I wonder what the results would be for such a survey here in the USA, eh:
The majority of Canadians admit they’ve done cash deals in order to dodge the taxman – and most don’t see anything wrong with it, a new survey reveals.
The Leger Marketing poll found about half of respondents (55%) said they would pay cash to a contractor to avoid paying sales tax.
Men were more likely than women to try to cut an under-the-table deal: 50% compared with 35%.
Among older Canadians, age 65 and up, 43% said it’s wrong to do so, but just 17% of people between the ages of 18 and 34 agreed.
A majority of those polled (69%) also think bartered or traded items shouldn’t have to be reported on tax returns, and 51% said tips earned by service people should be tax-exempt.
H&R Block Canada commissioned the poll, which was conducted online from July 30 to Aug. 1, with 1,500 Canadians 18 or older.
A probability sample of the same size would yield a margin of error of 2.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
Source: Sun News, eh.
Tags: Sun News
So the Canadians are against paying their fair share? And redistribution? How raaaaacist can you get, eh?
I’m a warm weather kind of guy but Canada is going to look awful good if teh Won gets re-immaculated.
Kind of hard to be a “fan” of paying taxes, but I do feel the GST (goods and services tax) is fundamentally fairer than income tax. The latter taxes taxes you on how much you earn, and acts as a disincentive to working harder, while the former taxes you on how lavishly (or not) that you live.
Buying car parts or small work from local contractors, I have had cash deals that “evaded” GST. Used cars and other used goods are exempt from GST in private sales.
As a small contractor in the oilfield, I have to collect GST from my clients, and there is nobody chiseling on that. And the paperwork for it is ridiculously easy. Takes about 3 minutes for me to do my quarterly return.
It would break my heart to see GST increased from the current 5% to 20% as long as income tax was also reduced to zero.