Canada

Today, as Professor Alain Deneault of the University of Moncton puts it, “The government has legalized [tax haven] use.” What was once covert has become routine. Decades of policy choices have normalized profit-shifting, leaving corporations free to route income to low-tax jurisdictions and bring it back to Canada at a steep discount, and with no fear of being challenged by the CRA.

This practice is widespread. More than three quarters of companies listed on the S&P/TSX 60 index have at least one subsidiary located in a tax haven. By exploiting the gap between Canada’s tax rates and those of their subsidiaries abroad, these firms avoided an estimated $7 billion in Canadian taxes in 2024 alone

A 2021 poll found that 92 per cent of Canadians support making it harder for corporations to exploit tax havens. This is a political no-brainer. Yet Canada’s new prime minister, Mark Carney, was formerly chair of Brookfield Asset Management, part of the Brookfield Corporation, a behemoth which maintains at least 44 subsidiaries in tax havens around the world. Despite persistent questioning on the campaign trail, Carney refused to commit to any additional measures to curb their use.