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International trends in tax reform

Many of Canada’s international peers have undertaken comprehensive reforms or full-scale reviews of their tax systems. Canada has yet to join in with a comprehensive review. As a result, there are implications for Canada’s competitiveness.

From the United States to France, the Netherlands and Japan, many of the world’s developed nations and some of Canada’s biggest trading partners have completed or are pursuing major tax reform initiatives. Countries such as the U.K., New Zealand and Australia have put their tax systems up for full-scale reviews.

Comprehensive tax system reviews and more targeted tax reforms help countries to ensure their tax systems continue to meet their fiscal objectives for raising revenues to pay for government programs, attracting investment and promoting economic growth.

In this report, we explore the implications for Canada of not undertaking a tax review while other countries enact major changes, and we investigate the lessons learned from three key comprehensive tax reviews abroad.