Recognizing or Disregarding Close Personal Relationships Among Adults? The Report of the Law Commission of Canada and the Federal Income Tax

Abstract

Beyond Conjugality, the Report of the Law Commission of Canada on close personal relationships among adults, reviews a number of federal statutes in which legal consequences turn on specific kinds of relationships among adults, and it proposes a new methodology for assessing existing or proposed legal rules that employ relational terms in order to accomplish their objectives. This comment on the Report addresses its most significant recommendations regarding personal income taxation and income support in Canada: that the tax credit for spouses and common law partners should be repealed and that the GST credit should be fully individualized. Questioning both of these recommendations, the comment draws some general conclusions on the Report\u27s vision of close personal relationships among adults, at least as these affect issues of income taxation and support