Last year we noted that, from a tax perspective, the number of proposed changes to the various fiscal Acts (mainly the Income Tax Act and VAT Act) were considerably fewer than in prior years.

INTRODUCTION

This year there are even fewer proposed amendments and they are less wide-ranging. This was not unexpected given that this is an election year, Parliament sitting for a shorter time in the year than usual; the Davis Tax Review Committee is yet to report and it would not be wise to make significant changes before receiving and considering the report; and, it must be said, Treasury has lost a considerable amount of skills in the tax area during this past year, which will obviously impact on their ability to consider and draft the changes.

Contrary to widespread speculation there were no increases in direct taxation, but rather there was some tax relief for individuals, to eliminate the effects of inflation.

A number of the proposed amendments which were announced are of a highly technical nature. We have thus attempted to limit ourselves to matters which are likely to be of more general and widespread interest.

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Written by Ernest Mazansky, Director, Werksmans Tax and Leon Rood, Director, Werksmans Attorneys