Canadian oil profits for the Big 4 are set to soar as the US/Israel strikes on Iran rattle global markets. 📈
While prices spike, Cdn producers could reap a "risk premium." We should tax these windfall profits to invest in future-proof, climate-resilient energy.
We need a windfall tax on O&G now.
Moreover, wealth and political power are closely connected. If we want to strengthen our sovereignty and democracy, we cannot allow wealth and power to become more and more concentrated in the hands of the few. We are witnessing the consequences of extreme inequality south of the border right now…
The average wealth of a family in the wealthiest 0.01% was $448.5 million in 2023, 4,041 times more than the average wealth of a family in the least wealthy 50%.
At the very top, 1,685 families had an average of $448 million in wealth in 2023, 4,041x more than the average family in the bottom 50%.
We should be concerned about wealth concentration because it reflects resources that could be used to alleviate rising poverty and food insecurity.
The wealth share of the wealthiest 1% of families increased from 19.3% in 1999 to 22.7% in 2023
Since 1999, the wealth of the wealthiest 1% has increased by $3 trillion while the wealth of half of Canadian families increased by only $757 billion. To return to the wealth distribution of 1999, the top 1% would have to give $557 billion, or $33,500 per family, to the rest of us.
This may even be an underestimate (the PBO estimated a top 1% wealth share of 23.8% in 2023) but, importantly, we use a consistent methodology to estimate the wealth distribution over a period of 24 years, allowing us to show how the wealth distribution changed since the turn of the century.
🚨NEW REPORT:
Our new report, along with our friends at BC Policy Solutions, estimates wealth concentration in Canada from 1999-2023. We find that the share of wealth owned by the top 1% increased from 19.3% to 22.7% over this period.
www.taxfairness.ca/en/resources...
L'article est aussi disponible en français ici: iris-recherche.qc.ca/blogue/etat-...
My latest for CCPA is actually not about taxes! But amidst the celebration of Carney's Davos speech, his government is continuing to make very concerning moves you probably haven't heard about...
It's in Division 5 Part 5 and page numbers are in the pdf version which is linked in the top right
No end is in sight for the race to the bottom on corporate taxation shown below. The OECD confirmed today that US multinationals will be exempt from the GMT agreement and created a new carveout for tax credits, meaning even the meagre 15% rate is unlikely to apply to most multinationals in Canada
The surge in corporate profit rates that began during COVID has never ended - a greater share of corporate revenue is profits than ever before, and we are taxing those profits less than ever. No wonder CEO pay has hit another record high!
3) The elimination of the underused housing tax and the luxury tax is a win for the ultra-rich and housing speculators. Although they may not have raised lots of revenue, that wasn't their main purpose - it was to prevent housing speculation and spending on luxury goods rather than real investment
2) The massive new/extended tax breaks for corporations are expected to cause a huge shift in the tax burden from corporations to individuals. Over the next 5 years personal income tax and sales tax revenue will increase by 15% while corporate income tax revenue is projected to decline slightly
More concerns with the budget implementation bill:
1) Even though the partial closure of the capital gains loophole was canceled, they are moving ahead with increasing the lifetime capital gains exemption, so the net effect of this whole saga will now be due to further REDUCE cap gains taxation
Where is the critical coverage of the budget implementation bill? It allows ministers to exempt ANY entity from ANY federal law (except the criminal code). The CCF says this gives ministers the power to "act like dictators" yet I haven't seen a single English-language media outlet cover this
As the federal gov inconceivably lifts regulations on oil and gas and lays the groundwork for a new pipeline, a reminder that our recent research found "Canada's" O&G industry's recent expansion increased payouts to foreign shareholders without adding any new jobs www.taxfairness.ca/en/resources...
the "tax the billionaires" political refrain is Good Actually in part because it is a call for the people at the top to actually be constrained by rules informed by the public interest, a virtue that fingerwagging correctives about how much revenue such taxes would *really* generate doesn't address
In our latest for The Breach, Jared and I do a deep dive on how continued tax haven abuse is not just despite our government policy - it's because of our government policy.
Great to see income inequality getting the in-depth coverage it deserves! When we think about economic policy, we need to think not just about growth, but about how economic growth will be distributed - too often it has benefitted shareholders and CEOs, not workers.
In total, estimates suggest tax havens cost Canada $15B annually, enough to fund our new dental care program and a true single-payer pharmacare program. It is high time our government takes this problem seriously and commits to close these loopholes for good.
The use of tax havens is not just due to a few bad apples. We found that over three quarters of S&P/TSX 60 firms have at least one subsidiary in a tax haven, and the real number is likely even higher. Through differences in foreign tax rates, these firms avoided $7B in taxes in 2024.
After Canada signed tax information exchange agreements with five tax havens, granting foreign subsidiaries in those countries the ability to return profits to Canada tax-free, Canadian investment to those tax havens exploded
Asset shifting to tax havens has expanded because successive governments have expanded a loophole that allows companies to return profits to Canada tax-free. After this loophole was expanded to 5 tax havens in the early 2010s, an additional $47.1B was shifted to these countries in the next 5 years
After decades of international cooperation and the domestic implementation of a global minimum corporate tax, the use of tax havens must be declining, right?
Actually, our new report finds Canadian assets in tax havens hit a record $682B in 2024, up 165% from 2014 www.taxfairness.ca/en/resources...
When asked about preventing corporate tax avoidance, Carney promised to review the corporate tax system but failed to commit to any meaningful action to stop the use of tax havens. With @c4tf.bsky.social, I explained why all parties need to address this now: www.taxfairness.ca/en/resources...
We could start by shifting the tax burden back towards the top 1%, who currently pay a total tax rate about half the rate of a median earner in Canada.
Since 1982, the after-tax incomes of the top 1% have increased by 511% and the top 0.01% have increased of 942%.
If we are to truly solve the affordability crisis, we must move beyond a narrow focus on GDP growth and ensure policies benefit those most directly impacted by the affordability crisis.
During the neoliberal era, Canada’s economic growth has been disproportionately captured by the top 1%. After-tax incomes for half of Canadians have increased at less than half the rate of GDP growth. The difference has gone to the top 1%.
While affordability concerns heightened during the pandemic, they were not new...
Half of Canadians’ market incomes increased less than the cost of living from 1982 to 2022. Shelter costs increased from 23.4% of a typical household’s budget in 1982 to 31.4%.
www.taxfairness.ca/en/resources...
