Canada’s NDP calls for tax haven clamp down

(Toronto Sun): The Canadian opposition party the NDP is calling on the government to get tough on tax cheats. The party says some corporations and wealthy Canadians avoid paying billions in taxes each year by burying the money in offshore tax havens, which is unfair to average Canadians who have to pick up the slack. NDP Leader Jack Layton accused Prime Minister Stephen Harper Tuesday of being lax with tax evaders, despite all the government’s rhetoric about getting tough on crime. "They claim to want to be tough on crime, well come on. Let’s get with it with the billionaires and those corporations that are milking the Canadian taxpayer," Layton said.

"Mr. Harper cannot keep standing by while the wealthy tax cheats and the biggest corporations that get involved in this essentially take tax dollars out of the pockets of hard-working Canadians. It’s not right." According to the NDP’s figures, Canadians have $80 billion invested in Bermuda, Barbados, and the Cayman Islands — many times those countries’ GDP.

"Each tax dollar that’s hidden in Bermuda is a dollar that someone else must pay, or it’s a dollar that cannot be invested in public services," Layton said, lamenting Harper’s cuts to the Canada Revenue Agency’s enforcement branch.

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