The numbers speak for themselves. The alternative minimum tax proposals aren't enough to increase the effective tax rate of this class of wealthy taxpayers. So what can you do?
First, you can ask yourselves what the fair share of tax of a taxpayer who earns $12 million a year might be. The tax rate set in our federal tax laws is 33% and 27.5% with the abatement.
If you think that the tax rate stated in our tax legislation reflects society's wishes, then you should take the necessary steps to move closer to it. The current effective tax rate is around 17.5%, as I said in my presentation. It's really important that you take action to make sure the alternative minimum tax works, if you feel that the effective tax rate should be substantially increased to move it closer to the tax rate set forth in our tax legislation.
It's really important to ensure that the alternative minimum tax works because it's what would help to show Canadian taxpayers that our income tax legislation can require wealthy taxpayers to pay their fair share of tax. We don't need a new form of taxation, for example, such as a wealth tax. I'm very much in favour of doing the necessary work to ensure that the alternative minimum tax guarantees that wealthy taxpayers pay their fair share of tax.
Before suggesting that you consider another form of taxation or another tax system that would tax wealth rather than income and increase the complexity of our tax laws, I'd like to ensure that you introduce an effective alternative minimum tax.