Dear ,

With the year winding down, we're reflecting on our most prominent accomplishments of the past 12 months. As passionate problem solvers, we tend to focus on the challenges we face, and sometimes, this comes at the expense of celebrating our successes.

Our team is proud of our role in creating these progressive tax changes - some in the form of baby steps and some in giant leaps - and grateful for your essential support. We are so excited to share our plans to advance tax justice in Canada in 2025, but for now, here is a look back at our top tax fairness wins of 2024.

Katrina Miller,
Executive Director

- Our report with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, Canada’s shift to a more regressive tax system, 2004 to 2022, revealed that contrary to popular assumption, Canada’s tax system is regressive and places the lowest tax burden on its wealthiest citizens. This landmark study showed how, over the course of nearly two decades, Canada’s tax system has increasingly favoured the ultra-rich, contributing to growing income inequality and entrenching a deeply disproportionate distribution of wealth.

- Our Productivity and capital gains inclusion rates report looked at capital gains taxation over forty years and found that there is no correlation between capital gains tax rates and economic productivity. However, there is evidence that income inequality stymies productivity overall. We shut down anti-tax fearmongering and showed that closing loopholes is a more effective way to improve productivity than giving tax breaks to the wealthy.

- With Profits rise as investment stalls in Canada's affordability crisis, we uncovered that 2023 corporate profits were 54% higher than in 2019 while corporate investment remained flat. Our findings dispelled the notion that low corporate taxation leads to greater economic investment and uncovered that Canada’s largest corporations are extracting wealth and funneling them to the richest Canadians.

- In How tax breaks are worsening Canada’s housing affordability crisis, we discovered that while wages increased by only 5% in 2023, rent went up by 8% and real estate profits increased by a staggering 40% above their pre-pandemic average. Tax loopholes have dramatically increased the use of housing as a financial investment, driving up costs and furthering precarity for renters.

- With Taxing excess profits in Canada: An urgent proposal for action, we highlighted that from 2021 through 2023, Canadian corporations collected $441 billion more in profits than expected based on their average profit margin from 2017 to 2020. This sets up a key goal going into the 2025 federal election: an excess profits tax across all sectors is long overdue in Canada and we will continue to provide the numbers to back this up.

Thank you to all of the supporters who fund our work to push back against disinformation with cold, hard facts!

We’ve worked toward a wide range of tax justice aims in 2024, and we are deeply grateful to all of the supporters and allies who helped us achieve these important goals. Looking towards 2025, we're entering the new year with a refreshed resolve to stand up to corporate power and advocate for meaningful tax justice across our country. Pitch in here to help us continue our fight for tax fairness in Canada!

We don't take corporate donations so we can freely demand that corporations pay their fair share. We don't have charitable status so we can hold governments to account. Our research and advocacy work isn't possible without supporters like you. With your help, we can continue fighting for a fairer and more equitable tax system.

Pour recevoir nos courriels en français, veuillez écrire à: communications@taxfairness.ca

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