For immediate release: July 16, 2025
OTTAWA—Canadians are losing an estimated $15 billion a year in tax revenue due to the ongoing use of tax havens, according to a new report by Canadians for Tax Fairness (C4TF). The rise and rise of tax havens reveals that wealthy Canadians and corporations had $682 billion stashed in tax havens in 2024, a 165% increase over ten years.
“The scale of widespread tax haven abuse is rivaled only by its impact on our economy, our public purse, and our communities,” said Jared A. Walker, Executive Director of Canadians for Tax Fairness. “Losing $682 billion in assets to tax havens is as if the value of every forklift, crane, MRI machine, and transport truck — every single piece of machinery and equipment in Canada combined — was drained from our economy and tucked away abroad.”
C4TF estimates that the signing of just five tax agreements with tax havens in the early 2010s led to $47.1 billion being shifted to tax havens over the following five years.
The report also finds that at least 46 of the 60 corporations listed on the S&P/TSX 60 have at least one subsidiary in a tax haven. These 46 corporations alone avoided paying $7 billion in taxes by booking profits in foreign jurisdictions in 2024.
“It is clear that this isn’t an isolated problem exploited by a few bad apples,” explained Silas Xuereb, author of the report and researcher & policy analyst at C4TF. “From all of Canada’s big five banks, to major insurance companies, to big tech firms and energy conglomerates, the use of tax havens by corporate Canada is the rule, not the exception.”
C4TF recommends that Canada close this loophole by ending tax agreements with known tax havens, requiring our corporations to have a legitimate business reason to set up subsidiaries in tax havens, supporting the UN tax convention to eliminate incentives for profit shifting, and increasing transparency in financial reporting by making the country-by-country breakdowns of financial information that corporations already submit to tax authorities public.
“At a time when families across the country are reeling from a worsening affordability crisis, these aren’t just numbers on a ledger, but a question of whether people will be able to build a better life in this country,” Walker noted. “The $15 billion in tax revenue we lose to tax havens every single year could fully fund not just our new dental care program, but a single-payer universal national pharmacare program as well.”
Canadians for Tax Fairness is a non-profit, non-partisan organization that advocates for fair and progressive tax policies aimed at building a strong and sustainable economy, reducing inequalities, and funding quality public services.
Media contact:
Canadians for Tax Fairness
647-717-309
