Marking 20 years
of bold journalism,
reader supported.
Analysis
Politics
Election 2021

Tax the Rich, and Don’t Be Shy About It

Turn it up slightly higher than what parties currently propose, and we could raise enough to achieve huge things.

Alex Hemingway 15 Sep 2021TheTyee.ca

Alex Hemingway is a senior economist at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, B.C. office.

Amid a rise in extreme inequality, the idea of an annual tax on the wealth of the super-rich has risen to prominence in recent years in many countries. New analysis shows that a robust wealth tax in Canada — one that goes further than those currently on the table in the federal election — could raise well over a quarter of a trillion dollars in revenue during the next decade.

During the pandemic, billionaire wealth skyrocketed globally and in Canada, major gaps in social investment were exposed, and large emergency expenditures provided a critical lifeline — raising the question of how concentrated wealth might be tapped to raise more public revenue going forward.

Recent polling suggests that a wealth tax is a striking point of unity among the Canadian public, with the policy garnering 89 per cent support overall, including 83 per cent of Conservative voters. It’s equally striking that a near-consensus among the public has translated so unevenly to the party platforms.

The federal NDP is proposing a one per cent annual tax on net wealth over $10 million in its 2021 election platform, though this is more modest than wealth taxes proposed by Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders in the United States, who would apply rates on the super-rich rising as high as six per cent and eight per cent, respectively. The Green party is backing a smaller wealth tax in its newly released platform, which would apply the one per cent rate to net family wealth over $20 million.

The Liberals, Conservatives and Bloc Québécois opposed a parliamentary motion for a wealth tax last year, though the Bloc’s election platform now backs a one-time wealth tax but not an ongoing one.

The focus of this analysis is on wealth taxes specifically, but it should be noted that the NDP, Greens, Bloc and Liberals each propose additional taxes on the well-to-do, though none of these other policies would raise as much revenue as a wealth tax, nor do they target wealth directly. A suite of policies is needed to tackle extreme inequality and raise public revenue, so adding more tools to the toolbox is welcome.

Prior to the pandemic, wealth inequality in Canada had already reached new extremes. Research from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives showed that by 2016 Canada’s 87 richest families each held, on average, 4,448 times more wealth than the typical family. Together these 87 families held more wealth than the bottom 12 million Canadians combined.

The richest one per cent controlled 26 per cent of Canada’s wealth in 2016, according to a parliamentary budget office report. Recent academic research suggests that figure may be even higher at 29 per cent of wealth.

Speaking of the one per cent, a household in the top one per cent of wealth holders in Canada is not necessarily rich enough to be subject to the proposed wealth taxes. A wealth tax over $10 million would apply to only the richest 0.5 per cent, representing about 75,000 families in total. In other words, these wealth tax proposals apply only to the richest of the rich — but they can still raise significant revenues.

Taxing extreme wealth: room to think bigger

How much revenue could be raised by a more robust annual wealth tax that aims higher than the one per cent rate currently on the table in the federal election, moving closer to some of the more ambitious policies being proposed by some legislators in the United States?

To answer this question, I modelled a moderate wealth tax with three brackets: 1 per cent on net wealth over $10 million; two per cent over $50 million; and three per cent over $100 million.

This wealth tax would go further than the NDP’s proposal (the strongest in the election platforms), which applies a single rate of one per cent on wealth over $10 million. But it remains much lower than the rates of up to six per cent and eight per cent in Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders’ recent policy proposals and draft legislation.

Indeed, more aggressive wealth tax rates like those in the Sanders and Warren proposals should be part of Canada’s debate, too. These more aggressive rates are needed to make a real dent in enormous fortunes and begin to truly deconcentrate extreme wealth rather than simply slow its growth as lower rates would do. Still, for a small country like Canada, acting as a first mover by implementing a wealth tax on the super-rich, imposing more moderate rates rising to three per cent is a sensible place to start.

My revenue projection uses the High-net-worth Family Database from the parliamentary budget office and is informed by the latest research from academic economists specializing in wealth taxes.

Based on conservative assumptions, I estimate that a moderate wealth tax (one per cent over $10 million; two per cent over $50 million; three per cent over $100 million) would raise more than a quarter of a trillion dollars in net public revenue over 10 years, a cumulative total of $363 billion. If the tax were in place today, it would raise an estimated $28 billion in its first year, with revenues rising annually to $46 billion by its tenth year.

To put this in perspective, $28 billion is approximately what it would cost to pay for universal pharmacare, $10-a-day child care and eliminating tuition fees for post-secondary education combined, which would each have knock-on benefits for the economy and household budgets.

