TAX COLLECTORS AND DUCK HUNTERS should have a lot in common. Duck hunters know: “If you want to hunt ducks go to where the ducks are.” Canada’s tax collectors don’t seem to get that. They almost never go to where the ducks are.

They let hundreds of rich people avoid paying anything like the amount of taxes they should. It’s not cheating on your taxes exactly. But, sometimes it is. And even when it is, the punishment is feather light.

“No one goes to jail in Canada for even the most significant financial crimes,” says Chris Mathers, a former RCMP officer who worked undercover to investigate financial crimes.

Mathers jokes: “If you launder money in Canada and get caught, FINTRAC [financial intelligence agency] suspends your golf membership.

“Things you’d do 20 years for in the U.S., you might get a fine in Canada and that’s not lost on criminals.

CRA just can’t win

The Canadian Revenue Agency (CRA) isn’t a complete corporate doormat.

The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) went to court to get Cameco, a uranium mining company in Saskatchewan, to pay $2 billion in unpaid back taxes on profits hidden in a Swiss tax haven. The court ruled against the CRA claim.

The CRA appealed. In June 26, 2020, the Federal Court of Appeal unanimously upheld Cameco’s previous victory. Cameco is now off the hook for more than $2 billion in back taxes and penalties. On top of those lost revenues, the company was also awarded $27-million in legal fees and costs last year.

Tax avoiders also won big in May, when the Federal Court of Appeal sided with grocery and retail giant Loblaw. The court ruled Loblaw did not have to pay $368 million in taxes on profits hidden in a bank in Barbados.

$8 billion-a-year left uncollected

Canada loses at least $8 billion annually from multinational corporations shifting profits through tax havens, and perhaps as much as $25 billion annually, according to the Parliamentary Budget Office.

These are just the cases we know about. Sometimes, secret deals are made without Canadians ever finding out—like the one exposed by a CBC News investigative journalist last year. The jounalist found the CRA had reached an out of court settlement with wealthy KPMG clients involved in the Isle of Man tax scandal.

“It’s a merry go round when the CRA tries to take on the corporate tax dodgers,” says Don Kossick, who led the Saskatchewan Citizens for Tax Fairness campaign on Cameco.

“The corporate side is able to use the weak regulatory structure and process to continue with impunity to funnel billions of dollars out of Canada … billions that would be so critical in fighting the impact of COVID-19, for example,” Kossick said

Even if the CRA played hard ball all the time they can only do so much with the tax avoidance and evasion laws as they are written.

The CRA Deputy Commissioner, Ted Gallivan, told a House of Commons Finance Committee meeting, just days before the court ruling on Cameco, that,“Many of these sophisticated taxpayers paper over their tax planning with multiple legal opinions and law firms. I think there’s no lack of willingness on the part of CRA to pursue these cases criminally; I think it’s the forethought of the perpetrators to really paper over what they are doing to make it very difficult and complex to bring criminal charges.”

Collect the money we need to cover covid costs

“If ever there was a time to pursue these big tax avoiders and evaders, it’s now,” says fair tax activist Brenda Gale. “COVID-19 should compel governments to make sure absolutely everybody pays their fair share of taxes, so we can collect the money we will need to pay off our covid debts.”

Canadians for Tax Fairness (CTF) want our governments to ensure COVID-19 funding doesn’t go to companies that operate in tax havens or use public funds to pad their profits. The CTF also wants the federal government to increase transparency and accountability over these funds, and to use measures, like an excess profits tax, to recover amounts that turn out not to be needed.

The federal government so far continues to allow covid support money to go to companies that operate in tax havens.

The CTF warns that “emergencies and crises also provide fertile ground for corruption, fraud and money-laundering.”

The CTF also says there should be a prohibition on stock buybacks, executive bonuses, golden parachutes and shareholder dividend payouts for at least a year after the pandemic ends.

Quebec Solidaire has pressed the Quebec government not to provide one penny for any corporation that hides their wealth offshore.

The more our governments pay out to corporations in this time of extreme crisis, the more they need to insure that those payouts only go to those corporations that do what the rest of us do at tax time—pay our fair share.

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