The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) managing this data was reviewed as part of the Auditor General’s fall 2013 report. The office has examined whether the agency perfectly conducted compliance activities for those listed under the Liechtenstein bank, and used the intelligence gained to confirm or update its identification and audit process for offshore banking.
The CRA listed the names in where 35 family groups out of 81 were not audited, because the taxpayers were either not Canadian residents or were deceased, or could not be tracked down. The issue of the Exchange of tax information is become gradually important for the current initiatives to combat international tax evasion. The confidentiality of taxpayer information is one of the concerns with information exchange and it is therefore important for tax authorities to illustrate that they have correctly handled the information. At present, the CRA has finished 46 audits based on the data, with 23 leading to reassessments. It took approximately six years to complete. These generated CAD24.65m (USD23.34m) in federal tax, interest, and penalties.
Agreements have been signed for collecting information about the feature of the investments and the details of the income earned. According to the report, these taxpayers have concerned to give full disclosure, pay amounts owing by a stipulated date, and waive their rights to appeal. The Office conclude that the CRA is not fully prepared for the growing workload associated with auditing projects based on such expansive informant leads and the Liechtenstein audits were the first offshore audits undertaken in this way.