Canada Revenue Agency farcical in treatment of taxpayers
The Canada Revenue Agency made headlines last week and not in a good way. The B.C. Supreme Court awarded over $1.6 million in damages, including punitive damages, against the CRA, having found that its agents had committed the tort of malicious prosecution. The judgment chronicles the type of prosecutorial blinders that I see all too often in my practice.
The CRA investigations officer made up his mind that the couple who owned a restaurant and nightclub in Nanaimo, B.C. (the Samaroos), had unreported cash sales. Once he made up his mind, he did whatever he could to secure a conviction — and the facts be damned!
I cannot do better than to quote The Honourable Mr. Justice Punnett from his blistering 70-page ruling, in which he called the CRA’s behaviour “reprehensible and malicious.”
Are the Canada Revenue Agency tax evasion raids a public relations exercise?
The Canada Revenue Agency made headlines last week and not in a good way. The B.C. Supreme Court awarded over $1.6 million in damages, including punitive damages, against the CRA, having found that its agents had committed the tort of malicious prosecution. The judgment chronicles the type of prosecutorial blinders that I see all too often in my practice.
The CRA investigations officer made up his mind that the couple who owned a restaurant and nightclub in Nanaimo, B.C. (the Samaroos), had unreported cash sales. Once he made up his mind, he did whatever he could to secure a conviction — and the facts be damned!
I cannot do better than to quote The Honourable Mr. Justice Punnett from his blistering 70-page ruling, in which he called the CRA’s behaviour “reprehensible and malicious.”
How effective is the CRA at closing Canada’s tax gap?
The CRA has said repeatedly that the underground economy is a major target of CRA tax investigation. Given that the tax gap information will help monitor how effective the CRA is in its black money blitz, one suspects that the information when finally available will not show it as being especially effective. So, what is the reality of the CRA versus the PR spin it generates?
A fond look back at the last Tax Court of Canada case
TORONTO – It’s hard to believe that last judgment published by the Tax Court of Canada is now more than two months old. As reported by Canadian Accountant, the Tax Court ceased sittings on March 16, 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and is not expected to resume sittings until July 2020 at the earliest. “The locks are on the door — in 12 locations,” said Chief Justice Eugene Rossiter in a webinar presented by the Canadian Tax Foundation, who also presented a 17-point plan for a summer reopening.
Pro Tip
Tax Audits in Ontario
There are over 350,000 tax audit and review actions conducted by the Canada Revenue Agency on a yearly basis. Around 15,000 of these tax audits deal with “cash only” businesses (i.e. the underground economy). Additionally, an estimated 35,000 are tax shelter audits.
