Michael Smart Profile picture
Professor of Economics at the University of Toronto. Co-Director of Finances of the Nation https://t.co/8LIWhQmLky
Mar 22, 2021 8 tweets 2 min read
Sure, if we're going to get serious about capital gains taxation, let's pick on the one asset THAT ALREADY PAYS ANNUAL WEALTH TAX (1/7)

theglobeandmail.com/opinion/editor… A $900,000 house in Toronto sold for $250,000 in 2000, a big gain for sure. But that owner has paid about $125,000 in property taxes and $40,000 in transfer taxes.
Feb 7, 2019 4 tweets 1 min read
I see @jyduclos nodding in the background, so I am pretty sure Trudeau is right, not Poilievre. Sorry, Pierre! Here's are average tax burdens for each 5% of the income distribution. The bottom 40% of taxpayers pay less than 5% of their income in taxes.
Jan 11, 2019 6 tweets 1 min read
Interesting thread from Kevin.

This week I've been looking at data on trust from the General Social Survey 2013 that speaks to some of this. (Working on a new class). Some basic facts from the survey follow ... About 17% of Canadians are mistrust strangers: they "cannot be trusted at all" AND if they found wallet in street would be "very unlikely" to return it.

About 15% of those people are also xenophobes: ppl who speak a foreign language "cannot be trusted at all".
Dec 12, 2018 6 tweets 2 min read
excuse me? ... Here is my paper estimating how Equalization increased provincial tax rates since 1972. Cutting Equalization in half would cause tax rates to fall about 7 percentage points on average in receiving provs…

Gated: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.111…
Ungated: econstor.eu/bitstream/1041…