Measuring the Non-Neutralities of Sales and Excise Taxes in Canada

The paper develops a theoretical framework to measure the effective federal and provincial sales tax rates for final demand commodities. The results show that non-neutralities exist not only in the federal sales tax but also in other taxes in the Canadian commodity tax system. One of the most significant findings is that the combined hidden federal and provincial sales tax content of exports may be as much as 1.3 percent of their sales value.