The province of Alberta won’t be able to levy more taxes from corporations without also hurting the average citizen, Macdonald-Laurier Institute Senior Fellow Philip Cross tells the Edmonton Journal in a recent story.
The province’s newly-elected NDP government promised in the recent election to raise the corporate tax rate from 10 to 12 per cent.
The problem with governments using corporations to raise revenue, says Cross, is that in the majority of cases an increase in taxes is passed onto others.
Cross identifies three groups that will likely bear the brunt of higher corporate taxes: Shareholders who see lower profits, workers who see lower wages, consumers who pay more for goods and services.
“Two of those three are not going to be good for the average guy on the street”, says Cross.
“So this idea that we’ll just pass taxes on to corporations and we the average person will just dance away from this unhurt isn’t born out”.
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