Report offshore tax cheating – Eligibility
2. Eligibility
No matter where you are in the world, you may qualify for the CRA's reward program if the information you provide includes sufficient, specific and credible details that lead to additional taxes being assessed and collected. This information must allow the CRA to determine that:
- the tax non-compliance being reported is international
- the federal tax evaded or avoided, excluding interest and penalties, is $100,000 or more
The information you provide cannot already be known to the CRA or be speculative. The OTIP has sole discretion on whether or not to use the information provided. Some of the reasons the OTIP may reject the submission include dated information, lack of supporting documents, and unlikeliness of recovering more than $100,000 in federal taxes.
Exclusions
You may not be eligible for a reward under the following situations:
- you have been convicted of tax evasion concerning the situation of non-compliance you are reporting
- you are a CRA employee
- you are or were a federal, provincial, or municipal employee, official, or representative, and acquired the information in the course of your employment duties
- you are or were a contractor and acquired the information in the course of your duties for a federal, provincial or municipal government
- you have been convicted of an offence listed under section 750 of the Criminal Code
- you are the taxpayer involved in the non-compliance (if this is the situation, you may want to consider making a voluntary disclosure)
- you are currently an authorized representative of the taxpayer involved
- you are legally required to disclose the information to the CRA
- you received the information from an ineligible individual
- you are providing the information anonymously (anonymous submissions will be accepted however no payment will be made)
Note that this is a non-exhaustive list. Other situations may preclude eligibility.
Examples of submissions
Nicole submitted information to the OTIP that proved her ex-spouse failed to report his foreign assets. With her information, the CRA audited her ex-spouse and expects to collect taxes, interest and penalties. And Nicole is expecting a reward… read Nicole’s story.
As a financial planner in an offshore bank, Simon had privileged knowledge of his clients’ affairs. He provided the CRA with sufficient information on alleged offshore tax cheating of over 50 Canadians… Read Simon’s story.
David and Joanne provided detailed information on two international tax scheme promoters, which led to the collection of millions of dollars in unreported taxes… Read David and Joanne’s story.
Note: Informants are providing information on a voluntarily basis to the CRA and are not acting on its behalf. Informants are not agents or employees of the CRA and should not represent themselves as an agent or representative of the CRA.