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Meanwhile, non-residents send family members to live in the property, funding their lifestyle with cash gifts that are also tax-free, while the family enjoys the infrastructure benefits of life in Canada — health care, education, peace, order and good government — all without paying income tax.

We should all rise up, chanting ‘I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!’

Canadian residents set up shell corporations in offshore jurisdictions for a variety of reasons, sometimes as a way of hiding money from spouses or creditors. The money is not reported to the CRA, and it grows tax-free. The problems start when the money comes back home. It ought to be reported, but people try to sneak it in. If they get caught, they can be charged with tax evasion.

The people identified in the Panama Papers leak, including the Canadians on the lists, are likely not breaking the law. They are not tax evaders, at least not by virtue of their anonymous offshore corporations. They are simply enjoying the advantages of tax laws that permit them to grow their assets tax-free in offshore tax havens.

From an ethical perspective, it may not be legitimate. But until the middle-class taxpayers of Canada bring pressure to bear on the legislators who write our tax laws, armies of bankers, lawyers and accountants around the world will continue to devise strategies to protect their clients’ wealth from taxation, and likely make themselves rich along the way.

As for the billions of dollars of tax revenue Canada loses to tax havens each year, the likeliest scenario is that our government will have no choice but to raise our taxes to support our health-care system, infrastructure needs and all the other the services Canadians deserve and expect.

That alone makes the Panama Papers relevant to everyone who pays taxes in Canada. We should all rise up, chanting “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!”

Paul DioGuardi, QC is senior tax counsel at DioGuardi Tax Law, and has been practicing tax law for 50 years.