My favourite comment from the comments section... such an embarrassing stereotype

'CREEAAKK' - The sound made when an airline pilot opens his wallet.


http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/pol ... le2213699/

As usual, a greedy few giving the rest of us a bad name. My opinion.

That's before the bats fly out but not before he/she bitches about his/her financial problems.

That guy is brilliant, we get taxed too heavy anyway

it is unreasonable to give the same value to an hour spent flying an aircraft with an hour at a hotel in Tokyo.”

I'll bet he's not paying taxes to the Japanese government for his time spent there!

Interesting...

Gino

As usual, a greedy few giving the rest of us a bad name. My opinion.

There are lots of reasons for pilots who live offshore. Family, climate, opportunity, lifestyle, heritage... Canada taxation is based on residency and if the foreign land has a reciprocal tax treaty with Canada. The original argument for those living offshore was that NONE of their income should be taxed as they are only subject to taxation of their resident country. There was a long court battle between a pilot group and Revenue Canada. A surprising win by the pilot group only subjected them to taxation while earning income within Canadian airspace.

Now Revenue Canada wants a bigger piece of the pie and the sentiment is "well, I have to pay exorbitant taxes, so should they". Really? Now we are taking the side of the tax man? How about addressing the problem which is the tax rate which Canadians have to pay is excessive.

You are your own financial CEO. If corporations can put call centers/service center offshore and look for tax loopholes to maximize their bottom line, why can't private citizens?

yycflyguy wrote:How about addressing the problem which is the tax rate which Canadians have to pay is excessive.

You are free to move elsewhere then.

reality check wrote:

yycflyguy wrote:How about addressing the problem which is the tax rate which Canadians have to pay is excessive.

You are free to move elsewhere then.

That is my point. Depending on the result of this, I will. Pilots are not alone on this either.

tax rate which Canadians have to pay is excessive.

Oh, Horseshit!

A decent argument could be made that, given that we have a public debt (Federal, Provincial and Local) approaching $1 Trillion dollars, the tax rates in Canada are actually too low for the services we demand from our governments...

Not to worry, however; according to our esteemed Finance Minister, the economy will continue to grow at ~2% per annum indefinitely, and that will pay off all of the debts

The reason behind this all is Greed. Not necessarily Greed on the part of the pilots themselves, but Greed on the part of the Government. Anywhere in the World where taxation is excessive more effort goes into trying to avoid taxation. Note that I used the word "avoid" rather than "evade."

A few years ago I thought it rather comical how Finance Minister Paul Martin would be telling Canadians how they should be paying their taxes when he registered a fleet of his ships overseas in a more favorable business climate. The business of business is business.

Rest be assured, those guys who are living overseas to avoid taxation are not holding their breath to "take advantage" of a health care system which makes you wait for eons for mediocre service or a pension plan which potentially pays immigrants who have never worked a day in their lives in Canada.

I agree, a lot of the comments are pathetic. A martian would get the conclusion that the average Canadian must love paying taxes and the more the better.

Like Panama Jack says, there is a difference between avoid and evade.
Every Canadian taxpayer is duty bound to avoid paying taxes. Look for those loop holes and use them to YOUR advantage. That's not the same as evading the payment of tax.

If you think you're only paying your 'fair share', then good for you. But you'd be further ahead if you had your head in the game.
Here in Quebec we pay a tax-on-tax and if you receive health benefits from your employer on top of Provincial Health coverage, as most employers do, then it's considered part of your salary and taxed accordingly. Once your salary has cleared the Federal and Provincial tax men's hands, you get to pay HST and GST out of the money you already paid tax on.
You think that's a fair share??? A reasonable contribution?
Give your head a shake!!!
Ever look at the price of gas and notice how the price pie is cut up? Who'd you say is getting the biggest pieces?
Most of those tax paid government services are now adding a User Fee. Are you kidding???
New Passport fee? For what? To make you feel safer? A five year passport is now four years and six months and that's okay?
What's next, toll booths?

Gino Under

I recall a few yrs back the Feds wanted to hire some upper end manager to lead some department but couldn't as he was in court over $250,000 owed in taxes

So they forgave him the owed tax and hired him.

A few yrs on he was dismissed for having his fingers deeply in the public trough.

CRA comes after Joe public for oweing them $10 .

North Shore wrote:

tax rate which Canadians have to pay is excessive.

Oh, Horseshit!

A decent argument could be made that, given that we have a public debt (Federal, Provincial and Local) approaching $1 Trillion dollars, the tax rates in Canada are actually too low for the services we demand from our governments...

Not to worry, however; according to our esteemed Finance Minister, the economy will continue to grow at ~2% per annum indefinitely, and that will pay off all of the debts

North Shore.

Have you worked overseas? Are you familiar with other taxation systems? Why do you suppose so many Canadians either live offshore or work offshore?

As for the current "government" and the national debt... I wasn't consulted on their spending and don't agree with many social services but as a "Canadian" I have to help bail them out?? I didn't realize that the Federal Government was Freddie Mac, AIG or GM and I have to bankroll them.

What these pilots are doing is 100% legal. The are maximizing their bottom line. Something we should all do.

PJ has a good post.

I am a strong believer in being part of the community you live in and paying your share to make that community a great place to live in for everyone living there, not just the top %10. If I were living in Sweden or the Netherlands I would pay my full share of taxes without looking for loopholes happy in the knowledge that I am contributing.

In Canada, I go to great lengths to avoid taxes. Way too much waste and corruption. The only people I would fault for taking advantages of loopholes are the Paul Martins and friends feeding at the public trough while doing everything to avoid contributing to it.