NDP Offers Clear Choice in Corporate Tax Debate

[Oscar]

NDP Offers Clear Choice in Corporate Tax Debate

[ http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2015/06/29/ND ... ign=290615 ]

New Dems, unlike Tories and Grits, aim to raise rate after years of deep cuts.

By Will McMartin, June 29, 2015 TheTyee.ca

EXCERPT:

Today, on the eve of the 2015 general election, both Harper's Conservatives and Trudeau's Liberals look to campaign on status quo corporate income tax rates, with no new revenues and no new costs.

Mulcair's New Democrats, on the other hand, stand alone in proposing a higher CIT rate, albeit one that keeps Canada competitive with other industrialized countries.

The current difference between the average of the G7 nations (29.9 per cent) and that of Canada and its provinces (26.8 per cent) is 3.1 percentage points.

Erin Weir, a respected economist with the United Steelworkers and a NDP candidate in Regina-Lewvan -- and likely finance minister in a Mulcair government -- has calculated that each one percentage point increase in the CIT rate could generate an additional $1.6 to $1.7 billion annually.

If so, a three-point CIT rate hike might raise about $5 billion per annum -- and still keep Canada below the G7 average.

However, both the New Democrats and Conservatives also are committed to reducing the small-business income tax rate by two points, to nine per cent.

Four years ago, Layton's NDP pegged the cost of that promise at $1 billion annually. Mulcair likely will use a similar number in his 2015 platform.

For their part, the Tories have calculated -- in the Harper government's latest budget -- that the cost of their phased-in small-business rate cuts will be $2.7 billion over the four-year period from 2015/16 to 2019/20.

This fall's federal election promises to be one of the most exciting in a long while -- historic, even.

It remains to be seen, however, whether there will be a single, dominant issue over which politicians will fight, and the election decided.

Could it be corporate taxes?

The topic may not excite too many Canadians, but as recent events have shown, it provides plenty of ammunition for politicians to savage their opponents.