Surrendering Wealth

"I think it's a good thing, it draws attention. This data comes from relatively small tax havens like the Cook Islands, but none of the major ones like the Caymans or Barbados, where most of the money is going. So this is just the tip of the iceberg."
Dennis Howlett, executive director, Canadians for Tax Fairness

Well, isn't that downright inconvenient for Canadian tax-dodgers, that a list exists identifying approximately 450 Canadians of wealth who have chosen to side-step their obligation as citizens of Canada, living in Canada, taking advantage of Canada's generous social programs, and our safe and secure social and political environment, but balking at having to pay their share of the taxes that make all those universal benefits possible.

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists based in Washington has obviously taken it upon themselves to bring attention to the hypocrisies and greed of those who have no intention of paying their fair share to Canada Revenue Agency. Lesser mortals can cope with their obligations, but not they. The ICIJ has helpfully revealed a cache of 2.5 million digital files, revelatory in nature and certain to result in some measure of embarrassment to those involved.

Canadians are already in possession of at least one name, that of a class action lawyer who is extremely well known and evidently extremely well-remunerated. And whose wife just happens to be a member of the Senate of Canada. Reaping benefits all over the place, thank you very much, and setting an example for other Canadians of how to honourably comport themselves in the public sphere.

The data in question has come from the British Virgin Islands, it would appear. While governments themselves may be in dire financial straits thanks to the 2008 global financial downturn, there are obviously individuals with cash to stash. In the United States alone it's estimated that $100-billion yearly is lost because law-abiding, and tax-evading citizens prefer to hide their wealth in offshore banks.

And here's a cheerful note to top it all off; the ICIJ has announced it has discovered that the most egregious users of offshore banks include "government officials and their families and associates, in Azerbaijan, Russia, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand, Canada, Mongolia and other countries." 'Other countries', along with Azerbaijan, Russia, the Philippines, Thailand and Mongolia we can understand - but Canada?

Lumped in with those great countries of political repression and oppression? Presumably, the tax burden on the Canadian wealthy represents the oppression in this particular instance. Over 60 countries are represented in this global network of journalists who belong to the ICIJ. Their commitment to investigative revelations and consequent/subsequent embarrassment for those who flout their countries' rules and regulations is commendable.

It is against the law not to report income to the Canada Revenue Agency. Canada in the government's last budget proposed rewarding whistleblowers who give the CRA information leading to the identification of those who evade paying their share of the social freight. The U.S., Britain, Germany, France and others are already using the strategy successfully, and that's more like the company we like to keep.

The discomfiting part of all of this is that the Canada Revenue Agency has yet to announce a conviction reflecting previously received data identifying over two thousand Canadians with offshore accounts at Banks in Switzerland and Liechtenstein over the past several years.