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As Canadians, we often gripe and complain about our tax system. But if we look at the bigger picture, clearly Canada is doing a lot of things right and, as we learned last week in the wake the Burger King/Tim Horton’s merger, the U.S. could learn a few lessons in tax policy from us.

First, let’s take a look at our corporate tax system. While Burger King executives claimed that the “transaction is not really about taxes,” the $12.5-billion takeover of Tim Horton’s has further fuelled the debate going on south of the border about corporate tax inversions. It’s a hot topic in the U.S. right now, but one we have traditionally heard little about in Canada.

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And for good reason — it’s simply never been an issue for Canadian companies. An unfamiliar term for most Canadians until this week, corporate inversions are a U.S. phenomenon, as some U.S. companies with significant global operations and profits seek to merge with a foreign corporation, and, in so doing, move the headquarters of the merged corporation to that foreign, lower-taxed jurisdiction.