Navigating Disruption: The Politics of Business Tax Reform as Two-Level Game

The author addresses the politics of business taxation and international tax competition as an interactive series of two- (and sometimes multi-) level games embedded in broader debates over international competition for investment and the distribution of fiscal costs and benefits within Canada. Drawing on several international relations theories (neo-institutionalist, public choice, and realist), the author explores the evolution of Canada's business tax system in relation to the evolving systems of other major competitors for international investment, especially the United States--changes that are occurring as part of a wider effort to balance and integrate competing and overlapping objectives of domestic and international economic policies. The author summarizes the historical and contemporary context for international tax competition, particularly with respect to income shifting, macro- and micro-challenges of tax arbitrage, and the tradeoffs involved in managing the domestic politics of taxation. The author concludes by identifying the options available for maintaining domestic fiscal and policy flexibility while responding effectively to growing tax competition, as embodied in the US tax reform of 2017 and other shifts in policy that point to declining political commitment to an open economy paradigm among Canada's major trading partners.