View of Cascade Mountain from Banff, Alberta in winter

Snow washing refers to hiding illegitimate financial transactions often for purposes of

tax evasion Tax evasion is an illegal attempt to defeat the imposition of taxes by individuals, corporations, trusts, and others. Tax evasion often entails the deliberate misrepresentation of the taxpayer's affairs to the tax authorities to reduce the tax ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. The term is an amalgam of the words ''snow'' referring to Canada having cold snowy winters and ''washing'' referring to money laundering. It is easy under Canadian law to set up a company, even for a fee as low as $200 (Canadian), while shielding the identities of the firm's real owners from the eyes of tax authorities. The global elite, as well as criminals and foreigners avoiding economic sanctions, can set up

shell companies A shell corporation is a company or corporation that exists only on paper and has no office and no employees, but may have a bank account or may hold passive investments or be the registered owner of assets, such as intellectual property, or ...

to "make suspect transactions seem legitimate" under the cover of Canada's reputation for fiscal integrity. Downtown Vancouver

The registration systems for Canadian companies, at both the federal level and the provincial level, are shrouded in secrecy, which means that the real owner of a company or a trust can hire a person as a stand-in substitute to conduct all financial filings and submissions. The practice effectively makes Canada a

tax haven A tax is a compulsory financial charge or some other type of levy imposed on a taxpayer (an individual or legal entity) by a governmental organization in order to fund government spending and various public expenditures (regional, local, or n ...

along with countries such as the

British Virgin Islands ) , anthem = "God Save the King" , song_type = Territorial song , song = " Oh, Beautiful Virgin Islands" , image_map = File:British Virgin Islands on the globe (Americas centered).svg , map_caption = , mapsize = 290px , image_map2 = Bri ...

Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Co ...

and the

Bahamas The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to 88% of the ar ...

. The process has been made even easier since the

Canadian government The government of Canada (french: gouvernement du Canada) is the body responsible for the federal administration of Canada. A constitutional monarchy, the Crown is the corporation sole, assuming distinct roles: the executive, as the ''Crown-in ...

has signed tax treaties with 115 countries. With a form of business organization called a ''Canadian Limited Partnership'', the only persons who have to declare themselves to the authorities are the partners, and if they do not live in Canada, they are exempt from filing taxes in Canada. For firms whose stocks are not traded publicly, the rules require that only the directors of such companies be identified, and these directors are not required to reveal whether they are acting on behalf of somebody else. There was a report in ''

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Eco ...

'' suggesting that the overheated market for private property in the Canadian city of

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

may be partially the result of purchases by unidentified persons, possibly foreign criminals and corrupt officials, as a way to launder dirty money. One estimate in 2009 by the national police was that C15billion was being laundered annually in Canada because of the opaque disclosure requirements.

References

{{Reflist Tax evasion Money laundering Economic history of Canada Real estate bubbles of the 2010s Economy of Canada Immigration to Canada Real estate Housing in Canada Inflation in Canada Infrastructure in Canada Real estate in Canada