Taxes

The Case for Replacing British Columbia’s Inefficient Provincial Sales Tax with a Made-in-BC VAT is a new study that finds replacing the current B.C. Provincial Sales Tax with a Harmonized Sales Tax (or a Value Added Tax) would reduce taxes on business inputs, particularly machinery and equipment, which discourages investment, lowers productivity, and slows economic growth. Removing this tax on machinery and equipment could increase annual incomes in B.C. by an estimated $700 to $1,700 per worker.

Personal Income Tax Compliance for Canadians: How and at What Cost? uses a new survey and finds that roughly half of tax filers (50 per cent) prepared their 2022 income tax return themselves while more than one third (37 per cent) used a paid tax preparer—the study also suggests that one way to reduce these compliance costs is to produce prefilled income tax reports for Canadians, streamlining the process for taxpayers and saving them both time and money.