Canada among top 10 easiest places to pay corporate taxes: report

Canada remains among the top 10 easiest places in the world to pay corporate taxes, according to the latest ratings by professional services firm PwC and the World Bank Group.

The new joint study ranked Canada eighth for a second year in a row; the United Arab Emirates was first overall, followed by Qatar and Saudi Arabia on the list of 189 countries.

The report ranked countries based on the number of tax payments per year, time taken to compile returns and submit payments and the total tax rate for a hypothetical small- to medium-sized business.

“Within North America, Canada maintains the lowest average total tax rate ranking largely due to its efforts to establish a tax-competitive and business-friendly environment,” Brad Sakich, PwC’s Canadian tax policy leader, said in a statement. “Privately owned small businesses in Canada should take comfort – the ranking demonstrates that Canadian government agencies support and encourage the creation of more such businesses.”

In addition to the total tax on its pre-tax profits, PwC ranked countries on the administrative burden companies face in filing their taxes.

The firm noted that Canada ranked highly due to cuts to corporate income taxes since 2001 and efforts to simplify the tax compliance aspects of running a business.

According to PwC, the typical small- to medium-sized company in Canada has eight tax payments to make a year, takes 131 hours to comply with its tax filings and pays a total tax rate of 24.3 per cent on its profits.

The global average of the 189 economies included in the survey was 26.7 payments a year, 268 hours to compile tax returns and make payments and a total tax rate of 43.1 per cent.

Canada ranked ahead of many of its direct competitors including the United Kingdom, which was 14th, and the U.S. at 64th.