Policies to increase taxes on the rich are often proposed, but penalizing those who create wealth doesn’t pay in the long term and could threaten Canadian prosperity, according to a recent study by an independent public policy think tank.
Titled “Choking Hazard: The Adverse Effects of ‘Eat the Rich’ Policies” and conducted by the Montreal Economic Institute (MEI), the study looks at four fiscal measures that are regularly recommended for raising taxes on the rich and how they can result in the opposite of their intended affect.
“The point here is not to defend the rich, but it must be understood that by increasing the tax burden, the government would push economic actors to invest less, to work less, to move, and to export their capital and wealth,” Valentin Petkantchin, economist and VP of research at MEI, said in a press release….