Dear Editor,
The federal government has embarked on a “tax fairness” program to tax minimum wage workers for employees discounts that many enjoy while working in food services and the retail industry.
This comes on the heels of going after small business “tax cheats” who, legitimately, use the existing tax laws to minimize the tax amounts that they do pay.
Meanwhile, tens of thousands of residents right here in Richmond pay zero or very little tax.
They do so easily by not reporting their offshore income that they are required to report.
The tipping point has been reached where a smaller and smaller percentage of the population are paying for services that a larger and larger percentage are not paying.
Richmond has very high poverty rates according to CRA data.
This, of course, is bogus.
The reason for this situation, which predates our current government, is that it is “hard” to collect such taxes.
The CRA does not do “hard.”
Ottawa is desperate for more tax revenue. We do not need more taxes on existing tax-paying citizens.
I suggest there are, annually, tens of millions of dollars of taxes to collect if only the CRA did “hard.”
I am all for tax fairness.
Eric Sykes
Richmond
