Economist Milton Friedman once said that he’d never seen a tax cut he didn’t like. The COMPAS business panel shares the perspective of the Nobel laureate.

The CEOs and business leaders on the panel have different opinions about the ideal measures for spurring the economy as opposed to spurring job creation. For economic growth, the ideal measures are cuts to the GST and personal income tax. For job creation, the ideal measures are a cut to corporate income tax and labour law reform to reduce the cost to business of terminations. For job creation, corporate income tax cuts are the only tax measure seen as making a contribution.

The overwhelming majority of the panel wants tax rates reduced to disincentive both individuals and corporations from focusing on ways of cutting their tax bills instead of concentrating on their core productive activities. The ideal rates for removing incentives for tax avoidance and evasion are 34% and 26%, respectively, for individuals and companies, say CEOs and business leaders.

Asked what bothers them most about paying taxes, panellists focus on adscam, corruption, and boondoggles, seen by some as including the gun registry.
Asked what reassures them most about paying taxes, the largest number volunteer that they are reassured by nothing. Others say that they are reassured by the Harper government, honest spending on programs that work (e.g. CPP), and fiscal frugality such as balanced budgets.

These are the key findings from this past week’s survey of the CEO and business leader panel for The Financial Post under sponsorship of BDO Dunwoody LLP.

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