Daily BrewU.S. investment giant Warren Buffett calls out fellow billionaires on taxes but what about his Canadian counterparts?
When U.S. billionaire investor Warren Buffett fired a shot across the bows of his fellow plutocrats recently it sparked a furious debate in his homeland in the push for lower taxes.
But in Canada, largely silence.
Buffett's controversial Aug. 14 opinion piece in the New York Times called on his mega-rich friends to give up their tax breaks and ante up more of their wealth to help bail America out of its fiscal hole. While the rich have gotten richer in the last 20 years, their tax bite has shrunk and is pushing the government to lower the boom.
"My friends and I have been coddled long enough by a billionaire-friendly Congress," Buffett writes. "It's time for our government to get serious about shared sacrifice."
Buffett reportedly offered to pay any billionaire $1 million if they paid more taxes than their secretaries. That was three years ago. So far no takers.
But in Canada the debate over taxing the rich has been muted. Although rates are higher than in the U.S., wealthier Canadians still are taxed at rates lower than most of their European counterparts.
In an op-ed piece in the Toronto Star, progressive-tax advocate Larry Gordon points to a study by the left-leaning Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives that concludes Ottawa could raise an extra $12 billion over three years if it boosted tax rates slightly for people earning more than $250,000.
Gordon, co-founder of Canadians for Tax Fairness, notes the top rate 29 per cent for income above $128,000 applies to everyone whether they earn $130,000 or $13 million.
"A more progressive tax system could fund programs that benefit virtually all households in Canada," Gordon argues. "Modest tax increases for high-income earners could be implemented with little or no effect on their lifestyles or investment decisions."
Canada has more than six dozen billionaires and thousands of millionaires. Gordon says there are signs some of the rich are ready pay more. He points to a 2008 piece by Canadian-born billionaire Edgar Bronfman asking to be taxed more.
"The rich now should pay disproportionately for the (economic) corrections that are needed," Bronfman says.
But Bronfman lives in New York now.
More encouragingly, says Gordon, TD Bank boss Ed Clark claimed almost every one of his his fellow CEOs at a meeting last year was willing to be taxed more.
"Thoughtful business leaders get it," Gordon writes "A growing underclass, stagnated middle class and crumbling infrastructure are bad for business. Now is the time for a Canadian Warren Buffett to step forward.
"Canadians are ready for an adult discussion on tax fairness. Let's kick off that discussion with one or more of Canada's wealthiest citizens announcing their readiness to contribute more to the public treasury."
(Reuters Photo)
