Innovation of the Year 2020

Denmark’s Covid-19 relief policy

In a world where big-business tax cheats everywhere have once again lined up to line their pockets at tax payer expense, Denmark lights a beacon of fiscal fairness for the rest of the world to consider when they announce that Covid-19 aid will not to be paid to Danish businesses that are registered in tax havens, paying out dividends, or buying back their own shares.

See the rest of the field at: https://www.popsci.com/story/technology/best-of-whats-new-2020/

Meanwhile in Canada “Corporations Clean up on Covid-19”

While collecting millions of dollars in Covid-19 relief from struggling Canadian taxpayers, GDI, a billion-dollar janitorial company in Montreal, Canada was laying off employees while, at the same time, reporting a share price that was hitting all-time highs during what it called a “record quarter” between June and September, with revenues up more than 10 per cent.  Meanwhile, across town as it was laying off 1,600 workers, trucking giant TFI spent nearly $9 million buying back shares, a move generally intended to drive up share price. They received $63 million in wage subsidies by the end of September and paid out $45 million in dividends (a 12% increase over last year) amid rising profits and a soaring share price.  Yes, it seems we the taxpayers (and small businesses) were taken to the cleaners as Corporate Canada reliefed us of our safety nets.