Shameless Justin Trudeau tax evasion

[captain morgan]

You should report Suncor... Or better yet, march on down to the head office here in YYC and you can personally slap the cuffs on the entire company yourself

 

[TenPenny]

You think the Queen does her own investing?

Or even knows the rent-to-own was part of the portfolio?

Exactly, it's not like she's Bill Morneau. You know, the "I'll put everything in a blind trust, once I sell and cash in the profits." guy.

 

[pgs]

SO in a thread about blaming Trudeau for investments made by a Liberal fund raiser you are worried that I am unfairly blaming the Queen for where her personal money goes?

Is that your complaint here?

Yes I know she probably has no idea about any of that but that does not change the fact that she ought to have.

would you at least allow that the Queen has an obligation to conduct herself properly?

Hey look over there .

I believe Suncor is also implicated.

Are they not one Of Mr Harper's owners?

Hey I said look over there .

 

[Twin_Moose]

Justin Trudeau, the Paradise Papers and his ‘super rich friends’

Prime ministers past looked in on question period today, and none are likely to have envied the man now occupying that role, on a day when the seat was particularly warm.
A consortium of news outlets on Sunday revealed the Paradise Papers, a cache of correspondence and other records detailing tax minimization and avoidance strategies employed by thousands of individuals and corporate entities. Canadians associated with the documents, according to the media reports, included Stephen Bronfman and Leo Kolber—major Liberal Party fundraisers present and past, respectively.
The revelations provided a handy new line of questioning for the opposition, for whom tax policy, and its effects on government members, has been a particular interest in recent weeks. The personal finance choices of Finance Minister Bill Morneau, absent from the proceedings, have thus far been the main attraction, but today they were but a glancing reference in the long list of supposed improprieties the Conservatives used to preface their inquiries.
Instead, with Joe Clark, John Turner, Brian Mulroney and Paul Martin watching, the focus was on the accounting practices of another Trudeau associate. Opposition MPs accused the government of failing to act to prevent the wealthy—or “their super rich friends, and those working hard to join them,” in Erin O’Toole’s phrasing (a twist on the Liberals’ preferred phrase for the middle class)—from using tax havens to shelter their money. They focused particularly on Bronfman, the Liberal Party’s revenue chair, variously describing him as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s friend, advisor and “bagman”.
READ MORE:*Justin Trudeau is getting cocky about the economy. Watch out.
For his part, Stephen Bronfman said in a Monday morning statement that “Stephen Bronfman never funded nor used offshore trusts,” and that “Stephen Bronfman had no other direct or indirect involvement whatsoever” with the Kolber family corporate entity to which the CBC and Toronto Star tied the Bronfman family corporate entity.
Stephen Bronfman was not in the chamber during question period, so the opposition were forced to make their Paradise Papers inquiries of the Prime Minister, even if Trudeau insisted that he preferred to let “individuals comment on their own situation.”
The Prime Minister and the Minister of National Revenue Diane Lebouthillier more or less fielded the opposition’s questions by refusing to accept their premise. “Canadians know very well that in our first two budgets we have invested almost $1 billion to combat tax evasion,” Trudeau said. Those who tuned into question period, where Trudeau and Lebouthillier cited that figure nine more times between them, will have heard of it, anyway.
The former prime ministers were in the building to mark the sesquicentennial of Canada’s first Parliament’s first meeting. Martin and Mulroney were also named in the Paradise Papers, though the MPs did not address any of their questions to the gallery where they were seated. So was the report-denying Jean Chrétien, not present. And Stephen Harper, also absent, also received a reference, or his government did at least, when Lebouthillier suggested it hadn’t made fighting tax evasion a priority.
Still, Trudeau is the one in charge now, and the steady stream of impropriety, accusations and questionings of ethics have consumed his question period appearances for weeks now. Sitting in the gallery sounds more fun.

CRA promises 'appropriate action' on tax evaders following Paradise Papers leak

The Canadian Revenue Agency is promising action after an international investigation pulled back the curtain on more than 3,000 Canadian companies, trusts, foundations and individuals who hide their money in offshore accounts to avoid paying taxes. The leak, rivalling the Panama Papers in size and scope, involves a cache of nearly 13.4 million files from two offshore services firms and 19 different tax havens.

