Mr. Speaker, last weekend, I attended the Canadian Economics Association's annual conference at the University of Ottawa, where we heard from leading professors, including Mike Veall and Michael Wolfson.
They recently co-authored a paper entitled “Piercing the Veil – Private Corporations and the Income of the Affluent”, raising concerns that many of our wealthiest citizens were using Canadian-controlled private corporations to avoid paying personal tax. While rules for professional corporations are set provincially, the tax treatment of these structures is a federal decision.
The House must ensure that everyone pays their fair share of tax. Therefore, I ask the Standing Committee on Finance to undertake a study of measures to ensure that high-income professionals do not use incorporation to avoid personal income tax.