Taxpayer takes Taxman (and woman) to Court :CRA SOTW
Alan Baggett
Tue, February 12, 2008
Taxpayer takes taxman to court
By KEVIN CRUSH, SUN MEDIA
Tired of paying so-called hidden taxes, a Toronto mortgage specialist
is taking the feds to court.
Joel Kelman says he was looking at his gas receipt one day and just
got fed up with the taxes the government apparently doesn't want to
tell people about.
So after taking the case to his father's law firm, he has filed a case
with the Tax Court of Canada against the federal government claiming
the GST on gas, air fare, liquor and cars is illegal.
RIGHT TO KNOW
"The consumer has a right to know what they are paying taxes on."
Kelman said many people know that the GST is being charged on their
gas and some even know that there are hidden taxes behind the price
that the GST is also being tacked on to.
Taxing taxes isn't necessarily illegal, he admits, but what he says is
illegal is the government not telling consumers how the tax breaks
down.
"It's not taxing taxes that's the problem, it's that they are taxing
unidentifiable taxes," said Kelman.
It's definitely an interesting case, says the Alberta director of the
Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF).
"From a moral standpoint, we certainly agree that governments should
be forthright and disclose to their citizens what they are taxing and
at what rate," said Scott Hennig, who noted the CTF isn't involved in
the case.
Taking fuel, for example, Hennig noted there are two excise taxes on
gasoline that never show up on the bill - a 10-cents-per-litre tax for
Ottawa and a nine-cent-per- litre tax for Alberta (which has the
lowest excise tax in Canada).
The GST is calculated after the two excise taxes are put in, so in
essence the GST is taxing the tax. None of that is displayed on the
bill, which Hennig says is immoral. "Certainly we feel it is wrong to
collect a tax in the first part and not tell anyone about it."
LOTS OF HITS
Ever since Kelman went public with his story last week, he says it is
getting attention from the public. He has had 1,300 hits on his
website - taxontax.ca - so far. Twelve of those have come from the
Canada Revenue Agency - proof, he says, that he's ruffling feathers.
He says people can sign up online to join his case, for a $10 fee. If
the case is successful, those signing up could get a tax refund of
$1,500 or more depending on how much liquor, air fare, gas and cars a
person has bought.
Kelman said he's been told that could take four years.
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