Some of Canada's biggest companies pay virtually no taxes, according to an investigation from Canadian Business magazine. Their report finds companies like BCE, MTS and Canadian Pacific Railway pay less than 5 per cent in taxes over the last decade.
While the federal government is cracking down on individuals who cheat on their taxes, it's creating legal loopholes for companies to dodge taxes.
From their story:
These companies are using several different strategies to lower their taxes, but the government just keeps adding to their arsenal. A new policy that just came into effect in 2009 allows Canada to sign tax information exchange agreements with countries such as Bermuda, the Cayman Islands and the Isle of Man.
It was intended to allow authorities to ferret out scofflaws hiding their money in offshore accounts. Instead, it ended up allowing companies to set up subsidiaries in these jurisdictions and bring their profits home tax-free.
Read the full story at CanadianBusiness.com
The magazine looked at more than 200 companies who are publicly listed on the TSX and shortlisted 15 of them that had among the lowest tax rates. We look at 10 of them in this slideshow:
