A squad dedicated to tax havens

Pierre Couture

Tuesday, February 6, 2018 00:00

UPDATE
Tuesday, February 6, 2018 00:00

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Revenu Québec is building a squad specializes in combating tax havens and trade online. The team of 75 experts hope to recover a good part of the $ 700 million that escape each year to the tax authorities in quebec.

“We have begun the recruitment of this group specialized in tax planning international “, stated yesterday the spokesman of Revenu Québec, Geneviève Laurier.

Bread on the board

It must be said that Revenu Québec will have plenty of bread on the plate while the loss of international tax have been estimated at close to $ 700 million last year.

The online business would lose in tax quebeckers more than $ 270 million annually, according to the ministry of Finance.

The web giants like Google, Facebook, Netflix, eBay, Amazon, Priceline, Expedia, and others, that carry out online sales in Quebec and who do not charge sales taxes, are losing a lot of money in Quebec while creating an inequity in tax to other retailers, who are their competitors.

Taxing the tax haven

Quebec would even dream of putting in place a tax known as profits diverted to provide incentives for the big players of the trade in line to pay their taxes here rather than in the discharge of this new form of higher tax.

In Australia, this tax measure would enable the australian government to recover $ 100 million as early as next year.

On the international stage, Quebec is moving much more rapidly than Canada that has yet still to announce its action plan in the fight against tax havens.

“Quebec is in advance of three to four laps on the federal. Ottawa could do much more, ” says the lawyer-tax expert Paul Ryan.

Tax also Netflix

In the case of Netflix, Quebec would like to be able to impose the Quebec sales tax (QST) on the online transactions carried out by the american giant of the entertainment in quebec.

However, the federal government still refuses to tax Netflix in Canada for political considerations (election promise in particular) evoked by prime minister Trudeau.

According to Mr. Ryan, the action plan of the Québec government goes very far in imposing fines more salt in the wound for the fraudsters and the prohibition of bidding on public contracts for the companies at fault.

Revenu Québec hiring

Revenu Québec

The Québec Finance minister, Carlos Leitão, promised by November 2017 to tackle the tax havens. He seems to want to keep your word, as shown in the advertisement published Saturday in newspapers to recruit 75 professionals.

• Experts in tax planning and international recovery
• Lawyers in international taxation
• Specialized investigators in the fight against tax havens

Estimated cost of the plan of action : 8 to$10 Million

Return on each dollar invested : $6 – $ 7

Losses international tax in 2017 in Quebec

E-Commerce : $270 million

We speak here of online commerce sites such as Google, Facebook and Netflix, which do not levy sales taxes and not paying taxes in Quebec, despite significant revenues.

Tax avoidance by individuals : $257 million

Non-statement of investments and aggressive tax planning in tax havens by individuals.

Tax avoidance of companies : a $ 159 million $

Non-declaration of profits diverted from businesses and aggressive tax planning.

Total : 686 M$