Federal Government & Politics II

[MolsonExport]

You have a well-earned reputation for posting information that besmirches Asians.
This has not escaped the attention of the Moderators.
Watch yourself.

[lio45]

Canada being fairly unique among developed nations for being money-laundering-friendly is an established, non-racist fact, no?

Another fact is that among all the areas of the planet, China is likely the one that needs money laundromats the most; it’s a control-hungry dictatorship, and it has tons of millionaires (having so many people in the first place).

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by lio45

Canada being fairly unique among developed nations for being money-laundering-friendly is an established, non-racist fact, no?

Look Lio, if you have a problem with what I am saying, PM me, otherwise, please stop stirring the pot.

[lio45]

Canada’s friendliness towards money-laundering is a fair discussion topic, right?

I don’t blame Chinese multimillionaires for wanting to take their wealth out of China; I’d do the exact same thing. Blame the rules, not the players.

[YOWetal]

Originally Posted by lio45

Canada being fairly unique among developed nations for being money-laundering-friendly is an established, non-racist fact, no?

Another fact is that among all the areas of the planet, China is likely the one that needs money laundromats the most; it’s a control-hungry dictatorship, and it has tons of millionaires (having so many people in the first place).

It is nothing to do with race. Taiwan and China are the same race. One is the source of much of the money laundering in Canada and one isn't. It's about the structure of the economy not anything to do with the people themselves.

[Black Star]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Look Lio, if you have a problem with what I am saying, PM me, otherwise, please stop stirring the pot.

lol....ohhhhh you little scamp. You put it out there...it's FAIR game

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

You have a well-earned reputation for posting information that besmirches Asians.
This has not escaped the attention of the Moderators.
Watch yourself.

Don’t make threats at me for posting news stories from reputable sources. Seems the libs are getting panicky the closer we get to Trudeau being tossed to the curb.

[P'tit Renard]

Originally Posted by lio45

Another fact is that among all the areas of the planet, China is likely the one that needs money laundromats the most; it’s a control-hungry dictatorship, and it has tons of millionaires (having so many people in the first place).

Russia, the Middle East and many parts of Africa would in the same boat. Though based on global connections they have their own preferred laundering hubs.

[lio45]

If I were in charge, rather than encouraging money laundering in real estate as we currently do (boosting real estate prices for Boomers and landlords and more generally sucking all capital, including legitimate Canadian capital not even in need of laundering, into the real estate black hole), I would change the rules to unroll the red carpet for Chinese multimillionaires who want to take their wealth out of Red Mainland China and bring it here, as long as they use it as venture capital for Canadian startups.

[P'tit Renard]

Originally Posted by lio45

If I were in charge, rather than encouraging money laundering in real estate as we currently do (boosting real estate prices for Boomers and landlords and more generally sucking all capital, including legitimate Canadian capital not even in need of laundering, into the real estate black hole), I would change the rules to unroll the red carpet for Chinese multimillionaires who want to take their wealth out of Red Mainland China and bring it here, as long as they use it as venture capital for Canadian startups.

That policy's too brilliant for Canada, the Casper boomers will fight you tooth and nail. How dare you expose Canadians to the free market and face the possibility of cratering real estate values. Property prices to the moon!!

[ssiguy]

Originally Posted by whatnext

Welcome to the world Justin Trudeau created. Why are foreign students protesting to try and force a government duly elected by Canadians to change their policies?

Immigration protest on P.E.I. could turn into hunger strike, organizer warns
Group to meet Tuesday with minister of workforce, advanced learning and population
Shane Ross · CBC News · Posted: May 13, 2024

Some immigrant workers are prepared to go on a hunger strike if the P.E.I. government doesn't reverse some recent changes to who gets preference under the Provincial Nominee Program, says one of the people behind the daily protests in Charlottetown.

Rupinder Pal Singh said they are giving the province until May 16 to meet their demands, which include extending work permits for immigrants who are already here, working and hoping for permanent residency.

"Our province gave us false hopes," said Singh, who came to Canada from India in 2019.

"They were giving us wrong information. This is totally an exploitation."

"If any of our demands are not fulfilled by 16th of May, [if] we are not grandfathered, we are going to give this protest another name. This will be hunger strike to death," said Singh.

"We are losing our work permits. There are no other places for us to go."..

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/princ...tion-1.7202686

Let them starve. I have NO empathy for anyone who tries to change policy, of any type, by blackmailing a gov't with the threat of suicide. Such actions make a mockery of our democratic process and institutions. A population votes in a party/leader who reflects their values and policies but if a couple people don't like it then they go on a hunger strike and if the gov't caves in then what's the point of even having elections when they can be over ridden by a couple people? This is akin to stating someone has free will when they have a gun at their head. There is a reason why gov'ts will not change policies even if the terrorist organization abducted someone ..........it sets a precedent and will happen daily if the gov't capitulates.

