The Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments) reportedly exploited loopholes to help it avoid paying foreign taxes.
“The arrangement involved two dozen entities, half of them based in the financial secrecy haven of Luxembourg, and all of them set up in order to invest money in real estate in Berlin,” CBC News reports.
What PSP Investments did wasn’t illegal, but a German tax official is quoted as saying that it was “a very aggressive way to avoid taxes.”
Read: PSP Investments posts double-digit return
Treasury Board president Tony Clement, the minister responsible for PSP Investments, was asked in the House of Commons on Thursday why a Crown corporation would try to avoid paying taxes.
He neither defended nor criticized the organization’s actions.
“This is an arm’s-length administration from the federal government. Its business and affairs are managed at a day-to-day level by a board of directors. That’s how it works,” Clement said. “We expect that all investments are in compliance with laws and rules and regulations in a transparent manner, and to the greater benefit of the clients.”
Read: