Providing a comprehensive group-taxation regime would bring fairness, simplicity and certainty of tax outcome for Canadian corporations. Canada’s current approach leads to higher administrative and transaction costs, unfairness among different types of corporations, uncertainty, and weakened...

The 2015 edition of the C.D. Howe Institute’s annual Shadow Federal Budget lays out a prudent fiscal course in the face of a challenging world economic environment, bolstering the confidence of Canadians in the sustainability of their public finances. It supports economic growth with tax...

Important changes are now underway to Canada Pension Plan “adjustment factors” that will increase the penalty for those who retire before age 65, and will raise the amount of additional CPP benefits available for those who delay retirement beyond 65. The new pension adjustment factors have...

Canada is in the happy position of being able to address its fiscal challenges not just through eliminating deficits, but also by promoting growth in the economy and the tax base. This report takes a two-pronged approach: first, an accelerated plan to achieve budgetary surplus in three years;...

In June 2012, the regulatory framework for a promising new retirement savings vehicle, Pooled Registered Pension Plans (PRPPs), was passed into Canadian federal legislation. The hope is that PRPPs will improve pension coverage and retirement-saving outcomes by reducing costs and improving...

In the 2011 Canadian federal election, the Conservative Party pledged to allow couples with minor children to split up to $50,000 of their incomes each year for tax purposes. Tax savings would arise to the extent that the spouses’ marginal tax rates differ. Advocates of splitting claim an...

The Commentary released today its 2011 federal Shadow Budget with a five-step plan to end the flow of red ink in Ottawa ahead of the government’s five-year timeline. In this paper, the authors show how Ottawa can return to budget surpluses in four years through more ambitious spending...

A key question in Canada’s pensions debate is whether Canadians will be able to maintain their living standards in retirement, and if policy needs to respond to the risk that some will experience painful declines.To date, it has been very difficult to estimate how current trends might affect...

Spending control and greater reliance on their own revenues are more promising responses to provincial budget pressures than higher federal transfers, according to a new report released today by the C.D. Howe Institute. In “Adaptability, Accountability and Sustainability: Intergovernmental...