Canadian taxpayers are a docile people.

[Argus]

Not everyone is cheating ... true.

So you don't mind paying extra for the ones who are?

.

Right now I'm paying extra so Trudeau could promise a tax cut to people earning "only" $89,000 a year.

[WestCanMan]

I'm not talking about them.

Wealth, not income.

The ones who don't ever pay taxes ... so you're stuck paying their share.

How do you like paying taxes for people with obscene wealth?

.

Who are the ones that "don't ever pay taxes"? Link please.

[jacee]

Right now I'm paying extra so Trudeau could promise a tax cut to people earning "only" $89,000 a year.

You're payin for the richest people who evade their taxes.

You blame everybody else.

Why do you give them a free ride?

.

[Argus]

You're payin for the richest people who evade their taxes.

You blame everybody else.

Why do you give them a free ride?

.

You're being cliche'd. The truth is that the middle class cheats more on their taxes than the uber rich.

If you're making $50 million a year, saving a million or two is just not that big a deal and not enough motivation to risk breaking the law. If you're making $50k, though, saving a thousand or two is important. And while the million or two seems like a large number there just aren't that many uber rich in this country compared to the middle class.

[Smallc]

You're being cliche'd. The truth is that the middle class cheats more on their taxes than the uber rich.

Citation?

[jacee]

You're being cliche'd. The truth is that the middle class cheats more on their taxes than the uber rich.

If you're making $50 million a year, saving a million or two is just not that big a deal and not enough motivation to risk breaking the law. If you're making $50k, though, saving a thousand or two is important. And while the million or two seems like a large number there just aren't that many uber rich in this country compared to the middle class.

Still making excuses for uber rich people who evade taxes.

Very odd.

Do you advise them on that? Lol

.

[jacee]

Who are the ones that "don't ever pay taxes"? Link please.

The ones who hide their money offshore and don't report income.

.

[eyeball]

Still making excuses for uber rich people who evade taxes.

Very odd.

Do you advise them on that? Lol

.

Argus appears to have avoided discussing anything to do with tax evasion or the Panama Papers and it's pretty clear many conservatives are just as loath to get to uppity at all towards their betters and the putrescently rich over this. If anything I get the sense the Panama Papers actually vindicate their notion that high taxes cause rich people to flee. They didn't really want to break the law but the goddamn lefty lib commies forced them.

The revelations of just one offshore bank in one offshore haven suggests human beings have probably been bilked for trillions of dollars spanning decades. I would have said governments except I'm of the opinion governments are basically bought and paid for enablers of this fiscal feculence. Apologizing for this appears to be taking the form of invoking the usual clutch of conservative sacred cows - taxes are too high and tantamount to theft...workers and poor people are lazy and entitled. Tax evasion by the 10% to 1% is as irrelevant as climate change or the root causes of terror and just one more silly little thing to yawn and roll your eye's at. Talk about docile.

[Argus]

Citation?

Oh please. There are a few thousand uber rich at best vs many millions of the middle class. The uber rich have access to high priced accountants who, for the most part, find clever, but legal ways to shield some but not all their money. Do you really need a cite for common bloody sense? I used to work for CRA and I used to be a member of the Suspicious Activities Working Group. I know about fraud and where it comes from.

Which is not to defend CRA or the government. I've written in the past about how the agency fails to properly police fraud.

Edited April 25, 2016 by Argus

[Argus]

The ones who hide their money offshore and don't report income.

That's almost certainly a very small percentage of a fairly small number of people.

[Argus]

Still making excuses for uber rich people who evade taxes.

Very odd.

Do you advise them on that? Lol

I'm applying basic common sense and logic to an issue which you evidently feel deserves neither.

Class warfare never inspires anything good, and those who want to practice it rarely succeed for long.

[August1991]

The top 50% of earners pay 96% of all taxes.

Why would the bottom 50% be concerned about high taxes? Why wouldn't they vote for whatever party offered them the most free stuff?

