The lengths that some corporations will go to avoid paying tax is mind-boggling.
One of the more cynical practices is called transfer pricing. And one of the most popular examples is how multi-nationals use it to avoid paying taxes on their lucrative banana trade.
That's the opinion of two experts - one Canadian and one American - who recently talked to CBC's The Current.
"Tax havens are more or less countries as bankers wish them to be," says Alain Denault, author of the soon to be published Imperial Canada Inc.
Denault points out that when former Prime Minister Paul Martin was questioned and criticized for his companies' use of tax havens, he never had a good explanation of why it was a necessary business practice.
By Peter Gillespie
Until recently, tax policy has been the exclusive domain of experts. This is changing, however, as citizen's groups around the world have begun to research and advocate on tax matters.
Rich individuals and their families have as much as $32 trillion of hidden financial assets in offshore tax havens, according to a new report, The Price of Offshore Revisited from the International Tax Justice Network (TJN).
This translates into as much as $280 billion in lost income tax revenues that could be paying down government debt and supporting public services and education.
28 November 2011
By Dennis Howlett
New research published by the Tax Justice Network shows that tax evasion costs governments around the world more than US$3.1 trillion annually.
In Canada an estimated $81 billion a year is lost to tax evasion in the ‘shadow economy’ - that is half of our total healthcare spending. Canada ranks 11th out of the 145 countries surveyed in total amount of tax evaded.
NEWS
RELEASE: Oct. 28, 2011
New research published by the Tax Justice Network shows that tax evasion costs governments around the world more than US$3.1 trillion annually.
In Canada an estimated $81 billion a year is lost to tax evasion in the ‘shadow economy’ - that is half of our total healthcare spending. Canada ranks 11th out of the 145 countries surveyed in total amount of tax evaded.