The NDP’s modest one per cent tax on wealth over $10 million would raise less revenue, but still a very substantial amount. If the tax were in place today, it would raise $17 billion in its first year, rising to $26 billion in its tenth year, with a cumulative total of $218 billion over the 10-year budgetary window. The Green party’s smaller wealth tax would raise $12 billion in its first year and $157 billion over the 10-year window.

Allowing tax avoidance and evasion: a political choice

By relying on more up-to-date research from academic economists specializing in wealth taxation, I arrive at a higher revenue estimate than the PBO’s estimate for year one of the NDP proposal of $10.9 billion. The PBO assumes a very high level of tax avoidance and evasion that is not consistent with the most recent academic research on wealth taxes. This includes key work by economists Gabriel Zucman and Emmanuel Saez, who analyzed the revenue potential of Warren and Sanders’ wealth taxes, and the U.K. Wealth Tax Commission based out of the London School of Economics.

Would Canada’s super-rich flee the country to avoid a wealth tax? Some may, but a well-designed wealth tax will not allow them to dodge their tax obligations in this way. As in the Warren and Sanders wealth tax proposals, a steep “exit tax” should be applied on expatriation, in recognition of Canadian society’s contributions to these fortunes. Exit tax rates are set at 40 per cent in the Warren and Sanders plans and could be set even higher. The Wealth Tax Commission suggests a similar policy option in which wealth tax obligations continue to apply to the super rich for a set number of years after emigration.

As Saez and Zucman emphasize, levels of tax avoidance and evasion are policy choices. Ramping up tax enforcement and cracking down on avoidance and evasion is not only possible, but also critical to making a wealth tax work. The good news is that we already largely know how to do it.

Key measures include increasing funding for enforcement efforts focused on the rich, steeper penalties for tax cheats, enforcement against financial services providers that help enable evasion, and imposing stronger transparency and third-party reporting requirements on financial institutions doing business with Canada. Focusing a wealth tax on a narrow band of the richest 0.5 per cent also helps facilitate a high rate of compliance audits. The growing body of research on wealth taxes outlines the practicalities of enforcement in more detail. The key barriers to wealth taxes are not technical or economic, but political.

Analysis from the PBO also reinforces the effectiveness of stepping up enforcement efforts in the existing tax system. It estimates that recent federal investments in business tax enforcement alone (which are modest and should go further) have brought in nearly six dollars for each dollar spent on enforcement, plus a further boon to provincial revenues. New election platform analyses from the PBO project that further enforcement against tax evasion and avoidance would generate multi-billion dollar payoffs in revenue, at a similar rate of return, something multiple party platforms tap into as a revenue source.

Taking back wealth to fund the public good

There is a huge backlog of badly needed public investments in this country, which can help us tackle major challenges: unaffordable child care, climate crisis, scarce and unaffordable housing, millions living on incomes below the poverty line, and major deficiencies in seniors’ care, among many others.

Canada is more than rich enough to meet these challenges. But we need to harness our national wealth, which all of us have a hand in creating, and direct more of it into investments for the common good. A wealth tax on the super-rich could play a major role in financing sustained social and environmental investments after the pandemic, which would enhance economic growth and strengthen the foundations of a healthy economy and society for the long term.

Of course, the wealthy in this country are influential and will fight to block such a policy from being enacted. They may succeed unless — building on extraordinary levels of public support and the lessons of social movement history — people organize from below to take on the power of organized money.  [Tyee]

Read more: Politics, Election 2021

  • Share:

Facts matter. Get The Tyee's in-depth journalism delivered to your inbox for free

Tyee Commenting Guidelines

Comments that violate guidelines risk being deleted, and violations may result in a temporary or permanent user ban. Maintain the spirit of good conversation to stay in the discussion.
*Please note The Tyee is not a forum for spreading misinformation about COVID-19, denying its existence or minimizing its risk to public health.

Do:

  • Be thoughtful about how your words may affect the communities you are addressing. Language matters
  • Challenge arguments, not commenters
  • Flag trolls and guideline violations
  • Treat all with respect and curiosity, learn from differences of opinion
  • Verify facts, debunk rumours, point out logical fallacies
  • Add context and background
  • Note typos and reporting blind spots
  • Stay on topic

Do not:

  • Use sexist, classist, racist, homophobic or transphobic language
  • Ridicule, misgender, bully, threaten, name call, troll or wish harm on others
  • Personally attack authors or contributors
  • Spread misinformation or perpetuate conspiracies
  • Libel, defame or publish falsehoods
  • Attempt to guess other commenters’ real-life identities
  • Post links without providing context

LATEST STORIES

The Barometer

Do You Think Naheed Nenshi Will Win the Alberta NDP Leadership Race?

Take this week's poll