Canada must crack down on tax cheats
Re 90% of Canadians oppose tax havens, Dec. 14 It’s good to learn that the EU is taking action to force recognition of the true owners of companies involved in nefarious business practices, including, no doubt, money-laundering and tax avoidance.
Dare we hope that this welcome action will move Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the folks in Ottawa to get to work on the astounding revelations included in the Paradise Papers?
It is now more than a month since the release of these documents, yet all we have heard from our Liberal government amounts to a resounding silence.
Is Ottawa not interested in catching up with the cheats and the frauds in order to recoup the billions of lost tax dollars that should be flowing into Canadian coffers?
That money could be helping to pay for essential and muchneeded services, including fresh water for Indigenous communities, universal daycare, adequate support for our veterans, improved medical services for all citizens and much, much more.
Canadians expect prompt action and a no-holds-barred effort from our government to deal effectively with the Paradise file. Eric Balkind, Guelph Although the Panama papers revealed tax-evasion havens used by Canadians, we can’t depend on whistleblowers to reveal who is hiding income.
If Finance Minister Bill Morneau is not sure about an open registry because of privacy concerns, he should be reminded that Ontario already publishes a Sunshine List of public-sector salaries.
Although my name does appear on that list, I cannot afford to hire expensive financial advisers to set up off-shore vehicles for saving my fair share of taxes. Nor do I want to.
I would advise the 1 per cent, whose income dwarfs my salary, that although it is uncomfortable that anyone can Google your salary, you will get used to it — as long as you’re not planning to game the system. Russell Pangborn, Keswick