Support Payments and the Personal Income Tax

(1983) 21(4) Osgoode Hall Law Journal 636-700

66 Pages Posted: 2 Mar 2016

See all articles by Richard Krever

Richard Krever

University of Western Australia Law School

Date Written: December 1, 1983

Abstract

While income splitting for tax purposes is not generally allowed in the Canadian income tax system, the tax law does allow persons making support payments to transfer liability for tax on the payments to the recipient of the payments. The Canadian rule was copied from U.S. precedent even though Canada used individuals as the income tax unit while the U.S. had endorsed income splitting through adoption of a marital unit. The paper explores the conceptual arguments for and against income splitting of support payments against the benchmark framework of the goals of the progressive income tax system and notions of personal consumption. It suggests the Canadian rule is inconsistent with the benchmark principles which may explain the absence of similar rules in many other jurisdictions.

Suggested Citation

Krever, Richard, Support Payments and the Personal Income Tax (December 1, 1983). (1983) 21(4) Osgoode Hall Law Journal 636-700, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2739924

Richard Krever (Contact Author)

University of Western Australia Law School ( email )

M253
35 Stirling Highway
Crawley, Western Australia 6009
Australia

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
65
Abstract Views
904
Rank
617,745
PlumX Metrics