Canadian Manufacturing

Canadians dodged paying feds up to $3B in taxes on foreign income: CRA

by The Canadian Press   

Canadian Manufacturing
Financing Regulation Public Sector


The latest numbers are being released as Ottawa invests more resources in analyzing and cracking down on tax evasion

OTTAWA—A new federal analysis says Canadians dodged paying Ottawa between $800 million and $3 billion worth of taxes on foreign personal income in 2014.

The study by the Canada Revenue Agency says the missing funds represented between 0.6 per cent and 2.2 per cent of the total income tax revenue Ottawa collected that year from individuals.

So far, the agency says the federal government collected up to $14.6 billion less than it would have in 2014, had all tax obligations been fully met—and that number is expected to grow as research continues.

In previous reports, the agency has already released estimates on the so-called tax gap—the difference between what is owed to the government and what was collected—for personal income tax and the federal portion of the GST and HST.

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The agency’s next study will focus on domestic and international businesses, a report it says will provide CRA with its first estimate of Canada’s overall tax gap.

The latest numbers are being released as Ottawa invests more resources in analyzing and cracking down on tax evasion.

The analysis also found that in 2014, Canadians earned $9 billion in foreign income and held a total of $429 billion worth of assets outside the country—with most of it reported in the United States and the United Kingdom.

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