FIFTH ESTATE
CRA records missing in KPMG tax dodge affair
Watchdog groups call for investigation after correspondence appears to have been deleted
Call it the case of the vanishing CRA records.
Some correspondence from the Canada Revenue Agency's former top enforcement official went missing — and appears to have been deleted — in the months leading up to the agency's secret "no penalties" amnesty offer to wealthy KPMG tax dodgers in the spring of 2015, a Fifth Estate/Enquête investigation has found.
Those revelations may call into question the findings of an external probe that cleared the CRA in its dealings with accounting firm KPMG, which for years had run a secret offshore scheme in the Isle of Man for multimillionaire clients.
"There's no reason to destroy these documents unless you're trying to cover up a decision-making trail," says Duff Conacher, head of the watchdog group Democracy Watch.
At issue is a central mystery in the KPMG affair.
Exactly why did the CRA offer KPMG clients what critics have called a "sweetheart" deal to millionaire Canadians -- on the condition that the public be kept in the dark about it?
That secret offer, leaked to CBC News in a brown envelope, sparked deep resentment even within the agency.
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