A Tax Strategy for Ontario

Richard M. Bird () and Thomas A. Wilson ()
Additional contact information
Thomas A. Wilson: International Tax Program, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto

No 407, International Tax Program Papers from International Tax Program, Institute for International Business, Joseph L. Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto

Abstract: This paper begins by comparing the 1967 Smith committee’s three volume report on Ontario taxation with the 1993 report by the Ontario Fair Tax Commission. These two very different investigations of Ontario’s tax structure, produced in two very different economic and political climates, reached surprisingly similar conclusions. Despite their distinct political origins, both reports explicitly recognized that provincial corporate taxation was (and should be) constrained by the taxation of capital in neighboring jurisdictions, and both also argued for more and better use of user charges (and benefit-based taxes). The paper asks: Has anything changed? Does Ontario need to rethink its tax policy in light of today’s circumstances? Our aim is this paper is threefold: 1) to set out the principles and realities that should govern tax policy in Ontario, 2) to provide an empirical framework with respect both to the size of the fiscal task facing the province over the next decade or so and its “fiscal competitiveness”, and 3) to suggest how best to meet the province’s fiscal needs while simultaneously removing tax barriers to competitiveness and achieving such other policy goals as the equitable sharing of the cost of government.

Keywords: Ontario; tax policy; provincial taxation; local taxation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O18 H71 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-acc
Date: 2003-08, Revised 2004-04
View list of references View citations in EconPapers

Published

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.rotman.utoronto.ca/iib/ITP0407.pdf (application/pdf)
http://www.law-lib.utoronto.ca/investing/reports/rp32.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ttp:itpwps:0407

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in International Tax Program Papers from International Tax Program, Institute for International Business, Joseph L. Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto
Contact information at EDIRC.
Series data maintained by Richard Bird ().