Corporations owe Alberta $1.1B in unpaid taxes
Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2015 8:21 am‘Risk of not collecting': Corporations owe Alberta $1.1B in unpaid taxes
[ http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canad ... paid-taxes ]
‘Risk of not collecting': Corporations owe Alberta $1.1B in unpaid taxes
Matt McClure, Postmedia News | July 16, 2015 5:57 PM ET
The mounting tab now totals more than $1.1 billion, an amount roughly equal to one-fifth the total amount actually collected from corporations over the last 12 months and two times what the new NDP government hopes to raise annually by hiking the rate for big businesses from 10 to 12 per cent.
Uncollected corporate taxes and penalties surged by over 25 per cent in Alberta last year, despite a stern warning from the province’s financial watchdog that the government needs to do a better job of getting businesses to pay up.
The mounting tab now totals more than $1.1 billion, an amount roughly equal to one-fifth the total amount actually collected from corporations over the last 12 months and two times what the new NDP government hopes to raise annually by hiking the rate for big businesses from 10 to 12 per cent.
The Finance Department’s recent annual report also shows that fully 38 per cent of what’s outstanding, or $431 million, will likely have to be written off.
The numbers suggest the problem is getting worse.
The proportion of all corporate taxes and penalties that were assessed in a given year but were then unpaid increased by a third from 5.7 per cent in 2013-14 to 7.6 per cent in 2014-15.
A scathing report by the auditor general last October said the department needed to update its tax collection policies, better train the staff to pursue overdue accounts, and establish more aggressive targets and effective strategies to get corporations to pay more of what they owe sooner.
“The risk of not collecting the taxes owed by corporations is that the government won’t have the money it needs to pay for programs,” assistant auditor general Brad Ireland said in an interview.
“And the longer these amounts are left outstanding the less likely they are to ever be paid.”
In response to the watchdog’s report, the department said Wednesday that new collections officers have been hired and caseloads are being adjusted inside the corporate taxation unit.
MORE:
[ http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canad ... paid-taxes ]
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[ http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canad ... paid-taxes ]
‘Risk of not collecting': Corporations owe Alberta $1.1B in unpaid taxes
Matt McClure, Postmedia News | July 16, 2015 5:57 PM ET
The mounting tab now totals more than $1.1 billion, an amount roughly equal to one-fifth the total amount actually collected from corporations over the last 12 months and two times what the new NDP government hopes to raise annually by hiking the rate for big businesses from 10 to 12 per cent.
Uncollected corporate taxes and penalties surged by over 25 per cent in Alberta last year, despite a stern warning from the province’s financial watchdog that the government needs to do a better job of getting businesses to pay up.
The mounting tab now totals more than $1.1 billion, an amount roughly equal to one-fifth the total amount actually collected from corporations over the last 12 months and two times what the new NDP government hopes to raise annually by hiking the rate for big businesses from 10 to 12 per cent.
The Finance Department’s recent annual report also shows that fully 38 per cent of what’s outstanding, or $431 million, will likely have to be written off.
The numbers suggest the problem is getting worse.
The proportion of all corporate taxes and penalties that were assessed in a given year but were then unpaid increased by a third from 5.7 per cent in 2013-14 to 7.6 per cent in 2014-15.
A scathing report by the auditor general last October said the department needed to update its tax collection policies, better train the staff to pursue overdue accounts, and establish more aggressive targets and effective strategies to get corporations to pay more of what they owe sooner.
“The risk of not collecting the taxes owed by corporations is that the government won’t have the money it needs to pay for programs,” assistant auditor general Brad Ireland said in an interview.
“And the longer these amounts are left outstanding the less likely they are to ever be paid.”
In response to the watchdog’s report, the department said Wednesday that new collections officers have been hired and caseloads are being adjusted inside the corporate taxation unit.
MORE:
[ http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canad ... paid-taxes ]
- - -
Related
John Ivison: Brad Wall blasts Energy East critics, cites ‘growing sense of frustration’ in the West
[ http://news.nationalpost.com/full-comme ... n-the-west ]
Don Braid: Brad Wall is right: provinces need to get out of the way of pipeline approvals
[ http://news.nationalpost.com/full-comme ... -approvals ]