Shifting Fortunes

Public conversations about taxation have long been dominated by conservative demands for tax cuts for those much cited icons—job-creating businesses and hard-working families. Less attention has been paid to the issue of who pays more tax to fund tax cuts for others. This is changing in many countries. Economic insecurity, inequality and pressure on government budgets create a receptive environment for scandals about wealthy individuals hiding money in offshore tax havens and profitable multinational companies such as Apple avoiding taxes in many countries in which they operate. Alain Deneault has been deeply involved in the Canadian backlash against international tax evasion and avoidance, and the publication in English of Canada: A New Tax Haven — How the Country That Shaped Caribbean Tax Havens Is Becoming One Itself aims to aid the campaign by social justice advocates to pressure Ottawa to take the issue more seriously.