Tax Facts 11

David Robinson, an economics professor, is dean of the Faculty of Social
Sciences at Laurentian University.

The authors of this clearly written, information-packed book remind us
that in 1999, every dollar Canadians earned before “Tax Freedom Day”
on June 27 went to the government. In making the case that government
takes too much, they provide ammunition for conservative politicians but
in addition present a lucid and accurate overview of Canada’s tax
system.

At times the authors are a bit disingenuous. They graph the 40-year
rise in their “Canadian Consumer Tax Index” without adjusting for
inflation. Their most important rhetorical device is to complain about
what we pay without mentioning what we get in return. It is a bit silly
to say my mortgage is bigger without asking whether my income has also
risen, whether I have a bigger house, or whether I have put my children
through university and taken care of my retired parents. To show that
Canadians are paying more for services and for public debt without
asking if they are better off as a result may be politically astute, but
it is also intellectually dishonest.

An appendix presents tables for predicting individual tax levels in
each province. Readers can plug in their age, sex, and other
characteristics to calculate an individualized estimate of their total
tax bill. This is a clever and educational use for the coefficients from
simple regression equations. Although the authors do not provide any
information about how the coefficients were derived, or about the
reliability of the predictions, these tables would make a fine starting
point for a series of lectures on the distribution of the tax burden.