Most Canadians who filed their income taxes last month probably came away more convinced than ever that our tax system is way too convoluted and complex.

Earlier this month, I proposed the creation of a new national movement of concerned Canadians from all walks of life who would rally around a set of core principles to boost our economy and improve our country’s living standards. One of those core principles was to simplify our tax system. It’s a winning proposal that Canadians could unite behind. It’s also a reform that our country badly needs.

To simplify our tax system, I propose creating a gradually escalating income tax scale with a clear and logical progression in tax rates. It would be a black-and-white, clear-cut formula that anyone could use to figure out their income taxes. This way, come tax filing time, Canadians would only need two numbers: the tax rate for their income bracket and how much income they earned.

With those two numbers, anyone with a calculator could figure out what they owed in a matter of seconds. And that would be it — no accountants, no tax lawyers, no deductions or expenses, no loopholes for the rich and others looking to dodge paying their taxes. Just a quick calculation and you’re done.

Here’s how the scale would work. Anyone earning income of $100,000 or less would pay 10 per cent. After that, the percentage would climb by one per cent for every $10,000 in income. So, someone earning $120,000 would pay 12 per cent and someone earning $150,000 would pay 15 per cent.

The tax rate would continue to climb by one per cent for every $10,000 in income, all the way up to $200,000, after which it would increase by one per cent for every $20,000 in income. It would continue to progress all the way up to $2 million. Any individual earning over that amount would pay 50 per cent. The higher the income, the higher the rate and the more you pay.

I would also propose taxing income earned through financial transactions, such as buying and selling stocks, at a higher rate.

No matter how you slice it, the undeniable fact is that our tax system is overly complicated, too vague and too difficult to understand. It has become a drag on economic growth, sapping productivity and imposing additional costs and burdens. Our current tax system drains way too much time and money for both businesses and individuals — time and money that could have been better invested in growing the economy.

No society can properly function if its laws become indecipherable. The same holds true for an economy: if the tax laws governing financial transactions are murky, business will bog down.

At the same time, the Canadian tax system requires a huge and always expanding bureaucracy to administer and oversee the giant mess of tax legislation. That means more bureaucracy and higher taxes. During the past eight years alone, the number of employees at the Canada Revenue Agency has shot up nearly 40 per cent and now stands at approximately 55,000.

When it comes to the health of our economy, the measure that has the single greatest bearing is the tax system. It determines whether the economy grows, shrinks or stagnates. That’s why simplifying our tax system is one of the most important of the seven key principles needed to create a healthier and more prosperous country.

Most Canadians would agree that we need a tax system that is totally transparent, simple to administer and easy to understand. It should be black-and-white, with no grey areas or loopholes. And the tax forms should be easy as pie to fill out, taking no more than a few minutes.

If we created a simplified tax system along these lines, we could dramatically reduce government overhead and unclog the arteries of commerce. What are we waiting for?

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