Sunday, February 5, 2017

Canada must not become a tax haven


The rich, as we well know, are different from you and me. They’ve got more money – plus a vast army of bankers, lawyers and tax experts to make sure they keep as much of it as possible out of the clutches of governments.

The Panama Papers, a massive leak of documents from the Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca, gave a detailed look at tax avoidance and evasion around the world. It showed how the global elite stash vast wealth away in tax havens, manipulating laws to avoid paying hundreds of billions of dollars in tax each year.

When the Panama Papers were revealed last year as part of a project coordinated by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, including the Star, the focus was on tax-friendly jurisdictions like Switzerland, Luxembourg and various sunny isles in the Caribbean.

Now it turns out we don’t need to look nearly so far. In a series of articles based on more documents from the 11.5 million in the Panama Papers trove, the Star’s Robert Cribb and Marco Chown Oved have shown that Canada, of all places, “is quietly emerging as a popular tax haven for the global elite.”

Those in the know apparently call it “snow washing” – taking advantage of Canada’s stellar reputation to make dodgy financial transactions look legitimate.  (more...)


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So, who thinks any of the "too big to fail" players will get nabbed?

1 comment:

  1. I have a better idea. Why don't we tax Canadians and Canadian Companies based, not on their revenue, but on their global assets. We should be forced by to authorize the CRA to query our accounts with Organisation and individuals globally. If it is determined that our Global Assets are worth more than 2 million dollars, then all of our assets should be published on a CRA website for the world to see. If it is determined that we lied and concealed any of our Global assets, our Canadian assets will immediately be seized by the CRA until we have repaid what we owe with interest and penalties. If it is determined that the Global assets of our relatives globally to the level of cousins are worth over 10 million then all of the relatives will have all of their global assets listed. Anyone worth more than 10 million dollars globally must declare all religious, political and fraternal memberships and affiliations to be posted for the world to see on the governments website.

    For that matter foreign nationals working in Canada will be taxed based on thier global assets. So if a Chinese government officials kid works at Subway making 12.00/hour but his Dad is workth 80 million U.S the kid will make 24K per year and pay 200k in tax! If a U.S based company is doing business in Canad it will pay based on its Global assets.

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