HomeMy WebLinkAboutHuron Expositor, 2016-09-28, Page 5Wednesday, September 28, 2016 • Huron Expositor 5
www.seaforthhuronexpositor.com
Big tax evaders must be brought to justice
The Canada Revenue
Agency can quickly track
down taxpayers who fail
to file their income tax returns
on time or make an error in
arithmetic or mistakenly omit a
few dollars of income and,
without delay or due process,
penalize them with heavy fines
and threaten them with
imprisonment.
Yet money -launderers buy
multi-million dollar properties
in Vancouver, flip them for
enormous profits and live like
potentates while reporting pov-
erty -level incomes, but seem to
attract no scrutiny from the tax
authorities.
It's easier to trap a hapless
Canadian who innocently slips
up on an income tax filing than
a sophisticated crook who is
scamming the system and CRA
has long plucked the low -hang-
ing fruit. CRA whistleblowers
claim there was a deliberate
decision not to pursue reports
of "students" or "homemakers"
with little income buying mil-
lion -dollar properties in Metro
Vancouver.
There's plenty of blame to go
around. Some point a finger at
banks for facilitating financing
and at the real estate industry
for aggressively marketing Van-
couver residential property.
The federal government has
been criticized for not giving
the CRA the funding it needs to
investigate cases of fraud and
tax evasion.
One of those critics is Van-
couver Mayor Gregor Robert-
son, who said this week that
he'd heard CRA lacked the
resources to enforce tax eva-
sion laws. He said he'd
expressed his concern to fed-
eral Finance Minister Bill
Morneau.
National Revenue Minister
Diane Lebouthillier said she
has asked the CRA to look into
the specifics of one particu-
larly egregious case involving
Vancouver real estate. She
added that between April
2015 and June 2016, the CRA
conducted 2,500 B.C. real
estate -related audits and
imposed more than $11 mil-
lion in penalties.
Perhaps CRA would have
more resources available to go
after the big fish if it didn't
spend quite so much time and
effort harassing hard-working,
moderate -income Canadians
who may have missed a dead-
line or a decimal point.
IN THE YEARS AGONE
September 28, 1888
■ On Thursday last week, the
Clyne Brothers, with their Mon-
arch machine, threshed on the
farm of Mr. Th omas O'Hara,
concession 8, McKillop, 106
bushels of peas in 45 minutes
and did not know they were
being timed, but worked at their
usual rate of threshing. Messrs.
George Clyne and Wm. J. Welsh
fed the machine, and they can
thresh 150 bushels in an hour if
they try. Mr. R.G. Ross kept the
time.
• Mr. Henry Dolmage, for sev-
eral years salesman in the store
of Mr. J.L. Smith, in this town, is
now running a large and pros-
perous photographing business
in East Saginaw, Michigan, in
company with Mr. Krupp, pho-
tographer in Wade's for some
time.
■ Never before in the history of
Seaforth have there been, on one
season, so many private resi-
dences erected as during the
present season and many of
them large, stately brick edifi ces,
and still there is scarcely an
empty house in town.
• We understand that Mr.
George E. Jackson, of Egmond-
ville, has invented and
patented in Canada and the
U.S., a new process for the
evaporation of salt brine,
which, if it proves successful,
will totally revolutionize the
salt business, as by Mr. Jack-
son's process salt can be made
with one-third of the fuel
required by the present pro-
cess. We believe he intends
testing his process in the Hen-
sall works and we hope his
expectations will be more than
realized.
October 3,1913
• Th e basketball association
of the Seaforth Collegiate Insti-
tute drove to Clinton on Friday
and played a game with the Col-
legiate Institute there. They
were defeated by a score of 10-9.
The school football team also
played the Clinton school team,
winning 1-0. Th e return football
and basketball games will be
played here on the Seaforth Col-
legiate Field Day, on Friday,
October 10.
• The large bank barn on the
farm of Mr. Garfield McMichael,
on the second concession of
Hullett, was completely
destroyed by fi re, with all its
contents, on Saturday morning
last.
• Mr. McMichael was in the
barn in the early morning
doing his chores. Th e lantern
he placed on a nail exploded
and went in pieces, the burn-
ing oil scattering in all direc-
tions. At fi rst Mr. McMichael
thought he had it out when he
placed a blanket over it, but
when he returned with
another blanket, the fi re had
gained such headway that it
was beyond all control and
spread so rapidly through the
building that he was unable to
save much of the contents. He
had insurance of $1,500, but
his loss will be much more
than that amount.
• Mr. Hugh Stephenson has
sold his resident on West Wil-
liam Street to Mr. James Martin
of Tuckersmith for $1,400. Mr.
Martin has secured a nice,
comfortable residence. We
hope, however, that Mr. and
Mrs. Stephenson will not
require removing from town,
but Mr. Stephenson's health
has not been satisfactory for
some time and he may have to
make a change.
September 30, 1938
• While skating in Kitchener
the end of last week, Van Bell,
well known Seaforth football and
hockey player, was thrown to the
ice when another skater fell in
front of him and struck his arm
with such force that his wrist was
fractured.
■ Strawberries and September
don't mix, but on Saturday W.H.
Stewart, near Walton, picked a
large dish of berries from plant
in his garden. Th e berries were
large and completely formed,
and, says Mr. Stewart, were most
acceptable.
September 28, 1988
■ Ciderfest and the Seaforth
Fall fair are again a big success.
Free admission and new events
boosted attendance, the Expos-
itor reports. The crowds on
Thursday and Friday were
larger than usual. Th e new
events off set the loss of price of
admission. Beef and pork
draws were a big success, as
was the pork auction. Th ose
new events included cow patty
bingo, a dunk tank, and a bale
rolling competition, slow trac-
tor race and a kid's Olympics.
"We'd shaken things up a bit
and it seemed to work," said
Sharon Flanagan, secretary
treasurer of the Agriculture
Society.
if it's local, it's here
seaforthhuronexpositor.com
Some have called for
reform of the tax system,
including eliminating the
capital gains exemption on
the sale of a private resi-
dence. That could be politi-
cally palatable if combined
with the introduction of
mortgage interest deducti-
bility, but both measures
would be a significant depar-
ture from the status quo.
On the other hand, bringing
money -launderers and tax
evaders to justice carries little
political cost and would go a
long way toward making the tax
system fairer for everyone.
MAKE
Canada
Because some wishes
can't wait for someday.
www.makeawish.ca 1-888-822-9474
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