
Quick now. What has the Canadian Taxpayers’ Federation (“a citizens’ advocacy group dedicated to lower taxes, less waste, and accountable government”) had to say about all those revelations of tax-sucking, financial jiggery-pokery uncovered in the Paradise Papers?
Sorry. Time’s up.
You win.
Nothing. They’ve said nothing.
We’ll come back to that.
On November 5, 2017, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and its 95 media partners around the world began releasing the juicy fruits of an 11-month, 380-reporter, six-continent, 30-language investigation into 13.4 million leaked documents from the files of Appleby, a Bermuda-based, globally focused “offshore services” law firm, and Asiaciti, a Singapore-based family-owned trust company specializing in tax havens.
The reporters wanted to know what that mountain of documents might reveal about how the richest and most powerful individuals and companies in the world use tax havens and complicated corporate shell games to move money around while avoiding paying their fair share of taxes in their real home countries.
The short answer: more than you could imagine.
In fact, it was hard to keep up with last week’s Niagara Falls of iconic names — the Queen, Prince Charles, members of Donald Trump’s cabinet, Vladimir Putin’s son-in-law, Apple, Nike, Bono, Shakira, Madonna, Justin Timberlake — that kept tumbling out of news stories naming them as creators of, investors in, or beneficiaries from companies whose primary purpose was to lower or eliminate taxes they would otherwise owe.
According to the CBC — one of two Canadian partners in the journalists’ consortium — “more than 3,000 Canadian companies and individuals” popped up in the Paradise Papers too: from former prime ministers Jean Chretien and Paul Martin to current Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s chief fundraiser Stephen Bronfman, and all the way down to the previously unknown Julian Lavallée, a twentysomething “botmaster” ticket scalper in Quebec who grossed $7.9-million in 2016 by buying and upselling tickets to concerts and sporting events, the profits of which he appears to have then invested offshore. Not to forget all those companies whose very names seem to shout “Canada” — the Montreal Canadiens, Maple Leaf Foods, Petro-Canada, Loblaws, the Dare in Dare’s Cookies — but whose financial advisors must have whispered “Cayman Islands” and other tax-free blandishments in their eager ears.
The first reality — as most of the stories, and all of the shocked-and-appalled, “we-are-in-full-compliance-with-the law” statements by those named quickly acknowledge — is that most of what those individuals and companies did is probably legal.
That’s not the solution but the problem, and one reason why we should take Justin Trudeau’s solemn declaration last week — the Canada Revenue Agency is “reviewing links to Canadian entities [named in the Paradise Papers] and will take every appropriate action . . . . We will continue to work for a system that is fair” — with a heaping dollop of winter road salt.
The second reality is that tax reform with the goal of tax fairness has no powerful lobby behind it. Tax havens do.
Examples?
According to another CBC story last week — also gleaned from Paradise records — a Montreal law firm that represented prominent Liberal/Paradise Papers-connected clients, acted as a “leading player,” carrying “the torch” in several successful lobbying campaigns to block effective offshore tax reform legislation in Canada during the last 20 years.
Given the global nature of the tax haven business, of course, real reform will ultimately require collective action involving many countries. In 2013, then-British Prime Minister David Cameron, reeling from revelations of “over-aggressive tax avoidance and evasion” in his own country, did propose a few measures to increase financial transparency. They were to be discussed at an upcoming G8 meeting.
Canada, at first, seemed to be on board: “This is a very important initiative by Prime Minister Cameron,” declared then-Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper. “It is important that we do it and that we do it together.” But then, as the CBC reports, the lawyer-lobbyists and the tame federal finance bureaucrats began to pelt sand in the gears. Thanks in part to Canada, the final G8 agreement was so watered down the lobbyists were able to high-five their victory and quickly get back to their real business of creating and expanding offshore tax havens.
Officially, offshore tax havens cost Canada’s treasury from offshore tax havens $6-8-billion a year, but the real number is probably much higher.
So who really speaks for Canadian taxpayers who must pay the price for this tax avoidance by the rich and powerful in the form of higher taxes and poorer services?
Certainly not the misnamed Canadian Taxpayers’ Federation. It is currently busy winning its word war to prevent Ottawa from closing any of the various loopholes that allow incorporated so-called small businesses to drive a Mack Truck though the notion their owners should pay their fair share of taxes.
So far as I can tell, the CTF has not uttered even a single shocked-and-appalled tweet about the revelations in the Paradise Papers, or demanded Ottawa begin collecting all those billions in lost revenue.
So who does the Canadian Taxpayers’ Federation really represent? Who are its members? Who funds it… really? And, while we’re asking, why do its spokespeople always pop up in the mainstream media pretending to speak for Canadian taxpayers — while ignoring their real interests?
As Marco Chown Oved, one of the Paradise Papers reporters at the Toronto Star — the other Canadian member of the consortium — put it: “The problem is that billions of dollars in taxes from the wealthy and corporations aren’t being collected because of tax havens. And those billions for schools, hospitals and roads have to come from somewhere, so everyone else has to pay more… Think of what that money could pay for and ask yourself why more people don’t care.”
Good question. Just don’t expect an answer from the Canadian Taxpayers’ Federation.
***
Kevin Lacey, the Atlantic Director of the Canadian Taxpayers’ Foundation, has tweeted he did refer to the Paradise Papers after they were released. His tepid tweet — “Yes, let’s review our tax system and make sure it works for average workers, not just those at the top” — linked to a Halifax Today article. The article quotes Lacey saying: “You can put the tax rate to whatever you want for wealthy individuals and they will find a way to not pay them.”
While I do apologize to Lacey for missing his tweet (I searched “Canadian Taxpayers Federation” in the Google news feed, and looked at both the CTF home page and its Twitter feed, and found no references to CTF commenting on the Paradise Papers in any of those likely locations), I think it’s fair to note the Canadian Taxpayers Federation’s recent campaigns against small business tax reform — which most independent economists note would have little impact on actual small businesses but would impact wealthy individuals using incorporated small businesses to avoid taxes — shows its true colours.
I still feel the Morneau tax changes are an unfair cash grab from those who aren’t wealthy enough to hide all their income offshore. The changes proposed would never touch the wealthiest revealed in the Paradise papers who are far too influential or costly to pursue. Easier to move the goal posts for those who were playing by the rules than go after those who cheat.
I know it was slightly after this article was published, but Kevin Lacey was on Rick Howe for an hour at 10 am this morning talking about the Paradise Papers. I would assume that interview would have had to have been set up before this article was published, even though it happened after. No comment on the content of the interview though….
http://www.news957.com/audio/the-rick-howe-show/
If you own your home and and have owned it for more than a decade it is almost a certainty that you ‘have not paid your fair share of property taxes’.
Our taxable assessment is almost $62,000 less than the assessed value.
Owner/occupiers in more expensive areas of HRM have a much greater difference between assessed and taxable values.
And why does the Sobey family need a property tax break on multiple residential properties ?
We can thank the stupid NDP for agitating for property tax differentials for all Nova Scotian residential property owners,and also thank the equally stupid PC government for introducing the foolish taxation system. Now we can thank the gutless Liberals for refusing to act on the issue.
All praties know the wealthier owners are saving very significant amounts of money each year.
I suggest the province immediately abolish the assessment cap on all residential owner occupied properties values at $1,000,000 and then over a 5-7 phase out the cap on all other properties.
( I have all the data for expensive homes for the past 7 years)
Vacant land and secondary residences should be taxed at fair market value asap.
If I remember correctly the CTF won’t develge its membership nor its funders. It’s useful to remember that tax havens are only one aspect of a successful decade long campaign by corporations, those with extreme wealth and their political allies to suppres taxation as much as possible. The figures usually given for forgone tax revenue don’t even come close to the true amounts. For more information check out Canadians FOR TAX Fairness web site.
Article itself is excellent; links are revealing like the link to the company APRIL (pulp and paper giant) and its shady operations around the world. Operations in Indonesia were scandalous and so many people have been hurt by this company’s operations, never mind the tax avoidance schemes enabled by the bevy of accountants, lawyers, lobbyists, …Seems like the pro- free traders let the ultra – rich decide how globalization would roll out, and we now have a system that satisfies the very wealthy and which is being taken advantage of by many prominent Canadians (iens).
Remember all the jokes about drawing pogey- are you on the u.i.c. swim team? etc.Unemployment insurance claims were certainly not all legit. and there was some taking of earnings from the UI pool that should not have been taken, but that pails in comparison to what is now being done by prominent people, wealthy individuals, and huge, global corporations. Point is, any system can be played. UI has been ‘fixed’ to some degree; this tax avoidance stuff is no – where close to being ‘fixed’.
There is no solace in what is referred to in one of the links as the action now being taken by the OECD to”…endorse a series of measures to reform international tax rules.” The OECD knew what was going on and did nothing. Now, they are making a little noise, and to what end?
Again, great article Stephen!
As mentioned near the end of Kimber’s piece the CTF gets much of its influence through the media. It’s presence in the media is sometimes a case of lazy journalism and our national public broadcaster has been one of the worst offenders. However, it is also a result of “objective” journalism – the reporter digs up a story on supposed government waste or mis-spending and needs someone to voice outrage. Often opposition politicians will do the trick but sometimes – when no opposition politician wants in on the story – the CTF becomes the go-to authenticator. So I wonder, did any reporters call up the CTF for their comments on the Paradise Papers?
Two excellent articles answering questions about the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. I think Tim Bousquet did a NS version some time ago.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/canadian-taxpayer-federation-opinion-lamont-1.3802441
https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2013/09/17/Canadian-Taxpayers-Federation-Accountability/
http://www.cbc.ca/1.3802441
Also, not a single word on The Paradise Papers in last Saturday’s Globe & Mail financial section.
Stephen: I was a little disappointed in your fine article as its first paragraph lead me to believe that I would get an answer to a question that I have long asked just “Who is the “Canadian Taxpayers’ Federation”?
Tim?
Bravo!
Any chance of having the CTF-NS rep Kevin Lacey on Examiner radio for an interview regarding the implications of this article? Or would that be akin to asking Andy Filmore for the same? A lost cause on accountability.
I think your latter statement is more accurate; “a LOST CAUSE on ACCOUNTABILITY”!!