Future Directions in Canadian Tax Law Scholarship

Professor Brooks argues that tax law scholarship should be more relevan4 problem-oriented, and interdisciplinary. He suggests not only that a commitment to the university enterprise demands such scholarship, but also that its production is essential in ensuring that law students are educated in a milieu that provides them with an intellectual base for life-long critical reflectiveness about legal institutions, the profession, and their own work

The Changing Structure of the Canadian Tax System: Accommodating the Rich

The Canadian tax system underwent fundamental reform in the late 1980s. The principal effect of this reform has been to disable the tax system as an effective policy instrument for the redistribution of income. The fact that these reforms were an integral part of the larger neoconservative agenda to roll back the economic borders of the state and shift more power from the public to the private sector, is widely acknowledged. This paper simply illustrates how pervasively neoconservative ideology has influenced tax policy analysis. Every traditional objective of the tax system (to assist in reallocating resources, stabilizing the economy, and redistributing income), and every traditional criteria used to evaluate the tax system (equity, neutrality, and simplicity) has been reinterpreted in light of neoconservative doctrine. The changes to the tax system that have been justified by reference to this new orthodoxy have, in the main, accommodated only the rich and economically powerful

Flattening the Claims of the Flat Taxers

The idea that income tax rate brackets should be flattened has gained some support among neoclassical economists, right-wing think-tanks and Canadian politicians. Those propounding the idea argue that flattening the rate structure will simplify the tax system and reduce tax avoidance and evasion. They also argue that it would usher in an era of increased economic prosperity by encouraging talented Canadians to work harder, save and invest more, and remain in Canada. In defending progressive taxation, this article takes issue with each of these claims. It concludes that the fundamental differences between those who support flat taxes and those who support progressive tax rates are their respective views about the ethical justification for the market distribution of income and the need for a relatively equal distribution of economic resources to sustain a vibrant democratic and civic society