Alan Macnaughton

Brief biography

Most of my work is on tax policy, especially personal income tax issues such as kiddie tax, the taxation of non-resident athletes and tax relief for medical expenses. I have used analytical modelling, surveys, and simulation of taxpayer behaviour using databases of personal tax returns.

I have been at the University of Waterloo since 1985. I also spent 5 years at the Department of Finance in Ottawa, including one year as Director of Personal Income Tax. This group prepared proposals for changes in personal income tax rules to be included in the annual federal budget.

Education and certifications

Bachelor of Arts (Wilfrid Laurier University)
PhD (University of British Columbia (UBC))

Selected publications

Bauer, Andrew M. and Macnaughton, Alan and Sen, Anindya. 2015. “Income Splitting and Anti-Avoidance Legislation: Evidence from the Canadian 'Kiddie Tax' “. International Tax and Public Finance, 22(6), 909-931. Available at SSRN
Macnaughton, Alan. 2013. "Defer Old Age Security (OAS) to Avoid Clawback," Canadian Tax Highlights, 21(7) (August), 2-3.
Chu, Ling, Alan Macnaughton and Nicole Verlinden. 2010. "Curtailing Income Tax Relief for Cosmetic Medical Expenses" Canadian Tax Journal, 58(3), 529-75.
Macnaughton, Alan. 2010. "Cosmetic Medical Services and Private Health Service Plans (PHSPs)," Canadian Tax Highlights, 18(5) (May), 9-10.
Macnaughton, Alan and Amin Mawani. 2009. "New Tax Savings Opportunity," CA Magazine, (June/July).
Macnaughton, Alan and Amin Mawani. 2009. "CRA: Employee Stock Options and TFSAs," Canadian Tax Highlights, 17(5), 10.
Macnaughton, Alan and Amin Mawani. 2008. "Contributions of Employee Stock Options to Registered Retirement Savings Plans (RRSPs) and TFSAs: Valuation Issues and Policy Anomalies," Canadian Tax Journal, 56(4), 893-922.
Alarie, Benjamin and Alan Macnaughton. 2008. “Canadian National Report." in Michael Lang, Christine Obermair, Josef Schuch, Claus Staringer and Patrick Weninger (eds.), Tax Compliance Costs for Companies in an Enlarged European Community (Kluwer).
Macnaughton, Alan and Amin Mawani. 2005. “Micro-Economic Approaches to Tax Planning,” in Margaret Lamb, Andrew Lymer, Judith Freedman and Simon James (eds.), Taxation: An Inter-Disciplinary Approach to Research (Oxford University Press), 167-186
Macnaughton, Alan. 2004. 'Budetary Accounting and Transparency: Lessons from Private-Sector Experience' , The 2003 Federal Budget: Conflicting Tensions , (Kingston, Ont.: John Deutsch Institute), 107-109.
Macnaughton, Alan, and Kim Wood. 2004. "Should Provinces Tax Non-Resident Athletes?" Canadian Tax Journal , 52(2), 428-485.
Macnaughton, Alan, and Kim Wood. 2004. "The Anomalous Taxation of Athletes in U.S.-Canada Leagues (PDF)," Tax Notes, (July), 305-308.
Macnaughton, Alan, and Daniel Thornton. 2001. "Microeconomic and Decision-based Tax Pedagogy: Canadian Applications," Methods, Topics and Issues in Tax Education: A Year 2001 Perspective , Ed. Janet Meade., American Taxation Association, 2001, pg. 167-180.
Macnaughton, Alan, and Michael Veall. 2001. "Tipping and the McQuatters Formula (PDF)," Public Finance Review, 29(2), 99-107.
Macnaughton, Alan, and Thomas Matthews. 2001. "Tax Stats: Endangered Species," Canadian Tax Highlights, 9(7) (July), 53-54.
Macnaughton, Alan and Thomas Matthews. 2001. "Good Tax Policy Requires Good Tax Statistics: Why Can't We Do Better?" Policy Options, (October), 53-56.
Macnaughton, Alan, and Glenn Feltham. 2000. "Optimal Payment Strategy for Corporate Income Tax Instalments" Canadian Tax Journal, 48(1), 60-89.
Macnaughton, Alan. 1999. "Review of: Comparative Income Taxation, ed. Hugh Ault' , Journal of the American Taxation Association, (Spring), 101-102.
Macnaughton, Alan. 1999. "Compliance and Administration Issues Under the Tax Collection Agreements" Canadian Tax Journal, 47(4), 1999.
Macnaughton, Alan and Thomas Matthews. 1999. 'Is the Income-Splitting Tax Needed: Some Empirical Evidence," Canadian Tax Journal, 47(5), 1164-1179.
Macnaughton, Alan. 1999. 'Discussant comments on paper on economic models of valuing minority interests' , Journal of the American Taxation Association, Fall.
Macnaughton, Alan, and Glenn Feltham. 1999. "Who Benefited from the Deduction-Inclusion Regime for Taxing Child Support?" Canadian Tax Journal, 47(6), 1479-1504.
Macnaughton, Alan, Thomas Matthews and Jeffrey Pittman. 1998. " 'Stealth Tax Rates:' Effective vs. Statutory Personal Marginal Tax Rates," Canadian Tax Journal, 46(5), 1029-1066.

Courses taught

Tax Policy, a course in the Master of Accounting program.

Introduction to tax law and preparation of corporate and personal tax returns, which is a segment of a second year course (AFM 202) entitled Introduction to Professional Practice.

Awards

Canadian Tax Foundation, Lifetime Contribution Award, 2017

Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, 2012. Presented by the Canadian Tax Foundation "for his role as Editor of the Canadian Tax Journal and as a distinguished author of many articles and papers on Canadian tax policy." I was the only business or accounting professor to receive this award from the Foundation.

Recognized as the accounting professor contributing the largest number of refereed articles to the Canadian Tax Journal in the last 50 years, 2002

Editorial boards

Advances in Taxation, 2014 - present

Journal of the American Taxation Association, 2013 - 2016

Canadian Tax Journal, 1999 - 2004, 2011 - 2016

Editor/associate editor etc.

Editor, Canadian Tax Journal, 2004 - 2011, 2016 - present

Professional service

Editor, Canadian Tax Focus, 2011 to present. This is a 10-15 page newsletter published quarterly by the Canadian Tax Foundation. Articles are written by tax accountants and lawyers in their first 10 years of practice.

Co-editor, Current Tax Reading section of the Canadian Tax Journal (and author of about 15 pages of reviews per year)

Member, Awards Committee, Canadian Tax Foundation

Consulting

Course instructor, LLM (Master of Laws) program, Osgoode Hall University, 2004 to 2011.

Canada Revenue Agency, re taxation of small business.

Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW), re the Canadian pension and RRSP system.

Ontario Ministry of Finance - tax administration.