Does anyone have a good tax or audit horror story to share?
I'm a bit too young and have too little income to be worth targetting by the CRA for an audit, but I have had my income tax return subject to small adjustments on a couple of occasions because I made some small mistakes when filing my return. I was a bit horrified this year to find that my fund company or brokerage (I'm not sure who messed up) tried to send my T3 to an old address, even though I had updated it. I received my T3 this year weeks after I filed my return.
In my job I do some work on international business tax controversies. Sometimes the CRA can make big mistakes in their reassessments. I've done work for one company in which the CRA made computational errors that resulted in over $7 million in adjustments and over $700K in penalties in the company's reassessment after an audit. While some adjustment was warranted, maybe in the range of $2-3 million, the $7 million was just excessive and the penalty unwarranted. Fortunately, the company should be able to get some double taxation relief by appealing to the competent authorities (sorta like international tax arbitration). Incidentally, the CRA is considered to be a pretty aggressive tax authority when it comes to international corporate taxes.
I'm a bit too young and have too little income to be worth targetting by the CRA for an audit, but I have had my income tax return subject to small adjustments on a couple of occasions because I made some small mistakes when filing my return. I was a bit horrified this year to find that my fund company or brokerage (I'm not sure who messed up) tried to send my T3 to an old address, even though I had updated it. I received my T3 this year weeks after I filed my return.
In my job I do some work on international business tax controversies. Sometimes the CRA can make big mistakes in their reassessments. I've done work for one company in which the CRA made computational errors that resulted in over $7 million in adjustments and over $700K in penalties in the company's reassessment after an audit. While some adjustment was warranted, maybe in the range of $2-3 million, the $7 million was just excessive and the penalty unwarranted. Fortunately, the company should be able to get some double taxation relief by appealing to the competent authorities (sorta like international tax arbitration). Incidentally, the CRA is considered to be a pretty aggressive tax authority when it comes to international corporate taxes.