Tax evaders from around the world have been investigated, fined and jailed for trying to hide their wealth in Liechtenstein, but a senator says Canadians suspected of using bank accounts there to dodge the taxman are getting off easy.
Thanks to secrecy laws that prevent other countries obtaining information from its banks, Liechtenstein has long been regarded as a perfect place to stash cash.
The would-be tax haven was cracked open in 2006, however, when whistleblower Heinrich Kieber handed German authorities a disc of stolen data.
The disc, for which Kieber was reportedly paid nearly 5 million euros, contained some 12,000 pages of information detailing all the account holders at Liechtenstein's largest financial institution, LGT.
Authorities in the United States, Germany and Australia subsequently imposed jail sentences and huge fines on those found to have been using accounts at the LGT bank to cheat the taxman.
According to Canadian Sen. Percy Downe, authorities here learned of more than 100 Canadians who hold more than $100 million in "secret, hidden" bank accounts based in the tiny European principality tucked between Austria and Switzerland.
"You could not open an account unless you had half a million dollars to deposit," the Liberal senator from P.E.I. told CTV News, explaining the requirements at the bank wholly owned by Liechtenstein's royal family.
While it's legal for Canadians to invest outside the country, it is illegal for individuals to use foreign trust accounts as a means of purporting to be non-residents for tax purposes.
"(Of) these 106 Canadians, the largest account had $12 million," Downe said. "These are very rich Canadians trying to avoid taxes."
Revenue Canada has since recovered $5.2 million in unpaid taxes, and no Canadian has been charged with tax evasion.
For Downe, that raises some troubling questions.
"People are wondering: Is someone being protected? What's going on here, it doesn't make sense,' he said.
But Minister of National Revenue Gail Shea says such concerns are unfounded.
"I can assure you that CRA (Canada Revenue Agency) has taken compliance action with every name that has been forwarded to us from these lists," Shea told CTV News.
"Just because Canadians have money in a foreign bank doesn't mean they aren't paying taxes on it."
When a similar situation arose after a whistleblower disclosed the names of nearly 1,800 Canadians with secret Swiss bank accounts, Ottawa recovered just $33 million. It has never said whether any charges were laid.
Nevertheless, the minister says the government is indeed cracking down on wealthy tax cheats and has recovered $4 billion in unpaid taxes from offshore accounts in the last six years.
Original Article
Source: CTV
Author: Robert Fife
Thanks to secrecy laws that prevent other countries obtaining information from its banks, Liechtenstein has long been regarded as a perfect place to stash cash.
The would-be tax haven was cracked open in 2006, however, when whistleblower Heinrich Kieber handed German authorities a disc of stolen data.
The disc, for which Kieber was reportedly paid nearly 5 million euros, contained some 12,000 pages of information detailing all the account holders at Liechtenstein's largest financial institution, LGT.
Authorities in the United States, Germany and Australia subsequently imposed jail sentences and huge fines on those found to have been using accounts at the LGT bank to cheat the taxman.
According to Canadian Sen. Percy Downe, authorities here learned of more than 100 Canadians who hold more than $100 million in "secret, hidden" bank accounts based in the tiny European principality tucked between Austria and Switzerland.
"You could not open an account unless you had half a million dollars to deposit," the Liberal senator from P.E.I. told CTV News, explaining the requirements at the bank wholly owned by Liechtenstein's royal family.
While it's legal for Canadians to invest outside the country, it is illegal for individuals to use foreign trust accounts as a means of purporting to be non-residents for tax purposes.
"(Of) these 106 Canadians, the largest account had $12 million," Downe said. "These are very rich Canadians trying to avoid taxes."
Revenue Canada has since recovered $5.2 million in unpaid taxes, and no Canadian has been charged with tax evasion.
For Downe, that raises some troubling questions.
"People are wondering: Is someone being protected? What's going on here, it doesn't make sense,' he said.
But Minister of National Revenue Gail Shea says such concerns are unfounded.
"I can assure you that CRA (Canada Revenue Agency) has taken compliance action with every name that has been forwarded to us from these lists," Shea told CTV News.
"Just because Canadians have money in a foreign bank doesn't mean they aren't paying taxes on it."
When a similar situation arose after a whistleblower disclosed the names of nearly 1,800 Canadians with secret Swiss bank accounts, Ottawa recovered just $33 million. It has never said whether any charges were laid.
Nevertheless, the minister says the government is indeed cracking down on wealthy tax cheats and has recovered $4 billion in unpaid taxes from offshore accounts in the last six years.
Original Article
Source: CTV
Author: Robert Fife
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