Modernizing Business Taxation

Abstract

The Canadian corporate income tax system is subject to a number of problems that call for fundamental reforms, starting with rethinking the main role of the system. The corporate tax is mainly designed to serve as a withholding device for the personal income tax. It prevents shareholders from sheltering corporate-source earnings from the personal income tax by taxing those earnings at source. Integration of the corporate income tax and of the personal income tax, through the dividend-tax credit and the preferential treatment of capital gains, mitigates the potential for double taxation. We argue that exposure to international capital markets, which implies that the incidence of the corporate tax is largely shifted to labour, and the fact that most capital income can be sheltered from the personal income tax undermine the withholding role of the corporate tax and make integration provisions unnecessary. The current system also leads to distortions in firms’ investment decisions, financing decisions, risk-taking and innovation efforts, and decisions about where to locate business activities and where to report profits. Tax competition and international profit-shifting are also putting downward pressure on tax rates. This Commentary examines these problems and formulates a number of recommendations for reform. The main one involves changing the tax base from shareholder income to above-normal profits, or rents. This could be done with relatively little disruption of the current system by adopting the allowance for corporate equity (ACE) tax system which allows firms to deduct from taxable income the cost of equity financing, in addition to deducting interest on debt. Ideally, this tax base would apply to both incorporated and unincorporated businesses. Adopting the ACE would narrow the tax base, although the potential loss in revenue would be entirely compensated by eliminating the dividend-tax credit and the partial tax exemption of capital gains, as we argue should be done. Our proposed reforms include a number of other elements. First, the territorial approach for taxing international active business income should apply. Second, firms should be allowed to carry forward and backward tax losses at the risk-free interest rate, which would encourage risk-taking and innovation. Third, we recommend maintaining the small business deduction to compensate for the non-refundability of losses, which are more prevalent among small businesses. However, eligibility should be determined on the basis of a lifetime threshold rather than an annual one. Finally, in order to promote innovation, introducing a preferential tax rate for patent income, as well as extending flow-through share financing to investment in small innovative firms, should be considered.