Is the capital cost allowance system in Canada unnecessarily complex? : Régime canadien de la déduction pour amortisssement (DPA) est-il inutilement complexe?

The purpose of this paper is to consider the Capital Cost Allowance (CCA) system in Canada in the spirit of investigating the extent to which it meets the principles of simplicity, equity and neutrality, assessing the effectiveness of economic incentives introduced through changes to the system, and to gauge how the CCA system affects the international competitiveness of Canadian businesses. [...] For accounting purposes, a gain or loss on the disposition of assets occurs when the proceeds of disposition exceed (gain) or are inferior (loss) to the net book value of an asset, while for income tax purposes, a disposition of an asset results in the lesser of the proceeds of disposition or the original cost of the asset being deducted from the undepreciated capital cost (UCC) of the applicable [...] The majority of accounting professionals consulted feel that the introduction of accelerated CCA rates for computer purchases was not effective and did little to achieve the underlying objective of stimulating the purchase of computers and the information technology industry. [...] Literature suggests that unnecessary complexity of the CCA system affects business decision-making and could result in additional costs and inefficiencies, as the decision makers must understand the CCA system in order to make appropriate decisions related to the acquisition and disposition of capital assets; as such, complexity adds to the time and effort of decision-making. [...] Accounting professionals and industry representatives concur that the level of complexity of the CCA system has increased, pointing to the expansion in the number of classes, the lengthy descriptions and rules like the ‘half-year’ rule as examples of such complexity.