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Timpo · 12-17-2015, 09:57 PM

PM asked to direct Canada Revenue Agency to forgive aboriginal women?s back taxes | Toronto Star

PM asked to direct Canada Revenue Agency to forgive aboriginal women’s back taxes
Native Leasing Services wants Justin Trudeau to ask the CRA to expedite its request for tax relief on behalf of nearly 4,000 former employees.

The Canada Revenue Agency says Ramona Dunn, 53, owes nearly $94,000 in unpaid taxes, penalties and interest. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is being asked to direct the CRA to forgive the debt and that of other aboriginal women who believed the Indian Act exempted them from paying personal income taxes.

By: Joanna Smith Ottawa Bureau reporter, Published on Thu Dec 17 2015

OTTAWA—Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is being asked to direct the Canada Revenue Agency to forgive a group of mostly low-income aboriginal women who believed the Indian Act exempted them from paying personal income taxes.
Native Leasing Services, an employee outsourcing company based at Six Nations of the Grand River is seeking a remission order on behalf of 3,916 former employees who lost a long-running legal dispute to be exempt from paying income taxes because their employer is located on a reserve.
Ljuba Irwin, the CEO of O.I. Group of Companies that includes Native Leasing Services, faxed a letter to Trudeau on Thursday morning asking him to intervene and expedite the remission order.
“You can appreciate that, because of the length of time it has taken to reach finality on this matter, most of these affected individuals of modest means will not ever be able to pay the taxes, interest and penalties back, and the aggressive collection approach of the CRA is only causing unnecessary distress and suffering,” Irwin wrote in her letter.
One of those women is Ramona Dunn, 53, who the Canada Revenue Agency says owes nearly $94,000 in unpaid taxes, penalties and interest for the time she worked as a registered nurse and diabetes educator at Anishnawbe Health Toronto.
The PMO would not comment on the letter.
“It is an on-going file with Revenue Canada, it would be inappropriate for us to comment on it,” Trudeau spokeswoman Andrée-Lyne Hallé wrote in an email.
Philippe Brideau, a spokesman for the Canada Revenue Agency, said he could not discuss specific cases due to privacy.

JHatta · 12-17-2015, 10:00 PM

Timpo · 12-17-2015, 10:01 PM

I am not accounting professional, but can someone explain to me how is it even possible to owe $94,000?

I just did a quick math here: https://simpletax.ca/calculator
In order for you to owe $94,000 you need to be making $245,000 (in Ontario)

I understand that price includes penalty and all that, but still...
If she currently has a career, wouldn't it be automatically be deducted on her T4?

underscore · 12-17-2015, 10:02 PM

^ I'm assuming it wasn't from a single year, making $53k a year is about $9,400 a year, if this went over 10 years that's $94k.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Timpo

You can appreciate that, because of the length of time it has taken to reach finality on this matter, most of these affected individuals of modest means will not ever be able to pay the taxes, interest and penalties back

What exactly is the length of time we're talking about here?

Mr.HappySilp · 12-17-2015, 10:12 PM

yea well I don't like paying income tax (I don't think anyone does) so does that mean we all should write a letter to Trudeau so we don't have to pay income tax?

inv4zn · 12-17-2015, 10:27 PM

If you'd read the article, they believe they're entitled to not pay taxes because they worked on a reserve, are of aboriginal status, and are mostly low-income.

They've also been in limbo with the CRA (which harper butchered), hence the large sums owed.

I stay away from FN issues because I have very little to bring to the table but at least read the fucking article.

carisear · 12-17-2015, 10:44 PM

^^ not quite. their employers registered address is on a reserve, not where they worked. Also, the article doesn't go into how much each employee made. ie, I highly doubt that the women they used for the example was low-income as a RN. It's pure speculation from the employer who said that most were of modest means.

the lack of journalism in this article hurts me.

Actually, after digging a bit, that same website had a proper article posted days earlier! Canada Revenue Agency seeks back taxes from aboriginal employees | Toronto Star -- that one timpo posted was just bad clickbait.

underscore · 12-17-2015, 11:10 PM

^ that article still isn't very clear on the timeline for these debts, but it sounds like this has been going on since 1995? In which case they've known for the last 20 years that they may have to pay these taxes yet they've seemingly done nothing to prepare for that possibility? Sorry but if that's the case I have little to no sympathy.

Quote:

Irwin says Native Leasing Services was under the impression that should they lose what ended up being a long and protracted legal battle, the past debts would be forgiven.

So they thought that if they win, they pay nothing, and if they lost, they'd still pay nothing?

StylinRed · 12-18-2015, 04:48 AM

Better than the CRA letting the millionaires go when they moved their untaxed millions offshore (isle of man) through KPMG & Harper

BoostedBB6 · 12-18-2015, 06:53 AM

So what I'm getting here is that they were trying to avoid paying tax by having the listed place of employments on a reservation (much like taking delivery of a new car on the res to avoid paying tax) and got caught doing this and have been fighting it for 20 years......yeah, time to pay up.

PeanutButter · 12-19-2015, 06:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Timpo

I am not accounting professional, but can someone explain to me how is it even possible to owe $94,000?

I just did a quick math here: https://simpletax.ca/calculator
In order for you to owe $94,000 you need to be making $245,000 (in Ontario)

I understand that price includes penalty and all that, but still...
If she currently has a career, wouldn't it be automatically be deducted on her T4?

It's obviously not in one year.
It's probably over a period of five to eight years. Then tack on interest and penalties, and then $94k is quite easy to make. She is a RN. So i'm assuming her salary is at least $45k/year.

Also, what's very interesting to me, I worked at Anishnawbe during my clinic internship. It's in a pretty low income area, it would be like working in the downtown east side. No joke, one of the patients I was taking care of was contemplating buying food or buying smokes... It was unbelievable the stuff I heard. It's quite sad actually, though everyone I met was very nice.

The crazy thing is It was only a five minute train ride and you're in the heart of downtown. It's very close to sick kids hospital downtown Toronto.

I didn't know that was native land. Though, if she is not first nations, I don't feel she should be exempt from the taxes. If she is first nations, then fine (well, not fine, but I don't want to get into that discussion). Then again, if Anishnawbe is native land then shouldn't all native laws apply?