Chair, I'm just using the government's own number. It doesn't cost anything in the first couple of years, or it costs very little, because you don't get an upfront deduction. In effect, you get to put your after-tax savings in and then any income from capital that you earn

Finance committee  It worries me greatly. Here are two fundamental things that are wrong with the plan. It stands tax equity, as we understand it in our income tax system, on its head, because the difference between these prepaid tax savings plans and registered retirement savings plans is that in