Putters aflutter

GOLF is Canada's most popular sport to play, ranking above ice hockey. Enthusiasts boast that Canada has the highest percentage of golfers per head of any country. That helps to explain why a campaign has teed off to change the treatment of golf under the tax code.

In Canada business entertainment is tax-deductible. People can write off half their restaurant bills or box seats at a hockey game if they helped to woo clients or seal a deal. It is forbidden, however, to deduct golf expenses. A 1972 law designed to crack down on tax abuses prevented golfing, yachting and hunting lodges in particular from being tax-deductible, so that the wealthy could not put personal luxuries on expenses.

But discriminating against golf does not sit well with today's players. “We just want equity and fairness,” says Gary Bernard, the boss of the PGA of Canada, an association of golf professionals. The National Golf Course Owners Association (NGCOA) has launched a campaign to right the injustice. Two dozen or so members of parliament and senators (many of whom have golf courses in their districts) now support the cause. There is hope it could make it into the 2012 budget this spring.

They have some cause for optimism. Other countries, including America and Britain, allow “green fees” (ie, what you pay to play) to be treated as a business deduction. As part of its post-crisis stimulus package, America even offered a tax credit if you bought certain kinds of electric golf carts. Jeff Calderwood, the head of NGCOA, reckons the change would cost the government less than C$20m ($19.6m) in forgone tax revenues. That's small change to the government but could make a big difference to golf courses. The typical course makes only around C$1.5m in annual revenue.

But to bring this topic up now, as Canada grapples with budget cuts, could end up pitching other sports into the rough. Lisa Philipps, a law professor at York University in Toronto, says advertising the unfair treatment of golf may simply cause legislators to reconsider whether entertainment should be tax-deductible at all. It is always hard to know how much business is really talked about between quarters—or putts. And voters may not like the sound of high-flyers writing off the cost of their boxes at hockey games, let alone their hard work on the greens.