Report on Federal Tax Expenditures 2020 5
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©Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada (2020) All rights reserved All requests for permission to reproduce this document shall be addressed to the Department of Finance Canada. Cette publication est également disponible en français. Cat. No.: F1-47E-PDF ISSN: 1495-737X Table of Contents Preface ............................................................................................................................................ 5 Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 6 Part 1 - Tax Expenditures and the Benchmark Tax System: Concepts and Estimation Methodologies ................................................................................................................................ 7 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................................................................ 9 Tax Expenditures and the Benchmark Tax System ...................................................................................................................... 9 Calculation of the Tax Expenditure Estimates and Projections ........................................................................................... 15 Interpretation of the Estimates and Projections ........................................................................................................................ 17 Gender-based Analysis Plus .............................................................................................................................................................. 21 Additional Resources ............................................................................................................................................................................ 22 Annex—Estimating the Value of Tax Deferrals, Accelerated Depreciation Provisions and Other Timing Preferences ............................................................................................................................................................................................... 23 Part 2 - Tax Expenditure Estimates and Projections ................................................................... 27 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................................................................. 29 Estimates and Projections .................................................................................................................................................................. 30 Background Statistics ........................................................................................................................................................................... 42 Changes to Tax Expenditures Since the 2019 Edition ............................................................................................................. 43 Part 3 - Descriptions of Tax Expenditures .................................................................................... 47 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................................................................. 49 Description of Tax expenditures ...................................................................................................................................................... 53 Additional Information on Relevant Government Programs by Subject ....................................................................... 285 Part 4 - Tax evaluations and research reports ........................................................................... 287 A Profile of Trusts as Taxfilers and Taxpayers .......................................................................................................................... 289 The Refundable Medical Expense Supplement: A Profile of Beneficiaries .................................................................... 307 Gender-Based Analysis Plus of Federal Personal Income Tax Expenditures With Family Components ........... 327 List of Tax Expenditures ............................................................................................................. 347 Preface This document reports on the estimated fiscal cost of federal tax expenditures, sets out the approach used in developing these estimates and projections, and provides detailed information on each tax expenditure. The Department of Finance Canada first reported on federal tax expenditures in 1979, and has published estimates of tax expenditures for personal and corporate income taxes as well as for the Goods and Services Tax (GST) since 1994. Over the years, this report has become a key component of the Government’s reporting on the federal tax system, and has contributed significantly to the public dialogue on federal tax policies—a role it continues to play today. This report is intended to facilitate analysis of the tax expenditures and indicate their role within the tax system. Information provided includes a description of each measure and of its objectives, cost estimates and projections (for 2014 to 2021 in this year’s report), legal references, historical information, as well as references to key federal government spending programs that are relevant to the policy area of tax expenditure to better inform Canadians and Parliamentarians about related programs. The report will continue to be updated every year, providing a convenient, easily accessible point of reference for information on federal tax expenditures. Evaluations and analytical papers addressing specific tax measures or aspects of the tax system are published every year as part of this report. This year’s edition includes a profile of trusts as taxfilers and taxpayers, a profile of the beneficiaries of the Refundable Medical Expense Supplement, and a Gender-based Analysis Plus (GBA+) of tax expenditures with a family component. Also, as part of the Government’s efforts to enhance the reporting on federal tax expenditures, this edition identifies for the first time the income tax expenditures that are available to trusts and provides new estimates of the value of trust tax expenditures when the necessary data is available. Additional information on trust tax expenditures and their estimation can be found in Part 1 of the report. Finally, in order to provide Canadians and Parliamentarians with a broader perspective on government expenditures, the publication of this report will continue to be coordinated with the tabling of the Main Estimates in the House of Commons by the President of the Treasury Board. Disclaimer The descriptions of tax measures contained in this document are intended to provide only a general understanding of how each of the tax measures operates. These descriptions do not replace the relevant legislation or regulations and should not be relied upon by taxpayers in arranging their tax affairs. Taxpayers are invited to contact the Canada Revenue Agency or consult the Agency’s website at www.cra-arc.gc.ca for additional information on the administration of the federal tax system. Report on Federal Tax Expenditures 2020 5 Introduction The principal function of the tax system is to raise the revenues necessary to fund government expenditures. The tax system can also be used to achieve public policy objectives through the application of specific measures such as preferential tax rates, exemptions, deductions, deferrals and tax credits. These measures are often described as “tax expenditures” because they are used to achieve a policy objective that deviates from the core function of the tax system, at the cost of lower tax revenues. Tax expenditure reporting is considered an international best practice to foster government budgetary and fiscal transparency. The International Monetary Fund and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development have both issued guidelines that provide for the annual reporting of the cost of tax expenditures.1 This report adopts a broad definition of the concept of tax expenditures and provides information on a wide range of federal tax measures that are considered to depart from a “benchmark” tax structure that is characterized only by the most fundamental aspects of a tax system—for instance, the application of a general tax rate to a broadly defined tax base. This broad approach provides greater transparency by ensuring that information is being disclosed on a wide range of tax measures, including measures that may not be considered tax preferences. In addition to providing information on tax expenditures, this report provides information on a number of measures that may be considered part of the benchmark tax system and that are of particular interest from a tax policy perspective. Overall, this report provides information on some 209 different income tax and GST measures. This report is divided into four parts: Part 1 introduces the concepts of “tax expenditure” and “benchmark tax system”, sets out the approach used in estimating and projecting the fiscal cost of federal tax expenditures, and discusses the interpretation of the estimates and projections. Part 2 presents the estimates of the fiscal cost of federal tax expenditures for the years 2014 to 2021 and describes changes that have been made to tax expenditures since the