Canada's tax system needs a Big Bang and soon

financialpost.com:

Compared to other Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development countries, Canada relies more on personal taxation revenues, which generally account for about 50 per cent of overall government revenues — that’s a big number — though it varies annually.

Any decrease in personal taxation rates can cause a large reduction in overall tax revenues, which is why the federal government tends to increase personal tax rates, as it did in 2016 when it asked the so-called wealthy to “pay just a little bit more” by introducing an additional taxation bracket.

It is a rare event when governments reduce personal tax rates. In 2016, the purported rationale for the new high tax bracket was to fund a decrease in lower income tax brackets. But the plan — unsurprisingly — turned out to be a revenue loser.

It’s obvious Canada needs tax reform. Practitioners such as myself have been beating this drum for years and years. Extremely poor taxation policy over the past nine years has driven successful Canadians out of Canada. It has created extreme complexity in our taxing statute, which has contributed to the decreased administrative performance by the Canada Revenue Agency. The average accountant and lawyer has a hard time giving proper tax advice because of the complexity, and the average Canadian simply does not understand our taxing statute.

Some economists, such as Jack Mintz, have also been beating the drum that Canada needs tax reform. Mintz has been advocating “Big Bang” corporate tax reform in order to help improve Canada’s sagging economic growth and attract investment.

His proposal is based upon the model of Estonia, but modified for Canadian purposes. It’s a bold recommendation that a new federal government should consider