Federal Government & Politics II

[P'tit Renard]

It's shocking that CRA headcount at 60K is now >3x as much as the Australian Tax office. What makes Canada's tax system so exceptional relative to the Aussies that allows Canada to justify such an overbloated taxation office? The CRA is one of many federal agencies ripe for PP to start slashing headcount, just to bring the bureaucracy back in line with our Anglosphere peers.

Even back in 2022 the numbers were already way out of whack:


https://www.canadianaffairs.news/202...main-constant/

"The more analogous institution to the CRA, Psiachos says, is Australia’s federal tax bureaucracy, the Australian Tax Office (ATO).

Since 2013, the ATO has employed roughly 20,000 people, with 20,400 employees as of 2022. That means that Australia had one tax employee for every 1,300 people in 2022, roughly half the number of employees per capita as Canada.

Australia is a better comparison to Canada, Psiachos notes, because both countries have a national corporate, personal and sales tax, whereas the US does not have a national sales tax. Australia and Canada’s corporate tax regimes and enforcement are also similar, as both countries are homes to branch or subsidiary offices of multinational corporations."

[YOWetal]

Originally Posted by P'tit Renard

It's shocking that CRA headcount at 60K is now >3x as much as the Australian Tax office. What makes Canada's tax system so exceptional relative to the Aussies that allows Canada to justify such an overbloated taxation office? The CRA is one of many federal agencies ripe for PP to start slashing headcount, just to bring the bureaucracy back in line with our Anglosphere peers.

"The more analogous institution to the CRA, Psiachos says, is Australia’s federal tax bureaucracy, the Australian Tax Office (ATO).

Since 2013, the ATO has employed roughly 20,000 people, with 20,400 employees as of 2022. That means that Australia had one tax employee for every 1,300 people in 2022, roughly half the number of employees per capita as Canada.

Australia is a better comparison to Canada, Psiachos notes, because both countries have a national corporate, personal and sales tax, whereas the US does not have a national sales tax. Australia and Canada’s corporate tax regimes and enforcement are also similar, as both countries are homes to branch or subsidiary offices of multinational corporations."

I think bloat is clear and especially at CRA but international and per capita comparisons are tricky. We can't have a GST rebate. CCB based on income, TFSA, Home Buyers Account etc. etc. without people managing the policy and application as well as monitoring, auditing of said programs.
Now should be cut taxes, streamline programs? Sure but that has to be done if we make large cuts to CRA or the system collapses. It's already hard to get good information about CRA and timely decisions.

[jonny24]

Originally Posted by YOWetal

I think bloat is clear and especially at CRA but international and per capita comparisons are tricky. We can't have a GST rebate. CCB based on income, TFSA, Home Buyers Account etc. etc. without people managing the policy and application as well as monitoring, auditing of said programs.
Now should be cut taxes, streamline programs? Sure but that has to be done if we make large cuts to CRA or the system collapses. It's already hard to get good information about CRA and timely decisions.

Does Australia have zero programs like those?

[Innsertnamehere]

Originally Posted by jonny24

Does Australia have zero programs like those?

Zero? probably not. Less? most likely.

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by P'tit Renard

It's shocking that CRA headcount at 60K is now >3x as much as the Australian Tax office. What makes Canada's tax system so exceptional relative to the Aussies that allows Canada to justify such an overbloated taxation office? The CRA is one of many federal agencies ripe for PP to start slashing headcount, just to bring the bureaucracy back in line with our Anglosphere peers.

Even back in 2022 the numbers were already way out of whack:


https://www.canadianaffairs.news/202...main-constant/

"The more analogous institution to the CRA, Psiachos says, is Australia’s federal tax bureaucracy, the Australian Tax Office (ATO).

Since 2013, the ATO has employed roughly 20,000 people, with 20,400 employees as of 2022. That means that Australia had one tax employee for every 1,300 people in 2022, roughly half the number of employees per capita as Canada.

Australia is a better comparison to Canada, Psiachos notes, because both countries have a national corporate, personal and sales tax, whereas the US does not have a national sales tax. Australia and Canada’s corporate tax regimes and enforcement are also similar, as both countries are homes to branch or subsidiary offices of multinational corporations."

Given the amount of outright money laundering and tax evasion we have I'm okay with the CRA increasing staff to sleuth it out. Of course if we had a responsible immigration system a lot of it would have been headed off at the pass.

