From: canadarevenue.agency@hotmail.com   
      
   Canada Revenue Agency has double standard for ‘tax cheats’: CRA SOTW   
      
   The CRA won’t divulge the identities of people convicted for stashing   
   millions offshore, but it names and shames those caught owing small amounts of   
   tax.   
      
   By Marco Chown OvedForeign Affairs Reporter   
      
   The Canada Revenue Agency claims at least nine people have been convicted of   
   offshore tax evasion over the last two years, receiving $4 million in fines   
   and 84 months of jail time, but it is keeping the names of these tax cheats   
   secret.   
      
   Yet there are dozens of people — carpenters, hairdressers, farmers,   
   plumbers, foresters, realtors, architects — who are named and shamed on the   
   CRA’s website for not paying small amounts of tax.   
      
   This double standard means that small business owners who fall behind on tax   
   payments, or servers who don’t declare their tips, are publicly outed for   
   their relatively paltry offences, while wealthy individuals and businesses   
   caught hiding millions in    
   offshore tax havens are guaranteed anonymity.   
      
   Even though criminal convictions for tax evasion should be public information,   
   without the defendants’ names, case numbers or knowledge of which courthouse   
   the convictions were handed down in, it’s impossible to determine the   
   identities of offshore    
   tax cheats.   
      
   In the wake of the Panama Papers revelations, Ottawa pledged $444 million over   
   five years to crack down on tax cheats and said it will focus on those who use   
   offshore tax havens. But in several high-profile cases of offshore tax evasion   
   that have emerged    
   over the last year, including one scheme in which KPMG helped wealthy clients   
   hide $130 million in the Isle of Man, the perpetrators remain unnamed.    
      
   “Although the CRA can provide aggregate statistics on the convictions with   
   links to money or assets held offshore, we are not able to give the names and   
   case numbers of the people convicted as this may contravene taxpayer   
   confidentiality,” wrote CRA    
   spokesperson David Walters in an email to the Star.   
      
   “The details that we are able to include in our conviction news releases is   
   limited to what is presented in the courts and part of the public record. As a   
   result, if the public record does not include information linking the   
   convicted taxpayer to money    
   and assets located offshore, we are not able to report this information,” he   
   wrote.   
      
   In April, the federal anti-money-laundering agency, Fintrac, fined a bank $1.1   
   million for failing to report a suspicious transaction, but refused to name   
   the institution.    
      
   “It’s outrageous,” said NDP MP Murray Rankin. “All the CRA wants to do   
   is go after big penalties for the hairdresser who wrote off more than she   
   should.”   
      
   The former revenue critic says the policy contributes to the development of a   
   two-tier tax system.    
      
   “The people who have the ability to arrange their affairs using tax havens   
   tend to be large family trusts, corporations and the like, whereas the   
   government goes after little people to collect their taxes very    
   ggressively,” he said.   
      
   While the CRA will not divulge the identities of people caught stashing   
   millions overseas, it has no problem naming people who were charged for owing   
   small amounts of tax.    
      
   In January, the agency posted a news release on its website naming eight   
   Ontarians and two businesses that were fined between $1,000 and $8,000 after   
   they were “convicted and sentenced for failing to file corporate, personal   
   and/or GST/HST returns.”   
      
   One of those people is Dragan Micanovic, a 59-year-old cabinetmaker from   
   Etobicoke, who was fined $2,000 for failing to file tax returns. His company,   
   CIC Fine Woodworking & General Contracting Ltd., was also fined $2,000.   
      
   Micanovic, who fled war-torn Bosnia with his wife and two small children in   
   the late 1990s, arrived in Canada “with nothing,” he said, and built his   
   business from scratch.   
   “It’s not fair,” said the silver-haired craftsman as he stood on a   
   carpet of sawdust in his Mississauga workshop. “It’s very hard for the   
   little people.”   
      
   “Last year, the CRA froze my account. They took money. I lost insurance,”   
   he said. “I say: ‘If you freeze my account, how can I work? How can I pay   
   tax?’ ”   
      
   For years, Micanovic’s bread and butter has been replacing kitchens in   
   rental apartments, he said, explaining that each building brought him about 10   
   kitchens a year. But when he lost his contract with a major landlord, he said   
   he no longer had regular    
   income and was owed $120,000 for work he’d already done.   
      
   “I lose business and I don’t know what to do,” he said. “The bank   
   don’t want to help you. Nobody help you.”   
      
   “Big companies, Bell, Rogers, if I don’t pay my bill, they cut off the   
   phone. But if my client doesn’t pay, what can I do but cry?”   
      
   Desperate to make ends meet, Micanovic took out lines of credit and maxed out   
   his credit cards in order make mortgage payments, pay rent on his workshop and   
   support his daughter’s university education.    
      
   “I have enough for rent, but no money to live,” he said.    
      
   Micanovic moved to a workshop with cheaper rent and even shut down his   
   business in an effort to put the debts behind him. But soon the CRA started   
   calling.   
      
   “They no stop calling you,” he said. “I stopped answering the phone.”   
      
   He filed five years of tax returns for his now defunct business, but that did   
   little to dissuade the CRA.   
      
   “My bookkeeper sent them everything. He put zeros everywhere, but they still   
   want money. They push you, push you, push you. I don’t get paid for three   
   months, they don’t care. And they no try to help you. That’s the   
   problem.”   
      
   “If you have no money, they charge you interest. And it goes on and on. It   
   never ends.”   
   Beyond keeping them anonymous, some critics say the CRA is misleading the   
   public about the number of prosecutions of offshore tax cheats.   
      
   Queen’s University tax law Prof. Arthur Cockfield questions the CRA’s   
   claims to have convicted any real offshore tax evaders.    
      
   “I can’t find any successful prosecutions,” he said. “I’ve had   
   researchers look.”   
      
   If the government doesn’t publicize the names of convicted offshore tax   
   cheats, there’s no deterrence for others who might go down the same path,   
   Cockfield said.   
      
   “If you want to deter criminals, convict them,” he said.   
      
      
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