Corporations Owed Canada $8.53 Billions From 2014
Many companies are now getting tax protection such as Audit Shield in order to avoid troubles if they are unexpectedly audited. However, there are companies that are not paying the correct tax they owe to the government. According to the most recent audit report released by the CRA or Canadian Revenue Agency, in 2014 alone there were companies who owed the government a total of $11.4 billion Canadian dollars in taxes or equivalent to $8.53 billion in US dollars.
A complete analysis of the corporate tax gap in Canada which was conducted by the CRA showed that small companies within the country was able to avoid paying taxes with a minimum of C$2.7 billion to a maximum of C$3.7 billion. The corporate tax gap is the resulting amount after the legally owed taxes are deducted from the collected taxes.
In the case of huge corporations, they have managed to dodge taxes amounting C$6.7 billion to C$7.9 billion. The total amount between the small and huge corporations, based on the report of the CRA, accounted to around 24 to 29 per cent of the entire corporate income taxes that they owed to the government in 2014.
From the same report, it was stated that the unpaid billionsis due to tax avoidance that are either intentional or unintentional as well as tax evasion by reporting an income lower than their real income or by claiming deductions that are way beyond what they have spent. There are others who are at fault because they are not aware of proper filing of taxes or they do not know about their payment obligations to the government.
Media reports clarified that the study of the tax gap does not cover the amount of income tax that was unclaimed from legal off shore transactions that are coming from the wealth of the nation. With many things that could go wrong while filing taxes, some companies purchase policies like Audit Shield to ensure that they are protected financially and legally in case they are caught up in unexpected audits which could cause a lot of money if not done properly.