The list includes a who's who of the world's elite, including the Queen, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's chief fundraiser, U.S. President Donald Trump's commerce secretary, Russian oligarchs and former Canadian prime ministers Brian Mulroney, Paul Martin and Jean Chrétien.
"The CRA is reviewing links to Canadian entities and will take appropriate action in regards to the Paradise Papers," said spokesperson John Power.
An investigation by the CBC, Radio-Canada and the Toronto Star has found that philanthropist and financier Stephen Bronfman, an heir to the Seagram whisky fortune and a close Trudeau family friend, and his Montreal-based investment company, Claridge Inc., were key players linked to a $60-million US offshore trust in the Cayman Islands that may have cost Canadians millions in unpaid taxes.
The investigation also revealed how Bronfman's longtime law firm — which also represented other offshore clients — helped mount a lobbying campaign in Ottawa that for several years fought legislation designed to crack down on offshore trusts
Trudeau's office referred all questions about Bronfman to the Liberal Party of Canada, which said he was a volunteer who did not assist*on policy decisions.
"The role of Revenue Chair is a non-voting position," said the party in a statement.
The Official Opposition were quick to seize on the timing of the documents. The Liberal government has been waging a public relations battle around its proposed tax changes amid allegations that Finance Minister Bill Morneau personally benefited from sponsoring pension legislation.
Push for new legislation*
In 2015 the Liberals rode into power on a platform that focused on the middle class and a promise*to tax the rich
"If Justin Trudeau's*priority was really tax fairness, it's very curious that he's done nothing to go after the mega-millionaires who stuff their money in foreign tax havens in order to avoid Canadian tax, but yet he's tried to bring higher taxes on farmers, pizza shop owners*and other small business owners," said finance critic Pierre Poilievre.
"At the end of day, we need to work harder, all parties of all stripes, to crack down on those who avoid paying their fair share."
NDP Parliamentary Leader Guy Caron said part of the problem is the legality of offshore tax evasions.
The NDP has introduced a bill attempting to curb tax evasion. Bill C-362 would deny tax breaks on a type of banking transaction commonly used in tax avoidance.
"I think at least we have to think hard about the state of our tax system right now, because it's broken. It's obvious to Canadians that lots of people and the well-off are not paying their fair share," he said.
"To me it demonstrates a bit of [how] politics are sick basically. We would like people not to be cynical about what's going on, but it's hard not to be cynical when the people who are promising to tackle tax evasion or offshore accounts or tax havens are actually helping their friends benefit from it."
The Paradise Papers were obtained by the German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).

CRA not tracking billions in potential taxes lost each year

It's no secret that many wealthy Canadians are squirrelling away fortunes offshore to avoid — or even evade — taxes.
What is secret is just how much money it's costing fellow*Canadians and the national treasury each year.
That's because unlike many other countries, Canada fails to disclose or even track the full size of its "tax gap" — the difference between the government's potential tax revenue and what it actually manages to collect.
The U.S. has been tracking and publicly reporting its tax gap for more than 50 years. And now so do more than a dozen other Western countries, including the U.K., France, Germany, Australia, Sweden, Portugal, Mexico, Norway and Denmark.
The Canada Revenue Agency isn't just keeping data from the prying eyes of journalists.

Find out where some of Canada's lost tax revenue is going in the Paradise Papers

The agency won't share what it does know with parliamentarians either.
"It's shameful,"*said Senator Percy Downe of P.E.I.*"The Canada Revenue Agency is the most incompetent department ... in the government of Canada."
Downe spoke to CBC News and the Toronto Star, partners in the Paradise Papers collaboration with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, which has shed light on the activities of thousands of wealthy individuals and corporations around the globe who use offshore havens to shield money from tax collectors.

Gap campaign

For five years, Downe has been campaigning to get the CRA to release raw data on just how much potential revenue slips through tax collectors' hands due to legal tax avoidance and outright evasion.
"We don't know — is it $40 billion, $6 billion?" said Downe, pointing to a 2017 Conference Board of Canada report that concludes the country's tax gap could be as big as $47 billion a year.
Downe says knowing the size of the tax gap is important for two reasons. The first is a matter of principle: Canadians need to feel as though they're participating in a system where everybody is contributing their fair share. The second reason is practical: billions of extra dollars could be put to good use.
"There's lots of things the government could be doing … retiring debt, lower taxes, fund new programs," he said. "It goes on and on."
In 2012, Downe recruited an important ally in his fight: Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page, the watchdog of the country's finances.

Even the Queen held investments offshore *
Massive tax haven data leak reveals financial secets of world's wealthy

Page asked the CRA for raw data so he could conduct an independent calculation on behalf of Parliament to estimate how much in offshore, GST and income taxes the CRA fails to collect each year.
The request prompted a bizarre, protracted struggle with the federal tax agency.
CRA Commissioner Andrew Treusch wrote to Page in March 2013 to question the merits of his request.
"As you know, the CRA does not generate information or data on the tax gap, and there is much debate about the precision, accuracy and utility of any methodology to calculate a tax gap," Treusch wrote.

