捐钱避税 - 你是其中一人么？

精打细算 · 发表于 2007-10-9 09:28

网名叫 Parklane 的，能出来给大家澄清一下么？

如果已经“投资“如类似计划的筒子请留意，见以下例子：捐$2,000，取 $11,000 退税收据，返回$2,000退税的，税务局可能向你要回其余的$9,000 加罰款與利息！

$1.4B tax scams nail donors

Taxman going after 106,000 who submitted inflated charity claims

Sep 29, 2007 04:30 AM
Kevin Donovan
Staff Reporter

Canada's coffers have been cheated of more than $1.4 billion by scams that provided taxpayers with inflated charitable receipts they used to reduce their income tax.

From coast to coast, donors wrote cheques to charities and tax scheme promoters that boasted they were saving the deathly ill, the poor and disabled, overseas and in Canada.

Now, at least 106,000 individual Canadians are learning the Canada Revenue Agency considers these schemes a sham, and wants to claw the money back. Some also are being hit with major financial penalties.

"We are going after these schemes. Everything we have looked at we have reassessed. We are very serious about this," said Claude St. Pierre, director of compliance strategy for the revenue agency. The taxman is warning all Canadians and charities not to get involved with these shelters.

Each deal has its own intricacies but they are all based on a simple premise: Make a charitable donation and, in return, get a tax receipt four to 10 times that amount.

A typical donation of $10,000 brings a charity receipt of $60,000 or more. Depending on a donor's financial situation, it either reduces their income tax or secures a refund. Promoters present the schemes as legitimate and each one has a federal tax shelter number. (The government says it only issues numbers to track participants for audit purposes.)

As for people sick with AIDS in developing countries, or facing poverty or learning disability issues in Canada, the taxman's belief is that very little, if any, of the money reaches them.

The charities involved are key because promoters cannot issue tax receipts. Some charities are created by the shelter, typically with important sounding names that include the word "Canada" or "Foundation." Some others are existing, small charities duped into getting involved.

In one case, a small Greek Orthodox church went from annually issuing $7,000 in routine charity receipts to $273 million over a four-year period. That church is now out of the deal, board members and the priest have resigned, and the new board is getting a good little church back on track.

Charity leaders say money is being diverted by these schemes.

"It's very sad," said Georgina Steinsky-Schwartz, president of Canada's philanthropic group Imagine Canada. "The dollars that go to these tax shelters should be going to legitimate causes."

The number of people involved is growing; the schemes getting more complicated. While the taxman believes they all contravene the Income Tax Act, revenue officials hope Ottawa will soon pass a clear law stating that charitable receipts must equal the cash value of the donation. However, the tax bill died when the most recent session of Parliament ended.

Another reason the numbers will grow is that the taxman is only going after the taxpayers – not the promoters or the chartered accountancy firms and lawyers who help them. Charities are typically left off the hook.

The estimated $1.4 billion in lost tax revenue is a calculation based on the face value of the bogus receipts.

About $3.55 billion in dubious or outright fake receipts has been issued, but taxpayers can only deduct a varying portion of their donations.

The revenue agency will not name the tax shelters involved, citing privacy laws.

Among the shelters operating recently (according to research by the Star) are: Canadian Organization for International Philanthropy (COIP); Canadian Literacy Initiatives; Initiatives Canada Corporation; ICC Worldwide Missions; Canadian Gifting Initiatives; Global Learning Gifting Initiatives; the Banyan Tree Foundation; and ParkLane Donations for Canada.

Donors participating in each program have had their taxes reassessed, but privacy laws prevent the Star from finding out which schemes the taxman is most concerned with.

Calls and emails from the Star to the promoters of most of these schemes have not been returned.

Yesterday, COIP ("FightAIDSSaveTaxes" is one slogan) sent a letter to the Star stating it welcomed the audits.

"We continue to offer Canadians a valid, responsible charitable tax shelter that guarantees the delivery of medications and help to those in dire need, while acknowledging gracious givers through legitimate tax credits allowed under the federal government's tax rules and regulations," the statement said.

ICC Worldwide Missions said its donors have been reassessed, but it believes its program to raise money for education and medical supplies in the developing world complies with tax laws. "We stand behind our product," said chief executive officer Robert Mattacchione. He's a donor himself and said ICC is objecting to the taxman's position, and the matter will eventually be argued in court.

Among the others, some have gone out of business; some have changed their name; and many have added a new product – selling insurance policies to donors intended to cover them if the taxman reassesses the scheme.

