According to Blacklock’s Reporter, a Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) report found the underground economy will continue to grow without consistent federal surveillance, as Statistics Canada data showed all cash and other tax avoidance measures increased in the last five years by 50%.. Canada Revenue AgencyCRA headquarters .“The underground economy landscape continues to change,” said the CRA report 2022+ Underground Economy Strategy. .“To get ahead of the underground economy the agency will be strategic in its approach, finding efficient and effective ways to address non-compliance and make sure its response is appropriate for the level of risk presented.”.“Without intervention, there is a risk that changes in the social and economic environment can progressively add to the growth of the underground economy,” said the CRA..“By working to curtail or reduce the underground economy, Canadians trust and have confidence in the integrity and fairness of Canada’s tax system can be maintained.”.READ MORE CRA investigation results into the KPMG tax avoidance scheme were not made public.Statistics Canada in a February 20 report The Underground Economy in 2021 said the value of unreported transactions was $68.5 billion, a 50% increase over 2016 black market dealings estimated at $45.6 billion. .“While the residential construction business has historically been the largest contributor to underground economic activity it was particularly high in 2021 as underground economic activity in this industry increased 32.8%,” said StatsCan..The CRA acknowledged tax avoidance is socially acceptable, despite years of enforcement activities. . Statistics Canada .“One significant lesson learned is that changing social acceptability of participation in the underground economy is more challenging than initially anticipated,” auditors wrote in a 2020 report Strategy For The Underground Economy..In-house research has found 20% of taxpayers surveyed consider tax cheating worth the risk. A total of 13% also “think tax evasion is no big deal,” said a 2019 research paper Taxpayer Attitudinal Segmentation Research..Most taxpayers, 55%, agreed with the statement: “I pay more than my fair share.” .Pollsters found 34% of taxpayers surveyed would “pay cash for a service to get a cheaper price.” .Fourteen percent agreed, “I don’t think of tax cheating as a real crime.” .Ten percent agreed, “I think a small amount of tax cheating is not so bad.”.More than a quarter of Canadians surveyed, 26%, said they doubted they would ever get caught for avoiding taxes and didn’t consider evasion of sums under $1,000 as “serious tax cheating.”
