business taxes

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"Income tax has made more liars out of the American people than golf," said the American humourist Will Rogers. Indeed, but let’s not stop there. In Canada, debates over taxes, government and civilization lead some journalists and others into the land of make-believe, this by setting up straw men to knock down.

For example, consider a recent CBC story headlined "Not all business people hate taxes - but just try to get them to admit it."

To which one can only say: This is news?


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One item sorely missing from Finance Minister Mike de Jong’s recent provincial budget was a plan to make BC’s business taxes more competitive and attractive for investment.


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Last month, British Columbia’s Expert Panel on Business Taxation delivered its much anticipated final report (at least among us policy wonks). Unfortunately, the report garnered little media attention and failed to spark much debate about BC’s tax competitiveness.

The Expert Panel was appointed early this year by then-Finance Minister Kevin Falcon; it was made up of a cross-section of people from business, academia, and government to provide recommendations on how BC’s business taxes could be made more competitive given the return of the PST in 2013.