Author: Cecelia Lee April 2016 The Panama Papers are in the news recently. Apparently people, and companies, with big money are avoiding paying taxes in their home countries by sending a bunch of it to offshore tax havens. It is not only an issue for other countries, we have our own gang of people who hide money that should be taxed. Beggaring the public purse in this way is a huge problem for the ability of our government to fund the necessary programs and infrastructure. However these big money folks comprise only one of the groups avoiding their tax responsibilities. Another tax avoidance group - the underground economy - keeps money out of the public as well. I would actually call this group the underground tax avoidance economy. It is prevalent in the trades groups. Recently I have had a house-painter, a roofer and an electrician ask if I were paying for their services in cash. One caught me off guard and I wrote a cheque in his ...
PERCEPTIONS AND THOUGHTS, OBJECTIVE AND/OR POLEMICAL, ON ISSUES OF THE COMMON GOOD