Interesting stats, suggesting that the underground economy is not currently growing in Canada. The CRA is careful to say that the UE is not an estimate of the tax gap, but CRA will look at these stats in light of the need to ensure everyone is "paying a fair share." I'm only aware of an official statement of a "tax gap" by the U.S. and U.K.
I once did a back of an envelope calculation and came up with that for everyone Canadian there is about $700 in unpaid taxes whereas for every American there is more like $1100 or $1200 in unpaid uncollected taxes. Take my numbers with a grain of salt but I do think it would be worthwhile from a research perspective to look at these number on a country by country basis.
ReplyDeleteUsing underground economy figures as a starting point? Or using stats from a selection of returns to extrapolate a general compliance rate (per IRS)?
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