Tax food!
So say two economists, one in Toronto, the other in Calgary, in a report due out a week from today.
They in fact recommend that the government end all exemptions, including food, from the
Goods and Services Tax (GST).
They say that would garner about $39 billion per year.
That could be used to fund social services or reduce
income taxes or both. Or it could be used to lower the GST, say Michael Smart
of the University of Toronto and Jack Mintz, head of the school of public
policy at the University of Calgary.
The report was commissioned by the school of public policy
and is due to be released Friday.
Other exemptions that would be up for elimination are for
books, financial services and medicines, but food is the main one the
economists say ought to be taxed.
Their recommendations are bound to be controversial, but I rather like the idea of taxing everything equally. If we want to give certain people or things a break, let's do it with a transparent subsidy instead of a tax exemption because that way there will be competition among all of the many things that special interest groups want subsidized.
While they're at it, politicians might reconsider a recommendation made in the 1960s that all tax breaks be eliminated so every dollar, no matter how it is earned, is taxed equally. That might even appeal to the Occupy Movement.
