The protesters wanted to use it as a reminder of the importance of “getting multinationals and big fortunes to pay their fair share” while a kitten estimated at between 18.1 and 23.4 billion escapes Canada’s tax authorities every year through various evasive maneuvers , as indicated by the first report from last year, the total federal tax gap for the years 2014 to 2018.

An amount that could be even more astronomical if other elements were taken into account when calculating ARC, such as the portion of tax that large foreign companies doing business in the country don’t pay because they don’t have an office in Canada, for example , designating the group’s coordinator and spokesperson, Edgar Lopez-Asselin.

“Big companies are thus responsible for 70% of the tax gap in corporate tax reporting, while they account for 1% of registered companies. “Failing to report foreign investments by wealthy individuals costs Canadian taxpayers nearly $3 billion each year,” the group also said in a release.

A year has passed since the report was published and very little has been done to curb the problem of tax avoidance or to recover amounts that escape tax, stresses Mr. Lopez-Asselin in an interview with La Canadian Press.

“We understand that one of the key issues is the difficulty of documenting the scale of the problem,” he admits. But since the report was published, there has been no news or comment on its content. There was no announcement or new action to cover this shortfall.

“Right now we have more questions than answers,” continues Mr. Lopez-Asselin. The situation shows flaws in the CRA’s collection strategy. For us it is a lack of transparency and democracy that these sums are not returned. »

The current inflationary context only amplifies the wealth gap and consequently the tax gap, adds the spokesman.

The collective Échec aux paradis paradis is calling for better financing of the CRA, tightening of the laws against tax avoidance maneuvers and more transparency within the CRA.

By better equipping the CRA to recover the billions of dollars it loses each year, “small taxpayers” would have less to compensate, whether by paying taxes or losing certain services, because they lack public funds.

“We should give the agency legal tools and increase its resources so that its inspectors can do their jobs better, to give them more leeway,” advocates Mr. Lopez-Asselin. We must close the key loopholes that allow large corporations not to pay their fair share of taxes. »

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This story was produced with financial support from the Meta Exchange and The Canadian Press for News.