Saturday, May 03, 2014

Canada's All-time Tax Haven High

Canadian Money in Offshore Tax Havens Hits Record High

by TaxFairness.ca

OTTAWA- Canadian money stashed in 10 offshore tax havens hit $170 billion in 2013. That’s $15 billion more than in 2012, according to Canadians for Tax Fairness using new data from Statistics Canada. The money flowing to tax havens is growing at a faster rate than investment in non-tax haven countries. At least 40 per cent of all Canadian direct foreign investment is held by the finance and insurance industry.

Three offshore tax havens, Barbados, Cayman Islands and Luxembourg hold more than $124 billion of Canadian money compared to $87 billion in 2010.

“This government can’t just shrug its shoulders and be outmaneuvered by corporations and very rich people looking to get even richer at the expense of the rest of us,” says Dennis Howlett, executive director of Canadians for Tax Fairness.

“The Canada Revenue Agency needs the resources and political will to tackle tax havens.”

Federal and provincial governments lose an estimated $7.8 billion in tax revenues each year because of tax havens.

“The scale of the problem gets larger while the federal government cuts back on food safety, rail inspections and services for veterans and their families,” Howlett says.

Statistics Canada has released information on fewer tax haven countries this year. Bahamas is a popular tax haven for Canadian banks and investment firms. It was dropped from the StatsCan report even though in 2010 it held $14.5 billion in Canadian money. That can indicate that the $14.5 billion is in a few hands and not reported for confidentiality reasons, Howlett says.

If Bahamas held at least as much money in 2013 as it did in 2010, then offshore money would add up to $185 billion.

Last year, Canada made commitments to the G8 to clamp down on a tax haven epidemic estimated at $30 trillion globally. However the 2013 federal budget did little to support that commitment.


Countries or regions
2010
2011
2012
2013
All countries
637285
675020
712562
779292
Bahamas
14511
x
x
x
Barbados
49954
55881
61273
62953
Bermuda
11234
10442
13165
10696
British Virgin Islands
3494
2057
1598
1748
Cayman Islands
23970
32996
30803
30879
Cyprus
3277
3224
3203
3362
Ireland
22240
17587
11967
15976
Luxembourg
13583
19252
23737
30224
Switzerland
4495
4727
3155
6913
Hong Kong
6955
5446
3736
5089
Singapore
2237
1363
1563
2154
TOTAL
155950
152975
154200
169994
TOTAL incl. suppressed 



184,915

Prepared by Canadians for Tax Fairness using  
CANSIM table376-0051 and table376-0052

Press Release - Friday May 2, 2014

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