A majority of Canadians want a simpler tax system.
A survey commissioned by the Certified General Accountants Association of Canada finds more than 62% said that having a simple tax system is important. Canadians also believe the tax system is more complex than it was 10 years ago.
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In addition, more than half of Canadians feel that tailored tax credits have no effect on people’s behaviour and that the credits reward them for things they would do regardless.
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Instead, 68% favour eliminating some tailored tax credits in order to have their overall personal income tax lowered. This shows that Canadians would support government actions on effective tax reform rather than on targeted tax relief measures.
In a recent report, The Canadian Chamber of Commerce identifies Canada’s complex tax system as one of the top 10 barriers to competiveness and the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance (its 2011 report) called for the establishment of an expert panel to review, modernize and simplify the tax system.