Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1992
Source Publication
Windsor Yearbook of Access to Justice
Abstract
This paper considers the phenomenon of tax evasion in the 1980s in Canada as an outgrowth of a crisis in the welfare state. The lack of social protest over the high incidence of tax evasion among the wealthiest stratum of Canadian individuals and corporations is, on this view, linked to the transformation of politicized citizens into depoliticized clients. Tax evasion, along with legal tax avoidance both proliferated in the 1980s which reflects the convergence of a number of events including the increase in use of tax expenditures, the decreasing emphasis on enforcement in tax administration, the rise of neoconservatism and, more generally, the internalization within the income tax system of the contradictions of welfare state capitalism. This paper suggests that the premise of the income tax within the framework of the welfare state is needed and also advocates practical measures for addressing both the high incidence and the social acceptability of tax evasion in Canada.
French Abstract
Le crime contre I'Etat-providence au Canada: ia politique de la fraude fiscale aux ann6es 80 Selon l'auteur, la fraude fiscale resulte d'une crise de l'Etat-provi- dence. Si on ne proteste pas contre lafrequence de lafraude parmi les personnes et commerces canadiens les plus riches, dit-il, c'est que nos citoyens sont devenus des clients dpolitisgs. La fraude fiscale qui, comme la d6robade fiscale Mgale, a prolifirg aux annees 80, a des causes multiples, y compris l'usage augment des depenses comme d~ductions des imp6ts, la verification moins assidue, la montge du neo-conservatisme et, plus g6neralement, les contrecoups pour le systeme fiscal des contradictions de l'Etat-providence capitaliste. L'auteur pretend que l'imp6t sur le revenu fait partie intgrante de l'Etat-providence, et ilpropose des mesures concretes pour lutter ci la fois contre lafr~quence de la fraudefiscale au Canada et contre lefait qu'elle ne choque personne.
Repository Citation
Sossin, Lorne, "Welfare State Crime in Canada: The Politics of Tax Evasion in the 1980s" Windsor Yearbook of Access to Justice 12 (1992): 98-127.
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