From: canada.revenueagency@yahoo.com   
      
   Canada Revenue Agency Leaks Celebrities' Tax Info To CBC: CRA SOTW   
      
   Business leaders, art collectors, authors and politicians among more than 200   
   on agency's list of donors   
   By Dean Beeby, CBC News   
      
   Detailed tax information about the private lives of hundreds of Canadians --   
   many of them rich and famous -- was sent to CBC News by Canada's tax agency in   
   a major privacy breach.   
      
   The highly confidential details, including home addresses of taxpayers and the   
   value of tax credits they were granted, are contained in a copy of a Canada   
   Revenue Agency spreadsheet covering the years 2008 to 2013.   
      
   The 18 pages include information on donations made by such Canadian luminaries   
   as author Margaret Atwood, former prime minister Jean Chrétien, grocery   
   magnate Frank Sobey, cartoonist Lynn Johnston, pollster Allan Gregg, financier   
   Stephen Bronfman, former    
   CBC executive Richard Stursberg, Olympics chief Richard Pound and many others.   
      
   "Letting confidential figures slip that way, is very sloppy ... I'm sure they   
   didn't do it on purpose," Atwood told CBC on Tuesday.   
      
   The list outlines what donations of manuscripts, photographs and fine art   
   these Canadians have made to Canadian galleries and museums, and includes   
   their home addresses and the value the taxman attached to the donations for   
   the purpose of claiming a    
   charitable tax break.   
      
   The values for the donations range widely, from less than $5,000 for some   
   personal papers to a Rubens painting deemed to be worth $200 million and given   
   to the Art Gallery of Ontario.   
      
   The artifacts being donated to art galleries and museums across the country   
   include manuscript collections from well-known writers, photographs,   
   sculptures and oil paintings, many from the artists themselves  -- and even   
   cels from animated films.   
      
   CBC News is withholding most details from the list, apart from the names of   
   some of the people cited, out of respect for privacy.   
      
   Revenue Minister Kerry-Lynne Findlay later confirmed to the House of Commons   
   there had been a privacy breach, saying the department reported it to the   
   privacy commissioner and was attempting to reach the individuals affected.   
      
   "This privacy breach is extremely serious and completely unacceptable,"   
   Findlay said, after grilling by the opposition. "Measures are being taken to   
   notify, support and protect individuals affected by this breach."   
      
   A spokesperson for the federal privacy commissioner confirmed the office was   
   notified of the incident by Canada Revenue Agency commissioner Andrew Treusch   
   on Tuesday afternoon by telephone, and that the agency would be providing a   
   preliminary report "   
   very quickly."   
      
   "From what we have seen in media reports, the incident clearly raises   
   significant privacy concerns," said Valerie Lawton.   
      
   The unredacted list, delivered to CBC in digital format, was an erroneous   
   response to a request for unrelated records under the Access to Information   
   Act.   
      
   A handful of the entries on the list refer to "gifting tax shelters," a form   
   of donation that in the past has provided a bigger tax break for investors   
   than the actual value of the item donated. The list carefully identifies these   
   schemes to ensure they    
   are given proper scrutiny by officials.   
      
   Some 50,000 of these gifting tax shelters existed in 2006, but tougher rules   
   and scrutiny by the revenue agency since have reduced them to about 10,000   
   registered each year, altogether worth about $85 million in tax breaks   
   annually.   
      
   Not the 1st privacy breach   
      
   Previous privacy breaches under the Conservative government have involved the   
   confidential information of ordinary citizens, but this breach is unique in   
   that it includes so many well-known and well-heeled Canadians in the fields of   
   politics, sports and    
   culture.   
      
   The spreadsheet shows not only what the donors claimed their donations are   
   worth, but what the government later determined was the true worth, sometimes   
   well below the initial claimed value.   
      
   Cultural donations in Canada are vetted by an arm's-length, blue-ribbon panel,   
   the Canadian Cultural Property Export Review Board, which normally receives   
   applications from cultural institutions that have come to some arrangement   
   with a donor. The board    
   then must certify the donation as an "object of significance and national   
   importance," and ensure the value attached is appropriate for the purposes of   
   a tax break.   
      
   In 2012-13, the last year for which figures are available, the board reviewed   
   581 potential donations worth some $72 million -- or $5 million less than the   
   total amount first claimed by the prospective donors. The board says about 13   
   per cent of    
   donations are determined to be less than the claimed value.   
      
   Privacy breaches at federal government agencies have become almost routine.   
   Lawton said a total of 168 federal privacy breaches have been reported since   
   April 1, including 22 from the Canada Revenue Agency, making it among the top   
   offenders.   
      
   Canada's privacy law forbids disclosure of sensitive personal information that   
   "could reasonably be expected to cause serious injury or harm to the   
   individual and/or involves a large number of affected individuals."   
      
   'Here we go again'   
      
   But the Canada Revenue Agency is held to an even higher standard, with a   
   special duty to preserve confidential tax information of individuals and   
   businesses - protecting it from disclosure even to other federal departments   
   and police forces.   
      
   The agency was roundly criticized by Canada's privacy commissioner in her   
   annual report issued October 2013, which detailed "numerous reports of privacy   
   breaches involving employees inappropriately accessing taxpayer information in   
   recent years."   
      
   In a special audit, the commissioner found "weaknesses in key privacy and   
   security practices that led to taxpayer information not being protected as it   
   should, with thousands of files being accessed inappropriately for years   
   without detection."   
      
   The NDP tax critic, Murray Rankin, said the agency has apparently learned   
   nothing. "They were warned.... Here we go again."   
      
   Rankin, a former privacy lawyer, said the breach, along with agency staff cuts   
   that appear to weaken its ability to chase down offshore tax evaders, suggest   
   mismanagement is rampant.   
      
   "They're putting their money in going after people who are environmental   
   charities and birdwatchers, and they've got lots of money for that," he said.   
   "But ... the management of the CRA is missing in action on this."   
      
      
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