Tax Deal Makes Us Feel Like Suckers : CRA SOTW
Alan Baggett
To the author of this piece “Tax Deal Makes the Rest of us Feel like
Suckers” I apologize but, unfortunately, I have lost your name and
specifics
Published: The Gazette
For the average Canadian taxpayer, the most interesting thing to come
out of the Oliphant inquiry did not concern former prime minister
Brian Mulroney's dealings with German-Canadian lobbyist Karlheinz
Schreiber.
The really startling news was about Mulroney's relationship with the
Canada Revenue Agency, the federal tax administration agency. The CRA
could seem boring in contrast to the free-spending Schreiber, a man
given to handing out $1,000 bills in envelopes in New York hotel
rooms, but it's not.
The CRA is, if anything, more of a friend to wealthy Canadian
taxpayers than they could even imagine Schreiber being.
Mulroney is a case in point. Despite having acknowledged receiving
$225,000 in cash from Schreiber in 1993 and 1994 after he left office,
Mulroney was required to pay income tax on only half that amount, six
full years after he received his last payment.
Most Canadian taxpayers will fail to recognize themselves in this
lenient picture. We know we'd be laughed out of the room if we
suggested that half our income be tax-free, never mind trying to get
away with not paying any income tax on it for several years.
In Canada, as well, it seems the little people pay taxes (as the late
Leona Helmsley put it), while the wealthy call in their tax lawyers.
Even Justice Jeffrey Oliphant, heading the inquiry into Mulroney's
dealings with Schreiber, was impressed by the CRA's generosity.
"Pretty good deal, you'd agree with that?" he asked Mulroney. "Well,
he's a pretty good lawyer," Mulroney said, referring to his tax
lawyer, Wilfrid Lefebvre.
In an unfortunate bit of timing, a day after Mulroney praised his
lawyer's abilities, CRA Commissioner William V. Baker, commenting on a
Quebec City man's guilty plea on tax-evasion charges, went on record
to reassure Canadian taxpayers: "The vast majority of Canadians pay
their taxes in full and on time," he said. "In fairness to them, the
CRA has put effective and rigorous programs in place to identify those
people who try to avoid paying the taxes they owe."
Yet with every press release it issues, the CRA states, "Taxpayers
will not be penalized or prosecuted if they make a full disclosure
before the CRA takes any action or starts an investigation."
In sad reality, the only people who would reap the benefits of a full,
voluntary disclosure of non-payment of taxes are those who are not
taxed at source - not the ordinary taxpayer, in other words. That's
hardly fair.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Miss a Tax Tale Miss a lot!
Visit the CRA SOTW Library at http://canada.revenue.agency.angelfire.com
------------------------------------------------------------
Alan Baggett – Tax Collector’s Bible