Cutting corporate taxes not a political issue
Ontario (Canada's Taxachusetts) a notable holdout on tax cuts
Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty was in Manhattan, New York yesterday to specifically outline Canada's fiscal achievements as well as to promote his country as a sound place to invest and do business globally. And to nobody's surprise, in his speech, [he] reiterated his position on corporate taxes saying, "lower corporate taxes isn't a political issue, noting that Manitoba's NDP government and Frank McKenna, New Brunswick's former Liberal premier, have come out in support of them."Mary Anastasia O'Grady, a Wall Street Journal columnist and editorial board member, said it best in Political Diary (a daily political e-mail) about the importance of business tax cuts to a country (or region's) overall economic development and competitiveness:
Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty was in New York yesterday to give a speech touting the economic achievements of the relatively new government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper. He stopped by the Journal offices to give a preview. Since coming to office two years ago, Mr. Flaherty told us, the Harper government has succeeded in steadily whacking down the corporate income tax to 18% from 22%, and is headed for 15% by 2012. Aiming for a total tax burden or no more than 25%, Ottawa has also been pushing the provinces to cut their own taxes on business profits. Ontario (Canada's Taxachusetts) has been a notable holdout and some in the Canadian press even accused Mr. Flaherty yesterday of leaving Ontario out of his sales pitch to U.S. investors. Mr. Flaherty joked in return that he was "gently prodding [Provincial] Premier [Dalton] McGuinty in my own subtle way to reduce business taxes."I can only hope that Premier Graham doesn't turn our fiscal well-being into a political football like McGuinty has, especially with a possible recession looming around the corner. Let's just say, yours truly will be eagerly awaiting the recommendations put forward from the much lauded Green report [Mintz report] on tax competitiveness which is scheduled to be released either at the end of the month or early May.Canada's cuts come none too soon. Business tax-cutting has been a global phenomenon, with the OECD countries now averaging less than 27%, down from 38% in 1993 (the U.S. average is 40%). It's also of a piece with the Harper government's broader pro-growth agenda, which includes free trade deals with Colombia, Peru and South Korea and work to speed up transit of goods at the Windsor-Detroit border crossing.
Related: Slow Growth Won't Cause Canada Deficit, Canadian economy resilient, no budget gap, Currency Markets Ignored G-7 Statement, Flaherty to Tighten Regulation of Canadian Banks, Flaherty pulling for ABCP plan
3 Comments:
... Nothing will really change in our country as long as it's finance minister is only "tweaking socialism"- sustaining the belief that it is the role of government to force money from some, to give to others.
... This is the principle behind "corporate" taxes.
... Mr. Flaherty is doing nothing more than any half-conscious Liberal finance minister would do.
Although, I think allowing Canadians to invest up to $5,000 a year in a new Tax-Free Savings Account next year is good policy. I just wish they would stop dinging couples via the tax code and cut taxes across the board, so that everyone gets a break (not a specific demographic).
... nbt... a policy here or there is really meaningless.
... Nothing will really change until we begin to address the principles of things.
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