Taxes collected from persons and corporations in Canada
Published on 2019-09-01 in Blog
In 1960 the amounts of taxes by the federal government collected from personal income tax and corporate income tax were almost equal. Today the picture is very different. In 2010 the two were 3:1. But why should we care? Is it “natural” that we collect more taxes from persons than corporations?
I don’t think it is a fair distribution. For every tax dollar collected 75 cents comes from individuals and only 25 cents come from corporations. Especially if we consider the very different way of calculating those income taxes. In personal income tax we can not deduct expenses like mortgage, car loan payment, childcare, etc. and pay taxes on the remainder. We pay taxes on the whole income. Whereas corporations pay taxes only on their net profit, after deducting all kinds of expenses. And just consider the stupendous profits they are making year after year and spending them on buying back their own shares. Isn’t it gross? You can find the data here.
Even the Canadians for Tax Fairness don’t question this unfairness in distribution. In their their 2018-2019 report they only touch on closing loopholes, they are not serious about this.
And, of course, I am not touching here the question of the super rich persons’ fair share from taxes. That is a different matter, but important too.