The Shotgun Blog
« Al & Mike Show 48 Live. Join In. | Main | Al & Mike Show - Episode 48 - The Prince of Pot »
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Feeling the heavy burden of taxation? Blame a businessman and snitch on your neighbour: Canada Revenue Agency
You should pay your taxes. The consequences of not doing so are just too high. But when you do write that cheque to the government, take some time to consider that the burden of high taxation has been brought to you courtesy of a bloated public sector.
While that may seem obvious, Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) wants you to blame business owners for this tax burden. In fact, they want you to snitch on the very people who create jobs and wealth in our society.
CRA issued a warning today to business owners against using electronic sales suppression software to hide sales in order to evade taxes.
According to CRA, businesses that do this are “placing an unfair burden on the individuals and other businesses that accurately report their income and pay the taxes they owe.” And CRA has over 5,000 employees dedicated to making sure this doesn’t happen.
Of course, the heavy burden of taxation has nothing to do with businesses evading taxes in a struggle to survive, and everything to do with the ever increasing size of government, including the salaries and pensions of these 5000 tax enforcement bureaucrats.
Still, the CRA wants you to do your “part to ensure tax compliance” by turning in the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker if you think they’re not paying enough taxes. It’s called the Voluntary Disclosures Program and it’s ominously familiar to the Soviet tactic of encouraging citizens to report on each other for crimes against the state. This practice was best embodied by Pavlik Morozov, a thirteen-year-old boy who became a national symbol of Soviet selflessness and virtue after denouncing his parents for anti-government activities. Pavlik, as he was known in propaganda literature, while likely a fictional character, was used by Soviet propagandists to teach children that opposition to the state is selfish and reactionary, and that the state is more important than friends, family and what Edmund Burke called the “little platoons” that make up our lives.
The CRA’s Voluntary Disclosures Program tears at the fabric of civil society and shifts the blame for high taxes from government to citizens – but you should still pay your taxes.
Posted by Matthew Johnston on December 10, 2008 in Current Affairs | Permalink
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
https://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d834515b5d69e20105365a9b45970c
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Feeling the heavy burden of taxation? Blame a businessman and snitch on your neighbour: Canada Revenue Agency:
Comments
Canadian households see 45% of their annual income stolen by the tax authorities of all three levels of government. In a fair country, this percentage would never exceed 20% at the very most (ideally, 10-15% or 0%!).
We need to eliminate at least 50% of civil servants, cut all the waste out of government programs, etc.
Posted by: Werner Patels @ The Right Comment | 2008-12-10 9:13:28 PM
Stalin smiles from the great beyond as Orwell rolls in his grave.
Posted by: JC | 2008-12-11 6:35:18 AM
There is a book called "For Good and Evil: The Impact of Taxes on the Course of Civilization" written by Charles Adams. I highly recommend it.
Posted by: Tom | 2008-12-11 10:44:26 AM
Our great collectivist welfare state requires money to survive and will continue to bleed the people (mainly the working middle class) dry or until there remains nothing more to bleed.
Posted by: Alain | 2008-12-11 3:44:53 PM
The comments to this entry are closed.