About Us

We are an independent non-profit devoted to helping people and policymakers understand the tax system. Through research, public education and collaboration, our goal is to advance a tax system that promotes economic growth, shared prosperity and tax fairness.

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Insights

Canada’s tax-deferral boom will cost us billions in revenue. Is the payoff worth the price?

Hitting snooze on the tax bill can be lucrative for taxpayers, but we need to look at the economic impact too.


Five ideas for tax simplicity

A simpler tax system can help regular people pay their taxes accurately, collect their benefits and participate in the fiscal space with confidence. But simplification could also mean removing safeguards or mitigation measures that were put in place to ensure fairness and prevent fraud.


Erin Foggoa, a woman with short red hair and glasses pushed up on her head, stands in front of her abstract paintings.

This mom’s three-year battle for disability tax credit reveals a support system in crisis

Foggoa is persistent, but any one of those barriers would prompt most of us to abandon the process. And in fact, just 17 per cent of those who start the digital application process for the DTC actually finish and press “send,” according to new research from the Canadian Tax Observatory.


The Fair and Accountable Canadian Taxation (FACT) Partnership is a new collaboration bringing together academics and public policy practitioners to inform and deepen Canada’s discussions about fair taxation.

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Researchers at the University of Calgary, Carleton University and Universite de Sherbrooke are working with the Canadian Tax Observatory and Social Capital Partners to produce and share rigorous research and accessible evidence on the fairness and accountability of Canada’s tax system.

The three-year collaboration is partly funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. Our first package of material proposes a new framework to evaluate the full value of changes in the tax system.

Research

Five ideas for tax simplicity

A simpler tax system can help regular people pay their taxes accurately, collect their benefits and participate in the fiscal space with confidence. But simplification could also mean removing safeguards or mitigation measures that were put in place to ensure fairness and prevent fraud.


Cover of Hitting Snooze on the Tax Bill: Understanding tax deferrals in Canada, full report by Jean-François Ruel, October 2026.

Hitting Snooze on the Tax Bill: Understanding tax deferrals in Canada

Tax deferrals let Canadians act now and pay tax later, but they don’t always serve their purpose. Hitting Snooze on the Tax Bill sorts Canada’s tax deferrals into seven families and sets out where closer scrutiny is needed: capital gains, passive corporate investments and estate arrangements.


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Have feedback on the work we are doing? Interested in collaborating? We want to hear from you.

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Through solid, independent research and non-partisan public engagement, we aim to encourage fresh thinking that leads to practical solutions on tax policy.

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