As for these "strikers" , who do they think they are demanding rights they are not entitled to? They came in under a legal contract signed by both parties and now they are pissed off because the one side actually thinks the other should abide by the terms of the contract? The nerve of these people is offensive but, unfortunately, not shocking.

[Tvisforme]

From yesterday's Vancouver Sun; this is relevant to the discussion about CRA staffing levels:

CRA uncovers $1.3 billion in unpaid taxes in B.C. real estate sector
The CRA identified $957 million in unpaid income taxes over eight years of audits targeting B.C. real estate, more than five times the amount in Ontario, which has three times B.C.'s population

After taking a deeper look into B.C.’s real estate sector, Canada’s tax regulator has uncovered $1.3 billion in unpaid tax bills.

The Canada Revenue Agency has dramatically ramped up its auditing of real estate in recent years, scrutinizing both personal transactions and professional activities.

The agency has found “a disproportionate amount of non-compliance” in Canada’s largest metropolitan centres, with Metro Vancouver “identified as an area that requires our unique attention,” said Jason Charron, director general of the CRA’s compliance programs branch, recently. “We’re continuing to focus on the Lower Mainland, where we know there’s non-compliance.”

Since launching a dedicated real estate task force in 2019, the CRA has mostly focused on Ontario and B.C., increasing the number of audits performed, sending out reassessment notices for billions in additional taxes the agency believes should be paid, and levying hundreds of million dollars in penalties.

In Ontario, the agency assessed $1.4 billion in unpaid taxes and penalties in the real estate sector between 2015 and 2023. B.C., which has about a third of Ontario’s population, had almost the same amount of tax non-compliance identified over the same period: $1.3 billion.
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.
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[whatnext]

Originally Posted by Tvisforme

From yesterday's Vancouver Sun; this is relevant to the discussion about CRA staffing levels:

Yes, as much as some delicate flowers dislike hearing it, there are several areas listed:

...The CRA says confidentiality laws prevent the release of information about the audits, but sent a written statement that said, in general, the income tax-related non-compliance included:

• Situations where a taxpayer acquired an expensive home without a clear reported source of income

• Profits from the quick flipping of homes that aren’t properly reported as taxable business income

• People, including those who aren’t residents of Canada, failing to report capital gains on sales of real estate

• Unreported income earned outside of Canada

• Non-compliance by realtors and developers...

For years, many British Columbians were “ringing the bell” about people cheating on their taxes with real estate dealings, said Davidoff, director of UBC’s Centre for Urban Economics and Real Estate. This recent crackdown might not make housing in B.C. significantly more affordable, he said, “but it’s real money and it’s certainly useful to get it back where it belongs.”

Davidoff co-authored a 2022 paper published in The Canadian Tax Journal, which examined the top five per cent of Greater Vancouver homes had a median value of $3.7 million, while the median owner paid income taxes of just $15,800. This was the lowest correlation of property values to income tax contributions of any North American city, the authors wrote, concluding that “most luxury homes in Greater Vancouver appear to be purchased with wealth derived from sources other than earnings taxed in Canada.”....(bold mine)

[casper]

Originally Posted by P'tit Renard

That policy's too brilliant for Canada, the Casper boomers will fight you tooth and nail. How dare you expose Canadians to the free market and face the possibility of cratering real estate values. Property prices to the moon!!

What is money laundering? Well, I think most people would view it as taking money illegally obtained and running through some legitimate process so it looks like it was legally gained.

In the case of China it is illegal to move money out of the country above some threshold. It is not illegal in Canada to move money out of China. Most other western Countries also don't view that as an illegal activity. Using a Canadian definition that money is already clean.

If someone wants to bring money to Canada and invest it here and it was obtain through means that are not illegal in Canada why would we say no?

There are stores or people playing games in local casino's to "clean money". I get the impression a fair bit of that is drug money. Something not exclusive to one specific ethnicity. Clearly something that needs to be cracked down on and stopped.

[lio45]

Originally Posted by whatnext

Davidoff co-authored a 2022 paper published in The Canadian Tax Journal, which examined the top five per cent of Greater Vancouver homes had a median value of $3.7 million, while the median owner paid income taxes of just $15,800. This was the lowest correlation of property values to income tax contributions of any North American city, the authors wrote, concluding that “most luxury homes in Greater Vancouver appear to be purchased with wealth derived from sources other than earnings taxed in Canada.”....(bold mine)[/I]

It's probably the greatest disparity (between local taxable incomes and local real estate prices) on the planet for a normal city in a normal country, not just in North America.

[lio45]

Originally Posted by casper

What is money laundering? Well, I think most people would view it as taking money illegally obtained and running through some legitimate process so it looks like it was legally gained.

In the case of China it is illegal to move money out of the country above some threshold. It is not illegal in Canada to move money out of China. Most other western Countries also don't view that as an illegal activity. Using a Canadian definition that money is already clean.

If someone wants to bring money to Canada and invest it here and it was obtain through means that are not illegal in Canada why would we say no?

