From: Canuck57@nospam.com   
      
   On 10/07/2014 8:50 AM, Alan Baggett wrote:   
      
   > None other than Canada Revenue Agency. It is thumbing its nose at fairness   
   and the law by nailing any employer who is late remitting tax money withheld   
   from employee pay with interest so high the rest of us would land in jail if   
   we tried to impose it    
   on people who owe us.   
      
   If an employer doesn't remit on time, they should look at interest as   
   not interest but a fine.   
      
   If you pay $100 of wages for a unit of work, then $60 to the employee   
   and $40 to employee tax accounts, then you have paid for $100 for a unit   
   of work.   
      
   What you are suggesting is companies can pay $60 and delay $40 in   
   payments....which isn't their money.   
      
   This is wrong, as in fact its fraud.  Really boils down to companies   
   being freeloaders and leaving the gates open for fraud.   
      
   In fact we already do this fraud with pension plans.  Lots of promises   
   of contributions to "pooled" plan scams but when payout comes the money   
   isn't as good or there for you.   
      
   Its why ALL wages and contributions be it wages, taxes, EI/CPP,   
   pensions, insurances et al. need to be paid all at one.   
      
   And if our politicians cared about the people, all our pensions would be   
   in our name/account/control to prevent scams from screwing people.   
      
      
   > The CRA isn't usurious across-the-board, but it's website states explicitly   
   that for these late remittances the charge will be "3% if the amount is one to   
   three days late, 5% if it is four or five days late, 7% if it is six or seven   
   days late, and 10%    
   if it is more than seven days late."   
   >   
   > CRA is also on thin ice with assessments for late income tax filers. If they   
   owe money, late filers must pay five per cent initially, plus one per cent for   
   each month until the return is filed. According to my math, this adds up to a   
   usurious interest    
   rate on filings that are one to 30 days late, although the rate falls below   
   the legal maximum for filings that are more than a month late.   
   >   
   > Most governments assess hefty levies -- and so they should -- for chicanery   
   or playing deliberate games with the taxman. But these usurious rates aren't   
   aimed at law-breakers or game-players -- just people who pay late.   
   >   
   > Indeed, the reader who told me about the issue was hit with on   
   -per-cent-a-day interest when, unbeknownst to him, CRA changed the due date   
   for his remittances. In a normal business relationship, this would result in a   
   quiet word, not punishment.   
   >   
   > And if CRA wants these usurious rates to punish, then they aren't just   
   ethically appalling, they're also dumb. It works out to three per cent a day   
   for people who are just one day late, and just one per cent a day for people   
   who are three days late.    
   And it's capped at 10 per cent -- as I read CRA's information, if you're 100   
   days late it costs only 10 per cent, or 0.1 per cent a day. So the incentive   
   to pay promptly diminishes the longer you're late.   
   >   
   > This latest example of the kind of taxpayer abuse I've been writing about   
   for more than a year is right up there with the preposterous assumptions, the   
   arbitrary demands, the habit of penalizing taxpayers for CRA's own mistakes,   
   and more.   
   >   
   > It reflects the uncaring mindset that produced a 10-per-cent fine -- now   
   rescinded since it drew scornful media attention -- for paying bills at a CRA   
   office rather than at a bank. The attitude seems to be that if people   
   inconvenience the bureaucracy,    
   no matter how innocently or trivially, they'll be hit with a bazooka.   
   >   
   > But the point is that parliamentarians who enacted the Criminal Code thought   
   charging such high rates is an act so vile that people who do it belong in   
   jail. And now a branch of government is defying the spirit, if not the letter,   
   of that law.   
   >   
   > As they say in Parliament, too often with cause: Shame, shame!   
   >   
   > dcayo@vancouversun.com   
   > (c) The Vancouver Sun   
   >   
   > --------------------------------------------------------------   
   --------------------------------------   
   > Miss a Tax Tale Miss a lot!   
   > Pop the link below into your browser to view the entire CRA SOTW Library!   
   > http://canada.revenue.agency.angelfire.com   
   > --------------------------------------------------------------   
   ----------------------------------------   
   > Alan Baggett - http://www.taxcollectorsbible.com/  - Tax Collector's Bible   
   >   
      
      
   --   
   Socialist-statism corruption is a great idea so long as the credit is   
   good and other people pay for it. When the credit runs out and those   
   that pay for it leave, they can all share having nothing but   
   unemployment, debt and discontentment.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)