Government and the Economy--Taxation.

This document examines the current Canadian tax structure, legislation, sources of tax revenues, exemptions, deductions, and tax treaties with foreign countries. Part I reviews the sources of revenue and explains why the tax system is so complex. Among the reasons given for the complexity are that the system must spread the tax load over as many sources as possible and must serve specific objectives such as using gasoline taxes to maintain roads. Questions of who should pay taxes and who actually does pay taxes are briefly covered. Part I concludes with considerations of what the overall character of the tax system should be and discusses exemptions, business taxes, property taxes, and sales taxes. Part II provides a brief outline of the Canadian tax system at three levels of government as it existed at the end of 1977. The governmental levels are federal, provincial, and municipal. Federal tax is broken down into personal income tax and other taxes including sales, petroleum export, air transport, and excise taxes. Custom duties are also considered to be federal taxes. At the provincial level taxes are collected on items such as income, retail sales, gifts, gasoline, alcohol, and tobacco. Municipalities levy taxes against property, tenants, and businesses. They also collect special assessments and charges. In a concluding section tax treaties with other countries are discussed using the Canada-U.S. Tax Convention as an example. (BC)