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Not a great look for Shopify IMO.
Why would you want to facilitate tax evasion?
I wouldn't be surprised if it's just an empty gesture towards their customers. Unless there's actually something they can do to stop it.
It's an overreach by the CRA, a fishing expedition. They can't just ask for everyone's information like that, and I won't be surprised when they lose in court.
Now, if any of these companies are truly under audit, then the CRA can get that information anyway. So either audit some of them that you suspect of tax evasion or leave shopify alone.
Edit: also if they are more specific like we want the top 1000 earning businesses that might also work. It's the blanket nature of the request that will be a problem.
E.g see this one where a more specific agreement was settled on vs everyone. Only 5-10% ended up being handed over.
It doesn’t seem like an overreach to me. The CRA can ask for any tax related data they want. I’d think you’d actually want them to do this as it might might reporting taxes easier.
All companies report employee income tax and now most people can just download that information from the CRA instead of having to enter it manually.
If they were asking for non-tax related data that would be a problem.
Except this is shopify's customer's data and not their own so the CRA should have to obtain a warrant before they can do that. If they're allowed have free access to customer data just because it's tax related then there's nothing stopping law enforcement agencies to bypass the court system and obtaining any customer data on a massive scale, since they can always make up bogus reasons like "fighting crimes" or "monitor terrorist activities".
In some ways I feel like this can be the CRA working with accounting software for better integration. If you’re running a side hustle you should be paying your taxes.
That said I worry this is going to nab the person who maybe makes a few hundred a year selling shit online to subsidize their day job and they’re a lot easier of a target than a large operation commuting tax fraud; the CRA has a history of picking the former.
A few hundred a year won't make much difference, unless of course their main income already puts them into the top tax bracket, even then it's gonna be less than $200
Didn't the BC gov try this with Alberta Costcos? They wanted Costco to hand over credit card receipts so they could charge PST on stuff purchased out of province.
That's how Mafia works.
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this post was submitted on 25 Jun 2023
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