The COMPAS panel of CEOs and business leaders embraces all the recommendations of the just released C.D. Howe study of corporate tax policy, co-authored by tax scholar Jack Mintz and colleague Duannie Chen. Overwhelming majorities agree that

• The marginal effective tax rate (METR) on corporations should normally be as equal as possible across assets and industries;
  
  
• Ontario’s corporate tax policy is especially problematic because its METR is the highest among the provinces;
  
  
• A priority should be for provinces to cut the corporate income tax rate to 10% so as to bring the total rate to 25%, which would be in line with international trends; and
  
  
• Our governments should equalize taxes across industries so that the Marginal Effective Tax Rate on Capital Investment is not two times or higher in some industries or asset classes than in others.

The only C.D. Howe recommendation that elicits majority backing instead of near consensus support is for all provinces to harmonize sales taxes with the GST.

These are the key findings from this past week’s Internet survey of CEOs and business leaders on the COMPAS panel. The weekly business survey is undertaken for Canadian Business magazine under sponsorship of BDO Dunwoody LLP.