Tax fraud is rampant and there seems to be no shortage of accountants willing to look the other way. If your accountant is writing off expenses that are overstated, not only are you breaking the law, you will be facing some major fines putting your personal life and business on the line.
CRA takes tax fraud seriously (even though in larger offshore corporate cases, it may not seem like it). Here are a few of the recent cases they are publicizing.
- Vancouver tax preparers receive 51-month jail sentence for fraud for providing their clients with false donation receipts.
- Vancouver businessman receives fine and conditional sentence for tax evasion for failing to report sole proprietorship income.
- Red Deer tax protester receives fine and conditional jail sentence.
- Deer Lake businessman fined $125,955 for tax evasion for underreporting income and failing to file HST returns.
- Markham tax preparer sentenced for fraud for creating false business losses for clients worth over $10 million.
- Tax preparer sentenced to house arrest and fine for claiming false donations and employment expenses for clients.
- Strongfield man fined $72,018 and sentenced to a nine-month conditional jail term for tax evasion due to underreporting business income and GST.
We are aggressive in our tax planning and can often save you money but we aren’t going to put you and/or ourselves at risk by breaking the law.