Do you spend most of your time looking for loopholes and finding out ways for people and organizations to avoid paying taxes?
When you do, do you feel as if you are doing something morally wrong?
Many taxes are used for social servies to help people who are less well-off. Does the work of a tax accountant somehow work against these social services (because of the focus on finding ways for people to pay less tax)?
2007-10-29 13:56:09 · 6 answers · asked by winback 1 in Business & Finance ➔ Taxes ➔ Canada
Tax accountants are merely doing their jobs. It is their job to find those "loopholes" you speak of, and get their client the smallest tax bill possible.
There is nothing wrong with following the law. Even if it includes saving a taxpayer a few dollars, or a few thousand dollars. As long as it's done legally, and by the tax code, there's nothing morally wrong with it.
2007-10-29 14:41:27 · answer #1 · answered by ~RedBird~ 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
You actually have three different things that can occur when you are trying to determine your tax liability:
1. Tax planning
2. Tax avoidance
3. Tax evasion
Tax planning is legal but sometimes is looked at as being "agressive" (not something that is smiled upon). Finding good loopholes would probably fall under this particular action.
Tax avoidance is structuring your transactions in such a way that you end up using a provision that minimizes your tax bill in a manner that wouldn't have happened if those extra transactions were not there. There are provisions within the ITA that counter against such steps - General Anti-Avoidance Rules. What will happen if you are deemed to be "tax avoiding" is that the structure of the transactions is ignored and the original application of the ITA would be employed.
Tax evasion, well, that's down right against the ITA.
As long as you are following within the spirit of the law, then there should be no moral conundrum.
2007-11-01 07:34:36 · answer #2 · answered by wat 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The tax code is title 26 of the U.S. Code, and it's a set of laws just like the laws governing copyrights, interstate commerce, etc. There's also a long history of case law and even Supreme Court decisions.
Tax accountants' and tax attorneys' jobs are to accurately compute companies' and individuals' tax liabilities. Politicians put loopholes in the code to help their friends and to garner favor with certain groups of voters.
My personal take is that if politicians are hell-bent on following through on bad ideas (and yes, the blatant favoritism you see in parts of the code is a bad idea), it isn't my job to lobby them to change their minds. Leave that to lobbyists. Give me a code that feeds the hungry and clothes the poor, and I'll accurately compute my clients' liabilities.
2007-10-29 22:07:47 · answer #3 · answered by Phoney 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
There is nothing morally wrong with keeping money you earned. Taxes are only owed according the way the government specifies, so being smart and only paying what you have to pay is not morally wrong - in fact, it makes you smart and ethically you're doing the right thing for your client.
2007-10-29 20:59:29 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
Tax accountants practice "tax avoidance". This is the legal act of minimizing your taxes. It's not unethical and would be cheating taxpayers if they didn't utilize it. Someone that wasn't taking advantage of lower taxes for having dependents would be paying much more than they should be. Knowing about this rule will save them money, and rightly so.
"Tax Evasion" is unethical and illegal. That's attempting to skimp out on taxes that you really owe.
2007-10-29 21:06:50 · answer #5 · answered by Grick 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
no, they are merely doing their job..
2007-10-29 20:59:31 · answer #6 · answered by monushar001 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