Taxing my patience.

This article criticizes a study accusing Canadian banks of tax fraud. Over the years, I have found that some excellent scholarly papers are worth reviewing in columns to help Canadians think more clearly about public policies. Such is the case of a recent study written by Léo-Paul Lauzon, Marc Gendron and Denis Hasbani at the University of Quebec at Montreal, and entitled Canadian Banks and Tax Avoidance Carried Out in Tax Havens. The authors claim the banks avoided paying $5.7 billion in tax over the 2000-03 period. The authors also (incorrectly) focus only on tax havens, forgetting that most countries have corporate tax rates significantly less than Canada's. How sad it would be if public policy were based on a discriminatory attack on banks rather than on a proper understanding of corporate tax policy.