Finance committee  Do I think it's appropriate? I think the way to look at it is to ask what the costs are and what the benefits are. It's a policy analysis approach that applies to this case, as to any other. It's not clear what the costs to the Canadian revenue base are. And it's not clear what e

Finance committee  Can I get a word in here, Mr. Chairman?

Finance committee  Thanks. I just want to point out, on one practical aspect with respect to foreign multinationals, that we literally cannot prevent the double-dip. We can prevent a dip being taken against income earned in Canada through rules roughly like those proposed by the minister. The broa

Finance committee  Good morning, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee. Thank you for inviting me back. I'm only sorry I can't be there in person. One great thing about being down the batting order is that the key background information is all on the table and I can get straight to the meat of

Finance committee  I would have to respond outside the committee framework on that. Thank you.

Finance committee  The honeymoon period, if that's the right phrase, is very much an exercise in line drawing and judgment. I don't think there's any way around that. The four-year period is a reasonable adjustment frame for corporations or affected trusts to rearrange their affairs. To let it drag

Finance committee  The simple point is that in taxable accounts the dividend tax credit mechanism, as it exists, achieves good integration between corporate and personal taxes. It is imperfectly achieved within the tax-exempts, where common shares are not entitled to the gross-up and tax credit mec

Finance committee  Merci, monsieur. Merci, monsieur le président. The simple answer is that the REIT is a little bit different in the sense that it's a passive investment vehicle. It simply did not come into existence in the same way as the modern business trust, or energy trust for that matte

Finance committee  With respect to the taxation of income trusts, very little specifically. There was a change in the thin cap rules later on that would have been helpful if they were extended to trusts and partnerships, as the committee recommended, but there was nothing directly on that score.

Finance committee  I wouldn't want to answer on behalf of the department, but I think it's fairly reasonable to assume that some folks on staff understand how RRSPs work. Now, the key point to make is that this committee has been repeatedly told that various estimates have not taken into account

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thanks to the committee for inviting me back. It is always a pleasure to be here. Today's topic is a fraught one, so it is important, as always, to mention that although I am working in my capacity as research director of the C.D. Howe Institute, I am sp

Finance committee  All other things being equal, lower tax rates probably will tend to lower government revenue. It depends on what the tax is, however, on what activity it is attached to, and on what particular form of tax relief is on offer. Some tax cuts are more likely to stimulate investment

Finance committee  Capital taxes are first on the hit list for economists, simply because they are a penalty on marginal investment in the economy. Of all the forms of tax that are available to a government, it is the one that is most likely to impinge on investments and therefore limit downstream

Finance committee  On tax relief, the first thing to point out is that it's not just an expenditure. It has a payback to federal revenue, and I would say--

Finance committee  It could, in principle, but there are several “ifs” and “buts” attached to that. First of all, notice that I did say a provincial VAT, or value-added tax, but I did not say a provincial GST, because one of the alternatives to contemplate here is that a province would not have t