READ | CRA*Commissioner Andrew Treusch's letter about the tax gap

In February 2014, the agency*objected to the request over concerns about sharing private data of Canadian taxpayers. Jean-Denis Fréchette, the new parliamentary budget officer, pledged to abide by strict privacy agreements and even offered to seek the blessing of the Federal Court to ensure it was all legal.
But by August 2014, the CRA argued it would only turn over some limited data and demanded the PBO pay $141,000 to process the request.
The two sides have yet to reach an agreement on the need to systematically track Canada's tax losses.

"We still don't have a global tax gap number," Fréchette told CBC News.
He acknowledges calculating Canada's tax gap would require extensive resources — especially to review and calculate Canadians' offshore holdings. But he says it's an essential measure for the public and elected officials to evaluate the fairness of the tax system and the health of the country's finances.
"Collecting the money is as important as spending the money, or maybe even more important,"*Fréchette*said.

What to do with $6B?

Unofficial estimates of Canada's tax gap vary wildly.
The portion lost to legal offshore tax avoidance, as well as tax evasion, is believed to be at least $6 billion a year, according to the most conservative estimates.
So, what could the government do with an extra $6 billion?
"It's a heck of a lot of money," said Judy Wasylycia-Leis, a former NDP MP. "That might be enough to repair our crumbling infrastructure and sewage plants in Winnipeg, and to invest in a modern transportation system."
Wasylycia-Leis is among those calling on Ottawa to not simply study the tax gap, but to publish the findings and hold the CRA's feet to the fire for failing to collect billions every year.
"With the kind of money we've lost because of offshore havens, we could build great cities."

CRA takes small steps

National Revenue Minister Diane Lebouthillier and the CRA declined CBC's requests for an interview, but in a statement, the agency said it has "begun work" to study the tax gap issue more closely.
After the revelations from last year's Panama Papers leaks and scandals involving KPMG's Isle of Man tax schemes , Lebouthillier pledged in January to take a much closer look at aggressive offshore tax avoidance and launch a "comprehensive study" of how Canada might calculate its overall tax gap.

READ |* CRA's full statement

The CRA has also begun releasing some snapshots of its past tax revenue losses, including its failure to collect $4.9 billion in GST/HST from businesses and $8.9 billion in domestic income tax from individuals back in 2014.
But the agency has yet to determine how much potential tax revenue is lost because of offshore tax havens — be it through outright tax evasion or through aggressive, yet legal, offshore planning.
The government says*it is instead focusing on enforcement and has invested nearly*$1 billion over the past two years to step up enforcement against offshore tax cheats and promoters. The CRA credits the previous Panama Papers leak with prompting 123 fresh audits and several criminal investigations.
Sen. Downe says while the CRA does a good job cracking down on domestic tax evasion, including posting the names of convicted cheats on its website, the agency does "a terrible job" scrutinizing and policing Canadians' offshore activities.
"Why is that, and why is the gap not being measured as a tool to assess how big the problem is?"

 

[TenPenny]

And Paul Martin, too!

 

[tay]

Jordan Press fact checks Justin Trudeau's false claims about his response to tax evasion.


The Liberal government’s crackdown on tax cheats has proven to be a smashing success — according to the prime minister, anyway.

“Our investments have already yielded results. We are on track to recuperate $25 billion from our efforts against tax avoidance and tax evasion,” said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Nov. 6.

The depth of Canada’s tax evasion and avoidance problem erupted in overwhelming detail last week with the release of a trove of documents about offshore accounts and trusts, dubbed the Paradise Papers, that delivered a broadside to the prime minister’s oft-repeated mantra of creating a fairer tax system for the middle class and its hard-working aspirants.

Trudeau responded with a haymaker of his own: The government had identified and was on track to collect $25 billion in unpaid taxes over the last two years. His intended message was clear: Canada won’t turn a blind eye to those who cheat on – or otherwise go to extreme lengths to avoid paying – their taxes.

But did the government cheat on its numbers?

Spoiler alert: The Canadian Press Baloney Meter is a dispassionate examination of political statements culminating in a ranking of accuracy on a scale of “no baloney” to “full of baloney”

This one earns a rating of “a lot of baloney.” Here’s why.

more

https://globalnews.ca/news/3864529/tax-evasion-canada-liberals/