OTTAWA, ON: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is calling on Canadian politicians to prioritize tax relief in response to the 2021 International Tax Competitiveness Index that shows Canada’s tax system becoming less competitive. 

“Canada is falling behind our peers on tax competitiveness and that should be a wakeup call for all politicians that want to get our economy firing on all cylinders again,” said Franco Terrazzano, Federal Director with the CTF. “We’re in the bottom half of the pack on tax competitiveness, so our politicians should prioritize tax relief over more government borrowing to recover our economy.”

The Tax Foundation’s 2021 International Tax Competitiveness Index compares tax systems for 37 countries that belong to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.  

Key findings from the report include:

• Canada ranked 20^th (out of 37) on tax competitiveness, which is two spots worse than our 2020 rank;
• Canada ranked 23^rd on business tax competitiveness;
• Canada ranked 27^th on individual tax competitiveness;
• Canada ranked 24^th on property tax competitiveness; and,
• Canada ranked 8^th on consumption tax competitiveness.

The report notes that “some strengths of the Canadian tax system” include the fact that “Canada does not levy wealth, estate, or inheritance taxes.”

“A bright spot for Canada’s competitiveness is that we don’t have a wealth tax, and politicians should avoid this damaging tax as we try to grow our way out of the pandemic downturn,” said Terrazzano. “Instead of more government spending, politicians should let families and businesses keep more of their money to grow the economy.”

You can find the Tax Foundation’s 2021 International Tax Competitiveness Index here