To be clear here. This is not a matter of additional resources going to combat tax fraud.
I understand that. I was just thinking out loud about the disconnect between the typical conservative enthusiasm for "tough on crime, law and order, police on the streets" type law enforcement vs the general conservative disdain for the CRA employees who are supposed to be enforcing tax laws by detecting fraud? There's always some rationalization. "bah, CRA is bloated, they have too many employees, cut the fat!" "bah, if the government collected more tax from tax cheats, they'd just waste it anyway." "bah! we should be thinking about ways to reduce government spending, not chasing tax evaders." These are all just rationalizations for tax evasions, from people who don't like tax.
It is a matter of changing the existing tax code to outlaw completely legal practices which the government has hitherto encouraged,
There are lots of things that are completely legal but still undesirable. That's kind of the definition of "loophole". Does the fact that loopholes are legal mean we should never close them or stop people from taking advantage?
In regard to what "the government has hitherto encouraged", I gather that the government of Ontario promoted "income sprinkling" to Ontario doctors as an alternative to a rates increase. "Instead of paying you more, we'll help you pay less taxes to the federal government. It's almost as good as a raise." That's pretty ridiculous. I think Bill Morneau was correct in pointing out that closing tax loopholes is not the venue to talk about compensation for physicians.
for no reason I can think of other than their continuing attempts at portraying themselves as the saviours of the middle class against the evil rich.
I read an article in the National Post last week from an economics professor who says that the number of "CCPC" tax entities in Canada has increased sharply since the Liberals announced a higher tax on top-income individuals. That can't be a coincidence. The author suggested that nobody hollered too much when the Liberals announced the higher rates because they knew they had avenues to avoid it anyway, and they're only mad now because the Liberals are moving to close those avenues.
Although, mind you, they never actually target the rich. They target those at the high end of the middle classes. The guys pulling in millions a year are not going to be impacted by this or anything else the Liberals have done so far. Which is not really surprising since Bill Morneau used to make a million dollars a year at daddy's firm and is estimated to be worth something over $30 million.
Well of course... this is the sort of thing that I find extremely frustrating. Conservative MP Dan Albas was on my radio last week and said that the proposed changes will affect about 1.1 million Canadians and result in revenue of $250 million. He suggested that targeting tax loopholes enjoyed by the richest 4000 Canadians could by contrast generate $850 million. I don't have a source for that interview or know what loopholes he was specifically talking about, but I think he mentioned Bombardier executives and their stock options by way of example. Anyway, as I said earlier in the thread, I find it very frustrating that the government has no appetite to deal with that sort of thing. Justin Trudeau spent the week promoting a talking point about having "two classes of taxpayers in this country." And we do, and Morneau's new initiative won't change that.
-k
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