LILLEY: Carney less than clear on where he pays his personal taxes

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It’s a simple question: Where does Mark Carney pay his personal income taxes? He’s a man with three passports, business interests in the United States, offshore accounts in Bermuda, so asking where he files taxes is a valid question that should come with a simple answer.

Despite repeated attempts to get a clear answer from Carney’s campaign, there is little clarity on where the man who claims to be “all in for Canada” pays his personal income tax.

This week, both the Conservatives and the NDP rightly accused Carney of being a tax dodger based on his actions while working for Brookfield Asset Management.

We’ve all heard the stories now about how Carney backed the move to shift Brookfield’s head office from Toronto to New York City. While they said it was about getting better access to stock market listings, it also has tax implications for the company that will see them pay less tax in Canada and more in the United States.

Carney backed that move.

We’ve also seen the stories, first reported by CBC and followed up by CTV, about Carney setting up two investment funds worth (US)$25 billion in Bermuda. Carney wasn’t just vaguely overseeing these funds; he is one of two founders meaning he gets paid from these investment funds as long as they continue operating.

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Why were they set up in Bermuda?

Bermuda is a tax haven with no corporate or capital gains taxes; he was effectively avoiding paying the higher taxes than would have been required had he set the funds up in Toronto. So, while the funds were managed from Toronto, they were registered in Bermuda, meaning they escaped Canadian taxes.

“Mark Carney’s company has been called the biggest, Canada’s biggest tax dodger,” Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said on Tuesday.

“While you’re double checking your tax return to avoid a penalty, Carney and his global elite liberal friends dodge theirs.”

Carney was also asked about his reputation as a corporate tax dodger and didn’t have a great answer on Tuesday.

“What’s important is that we have an effective tax system and that companies, every company follows the rules of those taxes to not just the letter, but the spirit of those regulations,” Carney said.

Well, according to the NDP, Carney helped Brookfield dodge $5.3 billion in taxes over the past several years.

All of that leads to a valid question: If Mark Carney was willing to dodge taxes for the company he worked for, was he paying his personal “fair share” as Liberals like to say here in Canada?

Between 2013 and mid-way through 2020, Carney lived outside of the country in the United Kingdom. It was reported that he came back to Canada in August 2020, but this is a family with connections, and sometimes passports, in Britain, Ireland and obviously New York’s financial circuit.

So, where was Carney paying taxes between 2020 and the year currently being filed by most of us, 2024?

That should be an easy question, but it took several emails, following up and a phone call to get a less than clear answer.

“Mark Carney has followed all the rules as a tax-paying resident of Canada, including while filing returns in the years you mentioned,” said campaign spokesperson Mohammad Hussain.

What does that mean exactly?

It’s open to interpretation because the statement itself is as clear as mud. He followed all the rules, but does that mean he followed the rules and filed in Britain, or the United States, or somewhere else, for some or all of these years?

Despite asking for clarification, for a definitive statement, the campaign refused to provide more details. This wasn’t a question of how much he made or how much he paid in taxes, simply where he filed — and they couldn’t give a simple or clear answer.

Carney has been coy about his financial assets and any potential conflict of interest. He has denied having anything to do with moving his company’s HQ from Toronto to NYC despite leading that charge. And he has been vague about his need to set up his (US)$25 billion funds in Bermuda to escape Canadian taxes.

Now, he won’t even say clearly if he is paying personal income tax in Canada.

You can’t claim to be elbows up for Canada when your company HQ moves to NYC, your investments are in Bermuda and your taxes are filed in parts unknown. Carney wants the votes of Canadians to form the next government.

If he wants their trust, he owes them answers.