Argus, provide a link to such a claim that 50% of Canadians pay 96% of taxes.

Your claim may be accurate but it misses two points: first, even if the bottom 50% pay only 4% of the taxes, the poor still have a stake in the game.

Second point?

To me, as George Bernard Shaw once claimed, money is relative.

A $5,000 lottery win to someone in surburbia is like a blue $5 bill in the hat of a beggar on Ste-Catherine.

Been there, done that.

Edited April 25, 2016 by August1991

[Smallc]

Oh please. There are a few thousand uber rich at best vs many millions of the middle class. The uber rich have access to high priced accountants who, for the most part, find clever, but legal ways to shield some but not all their money. Do you really need a cite for common bloody sense? I used to work for CRA and I used to be a member of the Suspicious Activities Working Group. I know about fraud and where it comes from.

Which is not to defend CRA or the government. I've written in the past about how the agency fails to properly police fraud.

You could have just said that you don't have one. I didn't expect you to.

[blueblood]

I'm applying basic common sense and logic to an issue which you evidently feel deserves neither.

Class warfare never inspires anything good, and those who want to practice it rarely succeed for long.

The irish economy these days has not only gotten themselves out of their predicament, they are one of the fastes growing economies in the world at the moment doing the exact opposite of how trudeau and obama want to do things.

My point, the american big businesses are paying their fair share... In ireland.

[jacee]

Class warfare never inspires anything good, and those who want to practice it rarely succeed for long.

So ... stop.

It isn't about "class", and it isn't about you.

.

[dre]

Oh please. There are a few thousand uber rich at best vs many millions of the middle class. The uber rich have access to high priced accountants who, for the most part, find clever, but legal ways to shield some but not all their money. Do you really need a cite for common bloody sense? I used to work for CRA and I used to be a member of the Suspicious Activities Working Group. I know about fraud and where it comes from.

Which is not to defend CRA or the government. I've written in the past about how the agency fails to properly police fraud.

You made a pretty specific claim that you obviously cant back up.

[Argus]

You made a pretty specific claim that you obviously cant back up.

And you progressives continue to believe that punishing the rich tax cheats will bring in any significant amount of money and none of you can back it up.

[Smallc]

And you progressives continue to believe that punishing the rich tax cheats will bring in any significant amount of money and none of you can back it up.

The precise annual cost to Canadian tax coffers is unknowable. But credible estimates peg Canada’s tax losses to offshore havens at between $6 billion and $7.8 billion each year.

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2016/04/04/how-offshore-tax-havens-are-costing-canada-billions-of-dollars-a-year.html

[Smallc]

So we can either let people have tax havens, or roll back the OAS age. I think I know which one I'll pick.

Edited April 26, 2016 by Smallc

[dre]

And you progressives continue to believe that punishing the rich tax cheats will bring in any significant amount of money and none of you can back it up.

And I said that where? Inside your head?

[Argus]

The precise annual cost to Canadian tax coffers is unknowable. But credible estimates peg Canada’s tax losses to offshore havens at between $6 billion and $7.8 billion each year.

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2016/04/04/how-offshore-tax-havens-are-costing-canada-billions-of-dollars-a-year.html

The link you have included is to LEGAL offshore investments. I'm entirely in favour of restricting those.

[Argus]

So we can either let people have tax havens, or roll back the OAS age. I think I know which one I'll pick.

It's more like we can have OAS rollbacks or we can borrow more money. And yes, I know which one you've picked.

[Smallc]

It's more like we can have OAS rollbacks or we can borrow more money. And yes, I know which one you've picked.

Raise taxes.

[Argus]

Raise taxes.

Raising taxes damages the economy. I'm not willing to damage the economy so we can put another two billion into the arts.

[Smallc]

Raising taxes damages the economy. I'm not willing to damage the economy so we can put another two billion into the arts.

Who said anything about the arts?