Bringing about a higher level of transparency and accountability in provincial and federal governments to help protect taxpayers from abuse
The federal government has singled out Canadian banks for gaming the tax system to artificially reduce their tax bills.
In the budget released Tuesday, Ottawa announced it will tighten tax rules “meant to prevent a small group of taxpayers, typically Canadian banks and other financial institutions, from gaining a tax advantage.”
The measure was one of a slew of reforms to prevent tax evasion and avoidance that Ottawa estimates will bring in almost $1 billion per year.
Read more at Toronto Star
In the Ontario PC leadership race, all four candidates hoping to replace Patrick Brown as leader oppose carbon taxes, a centrepiece of Brown’s Tory platform. The federal Conservative Party also opposes carbon taxes.
Some commentators see this as a betrayal of Conservative free-market instincts because (supposedly) our choice is between inefficient bureaucratic regulation and the enlightened Liberal approach of using price-signals to hit greenhouse gas targets. According to this reasoning, economically-literate Conservatives should prefer the latter.
Read more at Maclean’s
OTTAWA – Canada’s tax collectors often aren’t picking up the phone, and when they do, Canadians are being given incorrect information, a new federal audit reveals.
The examination by Canada’s Auditor General Michael Ferguson into whether the Canada Revenue Agency’s nine call centres were providing Canadian taxpayers with timely access to accurate information, found that call centre agents only answered the phone about one-third of the time.
When the callers do get through to the call centre, the audit found that agents are giving Canadians incorrect information nearly 30 per cent of the time.
Read more at CTV News
Canada’s 60 biggest corporations have more than 1,000 subsidiaries in offshore tax havens, depriving government coffers of up to $15 billion annually, according to a new report being published Wednesday.
The report, titled “Bay Street and Tax Havens: Curbing Corporate Canada’s Addiction” and prepared by the group Canadians for Tax Fairness, shines a light on one of the legal methods used by big corporations to reduce their taxes — tax havens.
Read more at The Toronto Star
In the decade between 2002 and 2012, spending on the criminal justice system increased from approximately $12,200,000,000.00 (i.e., 12.2 billion dollars), to approximately $20,300,000,000.00 (i.e., 20.3 billion dollars). This rise occurred despite the fact that during the same period, incidents of reported crime decreased by approximately 30%.
The rise in spending on the criminal justice, thus represents an increase of approximately 66% (i.e., an average increase of approximately 5.2% per year) at the same time the number of reported incidents of crime were falling at an average rate of approximately 3.5%. Assuming the pattern has held true over the last 5 years, one can now estimate that Canadian taxpayers are currently spending approximately, $28,000,000,000.00 (i.e., 28 billion dollars) per year (i.e., approximately 77 million dollars per day), for a problem that affects, at most, 5% of the population each year (see: crime rate per capita below).
Read more at Criminal Law Reform
If I had Finance Minister Bill Morneau’s money, I’d buy a first-class ticket to Paris, then find the nearest Porsche dealership, acquire a loaded Carrera, drive straight to that villa in Provence he owns through a shell company, and send a note back to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Canadian public tendering my resignation and wishing everyone the very best in the years to come. Canadians would never hear from me again.
Read more at CBC News
Over the past 75 days, Canada has witnessed something very rare — a spontaneous, grassroots response from small business owners, a group typically way too busy to mount protests and campaigns about government policy.
I have been impressed to see business owners from coast to coast reaching out to their MPs, setting up special websites and packing local meeting halls. The federal government’s proposed tax changes have caused a firestorm of reaction from small business owners, which appears to have genuinely surprised our political leaders.
Read more at Toronto Sun
During the past month many doctors have mobilized to oppose the tax changes proposed by the federal government for individuals who are incorporated. We say that the government should move ahead with these plans and go much further in pursuing Canadian economic equity. We recommend that our physician colleagues should resolve their financial issues through negotiations with their ministries of health.
Canada’s poverty rate is 20th out of 31 OECD countries. The Canadian poverty rate went up slightly from 2005 to 2015 to 14.2 per cent, representing 4.8 million people. The child poverty rate was up marginally to 17.1 per cent. Ominously senior’s poverty rates, which had fallen dramatically for two decades, increased from 12 per cent to 14.5 per cent.
Read more at Toronto Star
OTTAWA – Liberal backbenchers have been getting an earful this summer from small business owners outraged by the Trudeau government’s proposals to end what it calls “unfair tax advantages.”
And now they’re preparing to unleash the concerns of their constituents – and pressure Finance Minister Bill Morneau to adjust his plans accordingly – during the government’s summer caucus retreat next week in Kelowna, B.C.
Read more at Global News