After severe criticism from the Canadian press that the Canadian Revenue Agency is not tough enough on tax evaders taking untaxed money offshore compared with the US, Revenue Minister, Jean-Pierre Blackburn, has said that Canada needs new legislation to combat the abuses more efficiently.
In a telephone interview with the Globe and Mail, Mr. Blackburn discussed a list of proposed new measures which he has sent to the Department of Finance for consideration. The clamp down on tax-haven abuse, would include a requirement for banks to report when account holders send money out of the country and access to all records obtained by the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre, or FINTRAC. FINTRAC currently passes on details of suspected money laundering, terrorist financing and extreme cases of tax fraud. Canadian financial institutions should also be required to report any offshore accounts they create for taxpayers according to Blackburn. The timing of these comments is connected to the agreement reached between the US and Switzerland, which allowed the details of 4,450 US holders of Offshore UBS accounts to be divulged to the American IRS for investigation. Information about the Swiss bank's operations in Canada was made public last summer by a US Senate subcommittee which held hearings on the affair. At the hearing, investigators released documents that showed that the so-called 'Canada Desk' of UBS channeled about USD5.6bn from wealthy Canadian individuals to Swiss accounts in the last few years. Hundreds of US account holders at UBS and other offshore banks are taking part in a US tax amnesty program, according to The Wall Street Journal. Canada, on the other hand, has reportedly received just seven offers of disclosure from UBS clients. Mr Blackburn later announced that CRA lawyers will visit UBS in Switzerland to see what more could be done to advance their investigations.A comprehensive report in our Intelligence Report series, examining in depth the situation of offshore transparency and secrecy in a number of the most prominent jurisdictions, is available in the Lowtax Library at http://www.lowtaxlibrary.com/asp/subs_reports.asp and a description of the report can be seen at http://www.lowtaxlibrary.com/asp/description_report2.asp.
Network Tweets Archive
| Resources | Partners
| Site Map | Links
| Newsletter
Archive | Contact
| RSS Feeds
About | Syndication |
Advertising & Marketing |
Recruitment |
Terms & Conditions |
Privacy
Copyright © 2012 - All Rights Reserved - Tax-News.com
All content provided by BSI Media
IMPORTANT NOTICE: Tax-News.com has taken reasonable care in sourcing and presenting the information contained on this site, but accepts no responsibility for any financial or other loss or damage that may result from its use. In particular, users of the site are advised to take appropriate professional advice before committing themselves to involvement in offshore jurisdictions, offshore trusts or offshore investments.
Write a comment