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24 Tax Memo 1 (1960)

handle is hein.journals/taxmmo24 and id is 1 raw text is: TAX No.24 MEMO October, 1960 What is the Weight of Local Taxation on Business? - A Comparison in 14 Canadian Cities In the majority of Canadian cities the owners and occupants of business properties are subject to two forms of local property taxation:- (1) the owners of all industrial and com- mercial properties pay the usual taxes that are imposed on all types of real property whether of a residential, farm or business nature; and (2) all occupiers of real property who are engaged in any form of business activity in addition pay a business tax. In some municipalities a business is also subject to a miscellaneous assortment of minor taxes, licences or fees and in others a tax is also levied on personal property. In most Canadian urban centres, therefore, the owners and occupiers of business properties are taxed more heavily than the owners and occupiers of other types of real property. But this situation is not always achieved by levying different forms of taxation. Some- times as in all Ontario municipalities and in the City of Halifax a contributing factor is that business properties are subject to a higher rate of real property taxation than is levied on other real property. Revenues from most sources are sepa- rately recorded by the larger municipalities but only a few analyze them to determine the proportion paid by the different types of taxpayer in the municipality, e.g., industrial, commercial, farm or residential. Lacking this basic information an appraisal of the weight of the real property tax and other individual taxes on business is most difficult to make. And for the same reason a meaningful comparison of the total weight of all taxation paid by business in one municipality with that paid in another, particularly when the two munici- palities are in different provinces, is a chal- lenging calculation. During the past few months the Founda- tion has been attempting to make this calcu- lation by studying the incidence of taxation on business in 14 cities across Canada. To pretend that,the Foundation has found a full and proper answer to the vexing question of how to compare the weight of taxation in different municipalities would be presump- tuous. What we believe we have done is to provide a few guides for those who wish to delve more deeply into this extremely interesting and at times rather complicated exercise. Additional copies Of this pamplet are available at 15 cents per coPY. DIAN TAX FOUND2 CA NA ATION