2. “You know, there's two
schools in economics on this.
One is that there are some good
taxes and the other is that no
taxes are good taxes. I'm in the
latter category. I don't believe
that any taxes are good
taxes.”
Stephen Harper, July 10, 2009
3. I don't want to abolish
government. I simply want to
reduce it to the size where I
can drag it into the bathroom
and drown it in the bathtub.
Grover Norquist, May 21, 2001
4. Taxes are the price we pay
for a civilized society.
U.S. Supreme Court Justice
Oliver Wendall Holmes, 1904
9. Making progress on tax fairness
• Progressive tax changes in provincial
budgets: NB, ON, BC, MB, NL, AB, QC.
• Previous federal gov’t closed some
loopholes, but opened others, cut capacity,
tarnished CRA’s reputation.
• What is Wrong at the CRA? Report recs
• Increase capacity
• Prioritize and prosecute
• Investigate complex cases
• Close loopholes and fix laws
• Produce a tax gap report
• Lead global efforts to tackle tax havens and
reform corporate tax rules
10. Making progress….
• Trudeau government:
• Introduced some progressive tax changes
• 2016 budget extra funding to CRA of $800 million
• Commitment to review regressive tax expenditures
• Progress on corporate tax evasion with OECD base erosion
and profit shifting (BEPS)
• Country by country reporting
• Automatic transfer of tax information
• G20 communique on tax transparency, corp. ownership
• UN/IMF/OECD/WB tax collaboration platform
11. Much more to be done…
• Tax expenditure review later 2016
• Tax gap estimates
• Continued advocacy on enforcement, tax havens
• Broader tax review & increased revenues
• “Corporations pay your fair share” campaign
• Further action at international level on BEPS, tax
havens, int’l tax cooperation
• Funding for international development
We've been through a long period where the word tax was a dirty word.
We had a Prime Minister who thought all taxes were bad. Don’t you miss this guy? Kittens good, but taxes bad, as long as they were private sector kittens.
Harper's budgets weren't budgets, but instead were "low tax plans for jobs and growth”
Even opposition parties including the NDP were scared to talk about taxes for quite some time.
Then in the election campaign last year, he promised a "tax lock law" to ban any increases to taxes.
There was a reason Harper was so opposed to taxes.
He was inspired by and followed in the footsteps or rather the slimy residue, left by US Republican operative Grover Norquist, who said 15 years ago.
Norquist is infamous for drafting a taxpayer protection pledge to oppose any and all efforts to increase corporate and high income tax rates.
He was so influential that by 2012 he got 98% of US Republican members of US Congress and 87% of Republican senators to sign this pledge.
Now there's a different, more civilized perspective on taxes and on public services that I prefer.
Taxes and public services don’t just ensure that we have a civilized society, but much more importantly they also make our economy stronger – because we all know having a strong economy is much more important than having a civilized society.
Despite all what you may have heard in the media, investments in public services provide a much stronger boost to the economy and create more jobs than tax cuts do, especially corporate and income tax cuts.
For far too long the public discussion has been dominated by anti-tax organizations.
CTF most well-known, has an annual budget of $5 million and about a dozen employees.
CFIB started as an anti-tax organization in the 1970s; about $50 million and more in revenues
Fraser Institute $10 million revenues & expenses, including $$ from US Republican Koch brothers.
Fraser institute in tune with with wealthy business backers all about reducing taxes for corporations and top incomes.
These anti-tax organization have been very successful over the past few decades, reducing both govt revenues and spending as a share of the economy to the smallest they’ve been in 70 years – before CPP, EI, Medicare etc….
Tax cuts at federal and provincial level were focused on corporations and high incomes which mean that top 1% in Canada paid lower overall rate of taxation (when considering all taxes) than all other income groups, including the poorest 10%.
There have been very active tax fairness organizations in other countries, including US, UK, France, and globally through the Tax Justice Network. Citizens for Tax Justice in US, Americans for Tax Fairness, United for a Fair Economy. Global Alliance for Tax Justice Oxfam, development organizations at forefront of tax fairness issues, contra tax havens. $$ lost through tax havens…
C4TF established in 2011, just five years ago. Nascent groups such as Doctors for Tax Fairness, lawyers for Tax Fairness, but no broad national organization. Local chapters of C4TF in Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan
Have to thank PIPSC: Debi, your executive and you as members for being one of C4TF’s supporters from the beginning.
C4TF operates on a comparative shoestring, with annual revenues and expenses of only $160,000, a small fraction, less than 1% of the budgets of opponents. Started at an important time and has achieved an incredible amount. And it’s only got more intense & busy each year. Books, feature films,
Last year C4TF produced a report “What is Wrong at the CRA?”, collaborating with many PIPSC members.
Kudos to those workers at CRA who made this report possible by talking about the impact of cuts and the political interference that has prevented them from doing their important jobs, ensuring the integrity of our tax system, and preserving our civilization.
Investment in enforcement and your members really pays off. Recently it was revealed that enforcement actions from 2013 brought in $1 billion more, 3X more than what was forecast.
C4TF worked with ICIJ and CBC on different stories: Luxleaks, Panama Papers.. Calculation of $$ going to tax havens updated last week. Have had extraordinary media coverage: hundreds of media hits just in the past couple of weeks. C4TF ED
Dennis Howlett become a media regular on TV and in press: very outsized impact and influence in relation to shoestring budget.
Have also had much policy success:
in past budget $444 million to enforcement, $352 million for collections over five years, expected to pay off 10X.. $2.6 billion from increased enforcement alone.
Also advances at international level. C4TF works closely with GATJ other groups in other countries, Oxfam many others. BEPS, G20, UN
Have had lots of success, couldn’t have achieved this w/o your support, support of PIPSC and others, including individual donors.
But much more needs to be done. We’re just getting started and will be looking to expanding operations to achieve this, which will mean a need for more revenue – appreciate all the support we can get.
Once again thanks for your time – and for your support.
The original version of this presentation was created by Toby Sanger, economist with CUPE and C4TF Board Member.
