THE REPORT OF THE ROYAL COMMISSION ON TAXATION *

I T Is SAFE to say that no nation’s tax system has been subject to an analysis as exhaustive as that of the Carter Commission. The recommendations of the majority of the Commission are bold and extremely far-reaching. To the academic student of taxation they appear to embody virtually all of the reform measures advocated by Professors Henry C. Simons and Robert Murray Haig and most of their followers, buttressed by the tenets of welfare economics and neo-Keynesian fiscal policy. The Commission’s Report is, in consequence, a truly remarkable document, one that provides the critic with few substantial targets for his barbs. Even these few are, more often than not, at least implicitly recognized in the Report and generally remain because the Commission seems to have refrained at some points from pursuing with unrestrained boldness the directions dictated by its own basic premises. It is clearly impossible to summarize, much less evaluate, all of the conclusions and recommendations contained in the six volumes and 2,600 pages of the Report. I shall focus briefly, first, on the objectives set forth by the Commission, then examine those recommendations that seem to me to be of greatest importance, and finally, I shall take issue with the Commission on some of its sins of omission.