Give and Take
Subtitle: The Citizen-Taxpayer and the Rise of Canadian Democracy
Publisher: University of British Columbia Press
Published: 2017
Language: eng
Number of pages: 448
ISBN-13: 9780774836722
Subjects: Taxation, canada; Democracy, history
Description: "Can a book about tax history be a page-turner? You wouldn't think so. But Give and Take is full of surprises. A Canadian millionaire who embraced the new federal income tax in 1917. A socialist hero, J.S. Woodsworth, who deplored the burden of big government. Most surprising of all, it reveals that taxes deliver something more than armies and schools. They build democracy. Tillotson launches her story with the 1917 war income tax, takes us through the tumultuous tax fights of the interwar years, proceeds to the remaking of income taxation in the 1940s and onwards, and finishes by offering a fresh angle on the fierce conflicts surrounding tax reform in the 1960s. Taxes show us the power of the state, and Canadians often resisted that power, disproving the myth that we have all been good loyalists. But Give and Take is neither a simple tale of tax rebels nor a tirade against the taxman. Canadians also made real contributions to democracy when they taxed wisely and paid willingly. Given that citizens confronting taxes is a sign of a vigorously democratic political life, our unruly tax history should be better known, and perhaps even celebrated."--