Further Thoughts on the Capital Gains Tax

Abstract

The paper illustrates why Canada’s Budget 2024 tax rules do not treat the earners of capital gains uniformly or fairly, because of inflation. The effective tax rates on real capital gains vary substantially among taxpayers depending upon the holding period and the rate of return. Furthermore, capital gain taxes may even create real losses. Uniform inclusion rates applied to nominal capital gains poorly measure real capital gains and typically result in considerable underassessment or overassessment of actual capital gains income (i.e., improvement in purchasing power). An appropriate measure of capital gains should use a cost base adjusted for inflation.