Canadians Governments have skewed Canada’s Tax System to keep the Rich, Rich, and the Poor, Poor

More details on this CRA survey:

A union-sponsored survey of more than 1,700 auditors and other tax professionals who work for the Canada Revenue Agency suggests that even the insiders believe the cards are stacked in favour of the rich.

Nine out of 10 surveyed agreed with this statement: "It is easier for corporations and wealthy individuals to evade and/or avoid tax responsibilities than it is for average Canadians." That's according to a summary of results released by the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC), which conducted the poll. More than eight out of 10 of those polled agreed that "tax credits, tax exemptions, and tax loopholes disproportionately benefit corporations and wealthy Canadians compared to average Canadians." And 45 per cent agreed that CRA's mandate has been "compromised by political interference" (the survey did not define the term, leaving it up to members to interpret). ...

"Nobody knows better how income from all sources is assessed and turned into tax revenue," says the poll summary. "These responses validate the widely held belief that those with the means are able to shirk their tax responsibilities while everyone else is left to pick up the slack." The survey was sent electronically to 11,599 members of CRA's audit, financial and scientific group; 2,170 members — almost 19 per cent of the total — completed it anonymously, the union said. ...

The PIPSC report on the poll blames the tax system's flaws on staff cuts in 2012 by the former Conservative government of Stephen Harper, which at the time was trimming spending across departments to eliminate the deficit.

The Liberal government has since restored some of that funding, notably directing new money to collecting tax debts and chasing more offshore tax dodgers. But the union said there remains an annual budget shortfall of $500 million compared with funding levels in 2012. ...

The result, said the union, has been fewer auditors, less training and outmoded technology — and a CRA failing to keep pace with agile tax lawyers, accountants and consultants in the private sector.

"CRA professionals often feel outgunned by the people trying hardest to avoid taxes," says the poll report, which also argues that the computer algorithms used to replace laid-off CRA workers have unfairly focused the agency's efforts on small fry. This increased scrutiny of average Canadians came at the expense of the agency's ability to target much larger tax avoiders, as the CRA ended up cutting some of the very experts it relied on to unravel complicated tax avoidance schemes."

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/cra-tax-avoidance-evasion-1.4787781