The Star has interviewed 30 donors and all said they thought the programs were legitimate. They told their story but each refused to have their name published, fearing further repercussions from the revenue agency. While they are angry at the shelters, they are also upset with the taxman for not specifically warning against individual tax shelters.

One group of eight workers at a Mississauga packaging company was encouraged to join in a scheme involving ICC and All Saints Greek Orthodox Church.

"We are not stupid people here but somehow we thought it was a great idea to donate," said one of the company workers. She and her husband each donated $10,000, received a significant tax break, and thought they were helping sick people overseas. Now the federal revenue agency is after the couple, looking for $70,000 to cover the donation, interest and penalties.

"It's highway robbery what CRA is doing to us," the woman said. She is happy to pay back the donation, but thinks more is unfair. One of her co-workers, in frustration, drove to the revenue agency's Mississauga office recently and wrote a cheque for $78,000 "to be done with them."

Some donors have been involved in more than one shelter. A man who works for an Ontario government regulator said it was a mistake to donate money and fears he will have to declare bankruptcy. He donated about $30,000 over three years, received hefty tax breaks, and now the taxman wants about $85,000. He has paid $15,000 of that already.

"I thought this was a win-win situation. Lower your taxes and help a charity. I know I have to pay money back but I wish the government would go after these promoters. I didn't get rich off this, but somebody sure did."

Asked by the Star if the Canada Revenue Agency would ever go after the promoters, compliance chief St. Pierre said "we will consider it."

One letter sent by the taxman recently to thousands of donors indicates that might be about to happen. The letter demands the name of the promoter, plus details on lawyers and accountants involved.

Meanwhile, tax shelters continue marketing the products. ParkLane Donations for Canada issued its 2007 pitch for donors claiming "we have raised far in excess of $400 million for various registered charities."

A recent letter from CRA to a ParkLane donor states that the group's scheme was set up so "the charity would never have use of the funds for its activities ... the charities were simply conduits through which the funds were flowed in an attempt to generate the donation tax credit."

Parklane, which could not be reached for comment, says in a statement on its website it is confident it's able to make "successful arguments" against the taxman.

[ 本帖最后由精打细算于 2007-10-9 11:00 编辑 ]

MyFairy · 发表于 2007-10-9 09:47

Yang123 · 发表于 2007-10-9 13:47

不是. 逃税可耻!

beiwei · 发表于 2007-10-9 13:50

我捐款不是为了避税，减税只是我捐款的必然结果，所以我不担心这类追罚。

xdd · 发表于 2007-10-9 20:26

I attended a seminar about this kind of activity several months ago. I don't know whether that group people included in this or not. They seems to have very good system to fight the government tax system.

精打细算 · 发表于 2007-10-10 00:39

Simply put it this way;

If you receive any receipt for donation which is way more than the money you donated, you are on this list.

With the exception of genuine donation of assets such as stock / mutual funds based on fair market value will get you full examption for capital gain.

如果捐款收到的退税收据比自己捐的钱还多，在加拿大税务局眼里就是有问题。股票等资产除外。

要捐款，如果有股票增值后，最好别卖出，而是将股票直接转手捐出，就可以合法得到同等市价全额的退税收据。反之如果卖了，就得申报增值。捐出的部分将以现金捐款计算，只能拿回一半。

精打细算 · 发表于 2007-10-10 00:41

any add on milicat ?

howardxue · 发表于 2007-10-10 11:27

There're still no court decision yet from the article. 所以，仍然不知道结果，麻烦肯定会有的。parklane的一个argument就是说现在的税法没办法对他们采取措施。CRA audit 不能说明什么。此外，例子：捐$2,000，取 $11,000 退税收据，返回$2,000退税的，税务局可能还会向你要$11,000税加罚款，因为那$2000也可能会被认为不是qualified donation.

[ 本帖最后由 howardxue 于 2007-10-10 12:51 编辑 ]

MyFairy · 发表于 2007-10-10 14:30

I was told ... ...

xdd · 发表于 2007-10-10 16:06

I don't think Canada revenu can do whatever they want. They have to change the law first. Otherwise they won't be able to gether this money.

MiliCat · 发表于 2007-10-11 11:40

任何的 tax planning, 即使完全符合税法的规定，只要税务人员认定这个 tax planning 的唯一目的是减少税负，他可以用税法里的 Anti-Avoidance
Rule 来课税。每个税务机关都有 Anti-Avoidance Team 专门应付五花八门的 tax planning scheme。 Dubious charitable donations 是其中一个专案。

账号		自动登录	找回密码
密码			注册

捐钱避税 - 你是其中一人么？

UP

Don't play with taxman