Tax Law Speaker Series - Fairness, War and the Income Tax in Canada

Event Description:

This presentation will consider the effects of the demands of fairness and of war on the place of the income tax in the modern system of Canadian taxation. It will discuss both the creation of the income tax at the national level in 1917 in the midst of the conscription crisis in the First World War and the transformation of the place of the income tax in the tax system during the Second World War. This includes the 1941 tax rental agreements which mark the beginning of the modern system of federal-provincial financial arrangements. The presentation will also consider the immediate postwar attempt in 1945-6 to create a modern welfare state and the way if foundered, primarily on disagreement about the financial arrangements.

Colin Campbell began his teaching career at Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick as assistant professor of political science before taking his law degree at Western. Following his call to the bar, he practised as a tax partner in the Toronto firm Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP. His practice included tax planning for both corporations and individuals and representing taxpayers before the Tax Court and the Federal court of Appeal. Between 1999 and 2009 he taught at Western Law as an adjunct professor. In 2011, Colin began teaching at Western on a full-time basis as associate professor.

Speaker:

Colin Campbell, B.A. (University of Toronto) 1966; Ph.D. (University of Toronto) 1975; M.Sc. (London School of Economics and Political Science) 1967; LL.B. (University of Western Ontario) 1980; Called to the Bar of Ontario 1982.

The Tax Law and Policy Speaker Series at Allard Law is an academic, interdisciplinary forum for disseminating research on tax law and policy. In past years, the series has featured many leading scholars of tax law and policy from Canada and the rest of the world. The series is often (though not exclusively) held in conjunction with a Tax Policy seminar course offered to UBC law students. Many sessions are open to the public.

Colin has written extensively on both tax planning and tax administration and has a particular interest in tax history. Since 2016 he has been the chair of the Canada Revenue Agency’s Offshore Compliance Advisory Committee. The first volume of his (co-authored with Robert Raizenne) three volume history of Canadian income tax, A History of Canadian Income Tax. Volume 1: The Income War Tax Act 1917-1948 was published jointly by the Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History and the Canadian Tax Foundation in 2022.