From: canada.revenue.agency@canada.com   
      
   CRA's new fingerprinting policy could create travel problems for accused tax   
   evaders :CRA SOTW   
      
   Tax agency calls mandatory fingerprinting 'a powerful deterrent'    
      
   By Dean Beeby, CBC News Posted: Feb 21, 2017 9:00 PM ET Last Updated: Feb 22,   
   2017 7:29 AM ET    
      
   The Canada Revenue Agency has begun to record the fingerprints of every person   
   charged with tax evasion, a move that could severely restrict foreign travel   
   for anyone accused but not necessarily convicted of a criminal tax offence.   
      
   "Introducing a mandatory fingerprinting policy would serve as a powerful   
   deterrent to those considering committing a serious tax offence or those who   
   may contemplate reoffending," says an internal memorandum justifying the new   
   measure.   
      
   "The mobility restriction is an important deterrent, especially for people   
   engaged in offshore tax evasion."   
      
   The agency changed its policy manuals last fall to implement mandatory   
   fingerprinting following years of inconsistent fingerprint collection based on   
   the varying advice of local prosecutors.   
      
   The new policy means the fingerprints of all accused tax evaders will be   
   recorded in the Canadian Police Information Centre (CPIC) database, accessible   
   by almost 70,000 Canadian police officers but also by some foreign agencies   
   such as the U.S.    
   Department of Homeland Security and its border officers.   
      
   As the memo notes, U.S. officials checking the CPIC database "may view a   
   taxpayer charged and/or convicted for tax evasion as inadmissible to their   
   country."   
      
   CBC News obtained a copy of the memo, and the July 7 order authorizing the new   
   policy, under the Access to Information Act, with several sections blacked out   
   under security and advice exemptions.   
      
   Tracking begins April 1   
   "Without a national policy on fingerprinting, CRA's convictions were not   
   always recorded in CPIC," CRA spokesman David Walters said in an email.   
   "Therefore, some persons convicted of tax evasion were unknown to law   
   enforcement agencies."   
      
   Walters said the agency will rely on qualified police officers to collect the   
   prints. He said there are no statistics to date on how many fingerprints have   
   been collected since the change in policy but formal tracking is to begin   
   April 1.   
      
   The CPIC database is keyed to fingerprints, which are the prime means of   
   tracking a person's movements before and after conviction. "Without   
   fingerprints, the CRA cannot ask law enforcement to carry out such tracing of   
   movements," the memo says.   
      
   The document also says the new policy puts those accused of tax evasion on a   
   level playing field with people charged with theft, fraud and financial crimes.   
      
   They're not charging many people ... they're mostly settling out of court -   
   Dennis Howlett of Canadians for Tax Fairness    
      
   There are other benefits, it says, including "facilitating the apprehension of   
   an accused who fails to appear for trial or sentencing as it allows law   
   enforcement to execute a bench warrant for the arrest of a person alleged to   
   have committed a tax crime,   
    including any accused who may leave the country to avoid facing the   
   consequences of their actions."   
      
   Walters says if an accused is acquitted of tax evasion, the agency will   
   "request" the fingerprints be removed from the CPIC database — though some   
   law firms specializing in fingerprint "destruction" warn the images could   
   remain for months, depending on    
   the protocols of the police service that registered the prints.   
      
   The new policy is part of the agency's renewed emphasis on tax cheats,   
   especially offshore tax evaders, and includes $444.4 million earmarked in last   
   year's budget to combat tax evasion over five years.   
      
   Financial tracking   
   Since January 2015, financial institutions have also been required to report   
   directly to the CRA all international electronic fund transfers of $10,000 or   
   more. In a little more than a year following that legislative change, the   
   agency received data on    
   more than 17 million transactions.   
      
   The tax agency has also been more frequently accessing the financial databases   
   of FINTRAC, the federal centre that combats money laundering and terrorist   
   financing, after critics said the two institutions weren't sharing enough   
   information.   
      
   CRA formally asked FINTRAC for information from its databases on specific   
   cases 68 times in 2015-2016, more than triple the requests from 2013-2014.    
      
   One of CRA's most persistent critics — the non-profit Canadians for Tax   
   Fairness, funded largely by unions — questions the effectiveness of the new   
   fingerprinting policy when the agency turns so seldom to the justice system to   
   catch big tax cheats.   
      
   "They are not charging many people, so the evidence would seem to indicate   
   they're mostly settling out of court," executive director Dennis Howlett said   
   in an interview.   
      
   "They do need to take some cases to court to clearly establish some precedents   
   and to strengthen their negotiating hand when they do settle out of court …   
   We're a bit surprised there aren't more charges."   
      
   Howlett also said CRA is still not pursuing wealth-management firms that   
   facilitate offshore tax evasion, or corporations that may be keeping profits   
   in offshore tax havens to evade taxes at home.   
      
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