Taxation

With the realization that Canada would face unprecedented spending demands, greater even than those faced in the First World War, one bank provided a sober analysis of the problem of growing war debt as it looked early in the Second World War.

This address by G.S. Thorvaldson contrasted wartime, when taxation was a "patriotic duty," and peacetime, when it became "an economic and social problem." He made the case that big corporations stood to gain the most in both contexts.

During the First World War, the property of enemy aliens might be subject to seizure by the federal government - a possibility that generated extra work for the courts and the legal profession.

Originally presented as a temporary wartime measure, the Income War Tax Act of 1917 was viewed as a controversial measure at the time. This digest, offered by R. Easton Burns, a certified accountant, goes through the act clause-by-clause to discuss its full impact on Canadians.

These simple guides were intended to answer the standard questions posed by taxpayers: "Who Pays? How Much? When? Where? How?".

This simple table from 1942 indicated base rates of taxation for working Canadians with up to eight dependents.

This simplified income tax form was intended for workers in lower income brackets and with limited investments.

The most significant change from previous years was that the buidling housing the London office of the Inspector of Income Tax, once known as the Bell Building, had been renamed the Victory Building.

Four years into the Second World War, the federal government had created a tax regime intended to help finance the war without throttling spending and investment.

Basic income tax forms have changed little over the years, although the Second World War brought some special new taxes and deductions.