“The chair of the Royal Canadian Mint, who also served as an adviser on international taxation to the federal Finance Department, helped engineer the transfer of millions of dollars of a prominent Canadian family through offshore tax havens in what others involved characterized as a ‘tax avoidance scheme,’ documents obtained by CBC News show.” Zach Dubinsky, Nicole Reinert, Sophia Harris, and Harvey Cashore of the CBC News reported last night that “slightly more than $8 million was moved through offshore entities in Bermuda, Barbados and Antigua, later prompting allegations that the arrangement, if exposed, could lead to potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars in ‘taxes, interest and penalties.’ The documents show there were also concerns about secrecy and instructions to shred files.” “The hundreds of records are part of a sprawling lawsuit against James Barton Love, a Toronto tax lawyer who chairs the mint’s board of directors, and others by descendants of former prime minister Arthur Meighen. Quietly settled in 2011, the lawsuit saw family members allege that the offshore transactions, which began in 1996, were unlawful and negligent and that Love ‘breached his fiduciary duties and acted oppressively.'” “Love countered in sworn statements that the offshore manoeuvres ‘resulted in significant savings of Canadian tax’ for Meighen’s heirs — an amount he estimated at $1 million. He also emphatically denied any breach of trust and said he had ‘specifically advised’ there were risks to the offshore arrangement. None of the allegations was ever tested in court.” Read the full article here. | Raymond Matt, CFP, CLU, TEP, CHS
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