Canada Revenue Agency gets more teeth to catch potential tax cheats
CRA will get more information about crypto transactions in Canada
Elizabeth Thompson · CBC News · Posted: Apr 17, 2024

The federal government is cracking down on potential tax cheats by introducing new measures to track cryptocurrency transactions and giving the Canada Revenue Agency more teeth to penalize taxpayers who refuse to disclose information it wants.

The budget tabled Tuesday also includes provisions to hold tax planners who help clients engage in tax evasion and aggressive tax avoidance as well as shed more light on donations to certain foreign charities registered in Canada and how that money was used.

In recent years, the CRA has come under fire for its track record in catching and prosecuting tax cheats. While the agency has successfully prosecuted small cases, critics say it hasn't done enough to catch larger cases of tax evasion and aggressive tax avoidance...

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/bud...tion-1.7175780

[YOWetal]

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

Zero? probably not. Less? most likely.

Much less yes. They also have their Service Canada equivalent answer questions about the benefits they do have.

[CanSpice]

Originally Posted by whatnext

Of course if we had a responsible immigration system a lot of it would have been headed off at the pass.

Do you have stats on the citizenships of people convicted of tax evasion and money laundering?

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by CanSpice

Do you have stats on the citizenships of people convicted of tax evasion and money laundering?

Convicted? Given Canada's pathetic record of enforcement probably none. it should be no surprise that TD's recent trip to the woodshed was due to American money laundering enforcement, not Canadian. God knows what examining their Canadian operations closely would find.

How TD Bank got caught up in the global drug war, helping to launder hundreds of millions of dollars
TIM KILADZE
RITA TRICHUR
JAMES BRADSHAWINSTITUTIONAL INVESTING REPORTER
PUBLISHED MAY 3, 2024

In January, 2021, American law enforcement agencies surveilled a suspicious box truck and a Lexus SUV through the streets of Queens, N.Y. Their hunch was that a criminal ring was out to launder drug money.

Starting in a supermarket parking lot, a man and a woman got in the truck carrying three bags, then they drove to a bank parking lot where an Lexus SUV pulled up. Bags were exchanged between the vehicles, and the box truck left.

Shortly afterward, the woman, Yunqin Liu, took a bag from the SUV and walked into the bank, where she made a large cash deposit. Then she drove to another branch of the same bank and did it again. And then deposited even more at yet another branch.

Four months later, the U.S. authorities charged six people with money laundering, which resulted in the lead defendant, David Sze, pleading guilty. Throughout the proceedings, the authorities never named the Queens bank, merely referring to it as FI-1. But on Thursday The Globe and Mail reported that the financial institution is Toronto-Dominion Bank TD-T +0.28%increase
, and the revelation shed light on a years-long investigation that has haunted Canada’s second-largest lender.

“I regret that there were serious instances where the Bank’s AML program fell short and did not effectively monitor, detect, report or respond,” TD’s chief executive officer Bharat Masrani said in a statement Friday. “This is unacceptable and not in line with our values.”

Although TD is not the only financial institution tied to the money laundering operation, the sum of money involved is stunning. U.S. authorities believe the criminal ring conducted more than US$2-million worth of transactions on that single day in January, and that it laundered US$653-million between 2016 and 2021....

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/busi...ng-to-launder/

[CanSpice]

Originally Posted by whatnext

Convicted? Given Canada's pathetic record of enforcement probably none.

Okay, how about charged? Do you have any stats on the citizenship of those charged with tax evasion and money laundering? Or are you just resorting to xenophobic "it's all the immigrants fault" type of argument?

[YOWetal]

Originally Posted by CanSpice

Okay, how about charged? Do you have any stats on the citizenship of those charged with tax evasion and money laundering? Or are you just resorting to xenophobic "it's all the immigrants fault" type of argument?

Tax evasion maybe especially if we only look at domestic income tax evasion.

Money laundering is obviously a 10x or 100x bigger problem depending on how you define it. In Canada the elllicit economy is probably equally spread between immigrants and non immigrants but only law abiding immigrants have millions of dollars earned overseas they need to launder. I guess the odd 2nd or 3rd generation immigrant but the point remains the same.

[Loco101]

Originally Posted by YOWetal

Much less yes. They also have their Service Canada equivalent answer questions about the benefits they do have.

There it is called Services Australia and it deals with many government benefits and services and was created in 2019. Gee I wonder who they got that idea from?

[P'tit Renard]

Originally Posted by whatnext

Given the amount of outright money laundering and tax evasion we have I'm okay with the CRA increasing staff to sleuth it out. Of course if we had a responsible immigration system a lot of it would have been headed off at the pass.

CRA is mandated to catch tax evasion, but has not been empowered by legislation to catch money laundering.