There are stores or people playing games in local casino's to "clean money". I get the impression a fair bit of that is drug money. Something not exclusive to one specific ethnicity. Clearly something that needs to be cracked down on and stopped.

Actually the part that's literally illegal is to report a given multimillion-dollar property as one's primary residence when actual GPS tracking would show the individual in question spends most of their time elsewhere. In other words, tax evasion of the entirety of the potentially-taxable capital gains at resale.

Except for that, I don't disagree THAT much with you, for once.
(As I said earlier though, if we're going to allow all that money to flow in, we should be smart enough to direct it to more productive sectors of our economy.)

[YOWetal]

Originally Posted by P'tit Renard

Russia, the Middle East and many parts of Africa would in the same boat. Though based on global connections they have their own preferred laundering hubs.

Yes none of those prefer Canada.

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by casper

What is money laundering? Well, I think most people would view it as taking money illegally obtained and running through some legitimate process so it looks like it was legally gained.

In the case of China it is illegal to move money out of the country above some threshold. It is not illegal in Canada to move money out of China. Most other western Countries also don't view that as an illegal activity. Using a Canadian definition that money is already clean.

If someone wants to bring money to Canada and invest it here and it was obtain through means that are not illegal in Canada why would we say no?

There are stores or people playing games in local casino's to "clean money". I get the impression a fair bit of that is drug money. Something not exclusive to one specific ethnicity. Clearly something that needs to be cracked down on and stopped.

Gee, I dunno, maybe rampant over-inflation of housing prices for Canadians. Because that's where the so-called "investments" were largely made.

[P'tit Renard]

Originally Posted by casper

What is money laundering? Well, I think most people would view it as taking money illegally obtained and running through some legitimate process so it looks like it was legally gained.

In the case of China it is illegal to move money out of the country above some threshold. It is not illegal in Canada to move money out of China. Most other western Countries also don't view that as an illegal activity. Using a Canadian definition that money is already clean.

If someone wants to bring money to Canada and invest it here and it was obtain through means that are not illegal in Canada why would we say no?

There are stores or people playing games in local casino's to "clean money". I get the impression a fair bit of that is drug money. Something not exclusive to one specific ethnicity. Clearly something that needs to be cracked down on and stopped.

Typical Casper fashion, going off on a tangent to distract and deflect. No one is questioning the validity of the source of cash. Rather what Lio's suggesting is to funnel this money away from real estate and into VC funding for startups and Canadian entrepreneurs (who are desperately starved of funding, because our whole banking system is hijacked by residential mortgage funding, and banks are incentivized by the federal government to keep blowing up their mortgage loans books). Because as you've said before, Canadians can't handle seeing their homes depreciate, bless the poor souls of Canadian Boomer homeowners.

Of course in this country, real estate prices uber alles, so in typical Canadian fashion, we're going to continue to marginalise and decimate VC (and pretty much every other sector of the Canadian economy) in favour of pumping up residential real estate and MBS securities.

[casper]

Originally Posted by lio45

Actually the part that's literally illegal is to report a given multimillion-dollar property as one's primary residence when actual GPS tracking would show the individual in question spends most of their time elsewhere. In other words, tax evasion of the entirety of the potentially-taxable capital gains at resale.

I would agree representing that a property is your primary residence when it is not is tax evasion and needs to be punished.

Originally Posted by lio45

Except for that, I don't disagree THAT much with you, for once. (As I said earlier though, if we're going to allow all that money to flow in, we should be smart enough to direct it to more productive sectors of our economy.)

We also agree on that to some extent. I am all for creating incentives for this.

Here in BC one of the options through the provincial sponsorship program was to invest in a private company. There were certain rules, it had to have been a company that was in operation in BC for a certain period of time. Certain value, you had to hold the company for a certain period of time, hire at least one more Canadian worker etc. The impact of that program where immigration consultants were traveling around BC with tour buses full of investors visiting small little retail store or mom-pop restaurants on investor tours.

The new owners were not interested in well run business and would dump them as soon as they hit the minimum time period to get the permanent states.

It was screwed up to say the least.

Originally Posted by P'tit Renard

Typical Casper fashion, going off on a tangent to distract and deflect. No one is questioning the validity of the source of cash. Rather what Lio's suggesting is to funnel this money away from real estate and into VC funding for startups and Canadian entrepreneurs (who are desperately starved of funding, because our whole banking system is hijacked by residential mortgage funding, and banks are incentivized by the federal government to keep blowing up their mortgage loans books). Because as you've said before, Canadians can't handle seeing their homes depreciate, bless the poor souls of Canadian Boomer homeowners.

Of course in this country, real estate prices uber alles, so in typical Canadian fashion, we're going to continue to marginalise and decimate VC (and pretty much every other sector of the Canadian economy) in favour of pumping up residential real estate and MBS securities.

As you probably know, I am not a boomer.

All for venture capital being a more valid path to residency. In fact we have that as an option in BC for a number of years.