The evidence is irrefutable: corporate taxes kill jobs and raises costs

[Anonymous]

Doug Ford campaigned on lowering Ontario's corporate tax rate, but abandoned the idea. Alberta is moving ahead with it's plan to reduce corporate taxes from 12 to 8 per cent over their first mandate. Doug Ford should follow Kenney's example.



By Matthew Lau of the Frontier Centre for public policy



The economic benefits of cutting corporate taxes are significant. Since taxes discourage investment and economic production, every $1 raised by government through taxes costs the private sector more than $1. The cost to society of raising an additional $1 of revenues through provincial corporate taxes, according to a study in 2016 by fiscal economists Ergete Ferede and Bev Dahlby, is $2.91 in Alberta and $5.21 in Ontario.



These costs are borne in large part by workers in the form of reduced wages. Another study by Kenneth J. Mckenzie and Ergete Ferede in 2017 estimated that cutting corporate taxes by $1 would raise workers' incomes by $1.52 in Alberta and $1.97 in Ontario.



Clearly, the Ontario government's decision to abandon its corporate tax cut is a costly one for workers. Meanwhile, Alberta's plan to cut corporate taxes is likely to increase employment by about 55,000 jobs, according to economist Jack Mintz.

[Anonymous]

The former NDP government raised our corporate tax rate from ten to twelve per cent..



Jobs and investment left Alberta, and deficits went way up.

[Anonymous]

I don't know about corporate taxation. I know it aint going away ever.

[Thiel]

Corporate taxes are the most harmful type of tax. Workers bear a portion of the burden, with consumers bearing the rest.

[Anonymous]

Corporate taxes are the most harmful type of tax. Workers bear a portion of the burden, with consumers bearing the rest.

My pension fund is invested in corporations..



Does a higher or lower corporate tax rate affect my pension?

[Anonymous]

Corporate taxes are the most harmful type of tax. Workers bear a portion of the burden, with consumers bearing the rest.

My pension fund is invested in corporations..



Does a higher or lower corporate tax rate affect my pension?

Where is the Korean nerd.

[Anonymous]

Unfortunately, the corporate income tax is often the favorite tax of fiscally irresponsible politicians because it is not easily seen. In fact, the corporate tax is paid by workers in lower wages and fewer new jobs, by consumers in higher prices and by savers and investors in lower rates of return. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), based in Paris and not known for favoring lower taxes, published a study, "Tax and Economic Growth," which provides more evidence that the corporate income tax interferes most (as compared with other taxes) with proper resource allocation, productivity growth, and economic efficiency.

[Anonymous]

There are two things about the far left that I don't get. Their belief in the fantasy that wind and solar can replace the global electricity grid, and that lowering corporate taxes is a giveaway to companies. I don't know how many jobs a cut in corporate taxes may create. It depends on so many variables. But, I do know that when corporate taxes go up, pension plan profitability goes down and so do our returns, Even if you don't have a company or public sector defined benefit pension plan, you probably invest for your retirement.



Corporate taxation is the most inefficient form of revenue besides a carbon tax. It is a tax on retiring. The Alberta NDP did not help anybody when they raised the corporate tax rate twenty per cent.



Alberta NDP Wants To Keep Corporate Taxes High



Lowering the province's corporate income tax rate to eight per cent from 12 per cent was a key UCP election platform promise



The government has touted an analysis by university of Calgary economics professors Bev dahlby and Ergete Ferede, which predicted the cuts will lead to the creation of 55,000 more jobs in alberta by 2023.



The professors have since updated their analysis to predict 58,000 more jobs by 2023 and a boost to per capita GDP attributable to the tax policy.



The april 2 finance ministry briefing note, obtained by the alberta Federation of Labour through a freedom of information request and shared by the NDP, says the effects of corporate tax changes vary in different provinces and that alberta's high dependence on oil and gas revenues make it distinct from other jurisdictions.

[Anonymous]

It seems the Alberta NDP doesn't understand what a give-away is. Just like Justin Trudeau's Liberals, they actually gave away billions of dollars that did not belong to them.



NOT A 'GIVEAWAY'

Despite what Alberta NDP claims, taxing corporations less simply lets them keep their own money



By Lorne Gunter of Sun News Media



Let's start by understanding one thing: You cannot give away something that doesn't belong to you in the first place.



Wednesday afternoon, for about the hundredth time since last spring, the NDP claimed public services were being put a risk by the UCP government's reduction in the corporate tax rate from 12 per cent to eight per cent.



This time it was former labour minister Christina Gray and former deputy premier Sarah Hoffman who claimed in an email to supporters that "when Jason Kenney chose to give away $4,700,000,000 to corporations that didn't need it he knew that would mean cuts in our classrooms."



I'll get back to Gray's and Hoffman's spurious claim that after four years of the Notley government — four years of bankruptcies, layoffs, scale-backs and recession — the province's companies didn't need some relief from their tax burden.



But let's start with the fundamentals.



Governments can't "give away" something they didn't possess in the first place.



[size=150]Not taxing away billions from Alberta companies is far, far different from giving away $4.7 billion in subsidies, handouts and government cheques[/size]. That is, unless it's your belief that all the money belongs to government to begin with and that pubic claims on every dollar are always superior to private ones.



If you believe that all the money is the government's, and individuals and companies should be grateful for whatever they are allowed to keep, then maybe the NDP claim that the Kenney government is giving away billions makes sense to you.



When it comes to corporate giveaways, however, it was the NDP who were the masters.



They gave away billions to utilities to shutter coal-fired power plants and hundreds of millions more to try to soften the blow to coal workers and coal towns.



They gave nearly $2 billion to compensate for cancelled power contracts — contracts that were cancelled because the NDP's new emissions taxes made them suddenly uneconomical.



The NDP played winners-and-losers in picking "green" businesses to receive hundreds of millions in direct subsidies to make their unaffordable products and services — like home rooftop solar panels — attractive to consumers.



And they were ready to spend hundreds of millions more for wind turbines and solar farms on a huge scale.



They were even prepared to give handsome direct payments of taxpayer dollars to a bitumen upgrader in Strathcona County that had been turned down more times than a hotel bed.



Of course, in order finance all these corporate giveaways — real, actual, tangible giveaways — the NDP didn't try to control spending in other areas. They simply ran up the four largest deficits in the province's history and increased provincial debt by more than fourfold.



But my biggest irritation with the NDP's "giveaway" claim is the notion that every dollar left in a taxpayer's pocket (whether an individual taxpayer or a corporation) is a dollar stolen from the government and the public sector.



Who works for whom? During the four years of NDP government, the public sector in Alberta grew uncontrollably. Spending went from less than $48 billion a year to more than $55 billion. Much of the extra was for more public servants and continued pay raises.



Meanwhile, private-sector wages fell by eight per cent during the NDP's tenure and a net 60,000 private-sector jobs were lost.



On top of the unemployment, 100,000 private-sector workers lost jobs paying more than $30 an hour, but were hired back to jobs making less than that.



There wasn't a single layoff or pay cut for provincial government workers.



As to the NDP contention that corporations "didn't need" the UCP tax cut: Under the NDP, corporate revenues fall by more than $40 billion a year.



'Nuff said.