OTTAWA — About one-fifth of a group of wealthy Canadians who took part in a federal government survey last year didn’t believe that a proposed advertising campaign about a federal crackdown on tax cheats would do anything to deter people from using overseas tax havens.
There was a similar response from “high net worth” respondents who took part in the survey, conducted last December but released only recently. About one quarter of respondents didn’t believe that the Canada Revenue Agency ads would deter people from taking part in the underground economy.
The agency used the results of the research as it worked to figure out how best to push the message that the federal government was going to go after people who tried to use offshore accounts to lower their tax bill back home. Most of the 567 respondents to the online survey agreed in the end that the campaign would make the CRA’s intentions clear.
The final report on the campaign, dated September 2017, cost the government $54,240 and arrived just prior to a spiralling flurry of media reports laden with revelations about the widespread use of offshore trusts and accounts.
Tax avoidance measures involving offshore trusts are legal, provided that the trust is genuinely managed offshore and that Canadian taxes are paid on any Canadian contributions. And there may be other legitimate reasons for setting up an offshore account, including if you’re a contractor doing work in a particular country.
But the depth of their use in Canada — with reporting by the Toronto Star and CBC indicating there are more than 3,000 Canadians named among 13.4 million records dubbed the “Paradise Papers” — fuelled more opposition calls Tuesday for an end to legal loopholes that could be costing the federal treasury billions in lost tax revenues each year.