CAMECO: . . . largest tax dodge in Canadian history???

[Oscar]

Did this company engineer the largest tax dodge in Canadian history?

[ http://www.nationalobserver.com/2016/04 ... an-history ]

April 25, 2016

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QUOTE: “Premier Brad Wall has expressed concern over the issue going back to 2013, but has avoided publicly condemning Cameco. The premier’s office declined to respond to an interview request over the issue. “For the most part the Wall government has been supportive of Cameco,” claims Don Kossick.”

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For Don Kossick it’s been a lonely battle – a sort of one-man crusade, if you will.

The Saskatoon-based activist and community organizer runs Saskatchewan Citizens for Tax Fairness, which lobbies against corporate tax evasion. Two years ago, Kossick managed to raise enough money to pay for a billboard sign in downtown Saskatoon with the blaring headline “Pay Up Cameco”.

Headquartered in Saskatoon, Cameco Corp. is the world’s largest publicly-traded uranium company – producing as much as 15 to 20 percent of the global uranium supply. In fact, it provides most of the uranium used in Canada’s nuclear reactors.

But Cameco is now in hot water: the federal government is accusing the $2.8-billion company of operating a massive tax dodging scheme for years – and potentially depriving state coffers of as much $2.1-billion in cash. Cameco, which denies these allegations, goes on trial in Toronto this September. And If the company is found guilty, it would constitute the largest tax avoidance case in Canadian history. Meanwhile, the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is seeking (US) $32-million in back taxes from Cameco – and is investigating to see if the company owes more.

Yet, despite the vast sums involved, Kossick is finding it difficult to raise awareness in Saskatchewan about the Cameco case. “What (Cameco does) is give away money here and there so everybody thinks they’re fine,” he explains. “They are very effective at dodging public concern.”

Last year, Kossick arranged for Dennis Howlett, executive director of Canadians for Tax Fairness, an Ottawa-based NGO that lobbies against tax avoidance, to tour Saskatchewan and talk about the Cameco matter. Kossick says this stirred up some attention, but notes Cameco has been burnishing its image with a hospital fundraising campaign of its own called “Cameco Cares” – which involves sponsoring prominent musical acts to visit Saskatchewan, including the Barenaked Ladies in 2014, and Huey Lewis and the News last year. “They are having Sarah McLachlan coming to play this summer,” says Kossick.

(Photo of campaign sign by Don Kossick)

Overall, the Cameco tax dodging case has received scant attention in Canada. But this might change, especially with the Panama Papers thrusting tax evasion and offshore havens into the limelight once again.

While the Panama Papers highlights the controversy of mostly wealthy individuals hiding money offshore, multinational corporations are just as prone to this practice. Two weeks ago, Oxfam released a report that estimates America’s top 50 multinationals dodge (US) $111-billion in taxes every year, while sapping an estimated (US) $100-billion from poor countries, and use at least 1,600 subsidiaries to horde (US) $1.4 trillion offshore. The result was that, on average, these corporations pay about a 26 percent tax rate – as compared to the 35 percent US tax law demands – with only 5 of them paying the full amount. “We are interested in the fact that these big multinational companies are playing by a different set of rules than either most individuals or ordinary taxpayers or small businesses,” says Robbie Silverman, Oxfam’s senior tax adviser.

The case of Cameco reveals how Canadian corporations are doing the very same thing. In fact, both Loblaws Cos. Ltd. and the silver mining company Silver Wheaton Corp. are being pursued by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) for avoiding taxes by using offshore havens, potentially owing hundreds of millions in back taxes (both companies deny the allegations). As Arthur Cockfield, one of Canada’s leading tax scholars who teaches at Queen’s University’s law school explains: “The Income Tax Act is filled with provisions that encourage companies like Cameco to do what they are doing.”

MORE:

[ http://www.nationalobserver.com/2016/04 ... an-history ]

[Oscar]

Saskatoon man hopes Cameco will consider back tax petition

[ http://globalnews.ca/news/2765181/saska ... -petition/ ]

June 15, 2016 4:41 pm Updated: June 15, 2016 7:14 pm By Joel Senick

WATCH ABOVE: A Saskatoon man has gathered more than 36 thousand signatures in hopes of forcing uranium giant Cameco to pay back what he believe is owed the government in taxes. Joel Senick says the petition has been presented to the company and to the Prime Minister’s Office.

A Saskatoon man is calling on one of the world’s largest uranium producers to pay $2.1 billion in back taxes that stem from a dispute the company is currently in with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). [ http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/menu-eng.html ]

On Wednesday morning, Don Kossick and two others attempted to present a member of Cameco’s [ https://www.cameco.com/ ] executive team with a petition of more than 36,000 signatures demanding the company pay the amount.

Since he did not have an appointment, he was told he could not enter the building, but was able to give a security guard a box containing the information. A similar delivery was made Wednesday on Parliament Hill.

The cross-country effort is related to a court case between Cameco and the CRA. For more than a decade, Cameco has sold uranium to its European subsidiary, which then re-sold the product to customers. The related taxes were collected abroad.

“A lot of that money could go into indigenous communities across Canada, you know, who have not got clean water,” Kossick said at the doorstep of Cameco’s headquarters.

MORE:

[ http://globalnews.ca/news/2765181/saska ... -petition/ ]

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