Finn Poschmann

C.D. Howe Institute · Research

Low income seniors face extremely heavy tax burdens across Canada, according to a new C.D. Howe Institute report. In “Who Loses Most? The Impact of Taxes and Transfers on Retirement Incomes,” authors Finn Poschmann and Alexandre Laurin show that seniors can be hit hard by taxes and benefit clawbacks in retirement.

Ontario faces a $19.7 billion unfunded liability at its Workplace Safety Insurance Board (WSIB) based on a fair-value accounting approach. In the report, the authors say the WSIB, which levies employer premiums intended to fund benefits for employees injured in the workplace, has a problem that needs addressing: the WSIB's pace of revenue collectio...

The federal government’s role in mortgage markets is pervasive and should be scaled back, while encouraging more competition in the mortgage insurance business, according to this study. The author notes that the mortgage insurance book of Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, CMHC, which is a Crown agency, now backstops mortgage lending equivale...

What impact do the tax systems of Canada’s Western provinces have on families’take-home pay and seniors’ pension income, and how does it compare to other provinces? This report answers the question by looking at marginal effective tax rates (METRs) on personal income, which measure the impact of federal and provincial income taxes combined with red...

The 2011 Canadian federal budget, should it succeed in Parliament, would launch a new strategic spending review, alongside minor cost-cutting initiatives. The fate of the budget balance and the potential for an early return to surplus as envisioned, therefore, depend entirely on the effectiveness of these measures, which cannot be known before next...

Spending restraint is key to achieving a balanced federal budget over the next five years and should form part of Ottawa’s March Budget. This Backgrounder demonstrates how to limit the rise in the federal debt by prudently reining in spending growth rather than raising taxes, so that past and pending improvements to the nation’s tax competitiveness...

Canada’s graduated personal income tax leads most taxpayers to expect higher tax rates when they are working than when they are living on lower incomes from their retirement savings. Yet for many people, marginal effective tax rates on income from retirement savings are higher than those they face during working life. Comparing marginal effective t...

G Go ov ve er rn na an nc ce e a an nd d P Pu ub bl li ic c I In ns st ti it tu ut ti io on ns s Canadian provincial governments have broad authority to impose direct taxes by passing enabling legislation in their respective legislatures. Governments may also use regulation to set fees, for example, to recover the cost of services they provide, but...

Canadian provincial governments have broad authority to impose direct taxes by passing enabling legislation in their respective legislatures. Governments may also use regulation to set fees, for example, to recover the cost of services they provide, but cannot use regulation to impose taxes that raise general revenue. Doing so would be unconstituti...

Unusual economic and political circumstances surround the framing of the 2009 federal budget. A period of global spending outrunning productive capacity has ended with financial crisis and recession in much of the world, Canada included. The sudden slump has prompted demand for, and expectations of, fiscal action.

Putting an end to Ontario’s archaic retail sales tax and adopting a value-added tax like the GST would sharply lower the effective tax rate on new business investment and offer the province a much-needed economic boost.

Debate has intensified in recent years on the advantages and disadvantages of moving towards a full mark-to-market accounting system for banks and insurance companies. The debate has been heated by moves by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and the US Financial Accounting Standards Board to harmonize accounting standards across co...

Near-term turbulence should not distract Ottawa budget-makers from critical long-term tasks. This 2008 shadow federal budget will move Canada a key step forward by providing improved incentives and rewards for Canadians' work and saving, and a more congenial environment for investment and innovation.

Most federal and provincial government benefits for families with children are sharply income-tested. Reductions in these benefits, as family income rises, mean that low-income families face much higher effective tax rates than most others do, and deny such families the full benefit of the broad-based tax rate relief other Canadians have enjoyed in...

Ontario should scrap its antiquated retail sales tax, and opt for a made-in-Ontario valued-added tax (VAT) that would improve fairness, encourage investment and wage growth, and reduce administrative costs for government and for business.

The relative soundness of the Canadian domestic financial system throughout the crisis suggests that Canada’s regulatory framework does not require a major overhaul. But Canada could benefit if other countries introduced reforms to improve their macroeconomic stability. Other reforms are needed.

Saving and investment are critical to Canada's economy. They underpin today's prosperity and will be critical to raising living standards in the future. Growth in Canada's workforce is slowing, and a larger population of older Canadians will soon need pensions and social services. Federal fiscal policy must ensure that the environment in which Cana...

Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty’s March 19 budget included important — and unexpected — proposals that would dramatically reshape income tax rules affecting foreign investment by Canadian corporations. The budget’s proposal to withdraw tax deductibility for interest expenses incurred to finance investments in foreign affiliates is momentous....

Governments in many industrialized nations have made concerted efforts to reduce their immediate expenditures and to reduce the cost of major infrastructure projects. Public–private partnerships (P3s) are one emerging method that might do so. Despite the increased use of P3s, there is little independent research on the effectiveness of P3s as a pub...

Governments in many industrialized nations have made concerted efforts to reduce their direct expenditures. Public-private partnerships (P3s) are one emerging method of doing so. Despite their increased use, little independent research has been conducted on the effectiveness of P3s. This article reviews recent P3 experience in the U.S. and Canada....

The marginal effective tax rate (METR) on personal income, explain the authors, measures the impact, on take-home pay, of federal and provincial income taxes combined with the impact of reductions and clawbacks of income-tested tax credits and benefits as individual or family income rises. These income-tested credits and benefits mostly target fina...

More than a decade after Quebec and the federal government implemented significant personal income tax rate reductions, what has happened to Quebecers’ take-home pay? This paper answers the question by looking at marginal effective tax rates (METRs) on personal income, which measure the impact of federal and provincial income taxes combined with th...

British Columbia is on the right track with its controversial move to a harmonized sales tax (HST), according to this report. The authors say the shift to a value-added tax mirrors patterns in most of the developed world, and helped move the province from being a high tax, investment-unfriendly jurisdiction, to one which is domestically and interna...

A paper prepared for the Panel on the Future Role of Government 4 January 2004 Many rationales exist for addressing apparent market failures with targeted industrial policy measures such as subsidies and sector-specific tax provisions. Precisely identifying problems where analysis of such phenomena as market power, externalities, and information fa...

Joint occupancy of the personal income tax has encouraged Canada's federal government and provincial governments to achieve a high degree of coordination in tax design and administration. Tax collection agreements (TCAs) are one manifestation of this coordination, and they have served to keep tax compliance and administration costs low. Nonetheless...