“Before deciding to make a disclosure, taxpayers and their
representatives must determine whether one is actually required.”
8. Corporations, as well as individuals, may make “voluntary” disclosures. However, corporations
wishing to do so must ensure that the CRA has not previously contacted current or past
employees. Corporations must keep in mind that the CRA may have contacted former
employees years before about non-filing or an audit issue, and that former employees may
not have left any record of the contact. The CRA, however, will likely have a record of the
contact, and may use the contact to dispute the “voluntariness” of the disclosure.
9. A disclosure may not be considered “voluntary” if the CRA has already started enforcement
action against: a) a person associated with, or related to, the taxpayers attempting to make
the disclosure, or b) third parties where the enforcement action is sufficiently related to the
disclosure. See paragraphs 32-33 of IC00-1R3 and section 3.2 of the internal VDP guidelines
for more information. For example, the CRA may be auditing the spouse of an individual
who wishes to make a “voluntary” disclosure about related issues.
10. Before deciding to make a disclosure, taxpayers and their representatives must determine
whether one is actually required. In other words, there should be consideration of whether
the CRA is barred under the Act from reassessing the affected taxation years. The CRA may
not be permitted to reassess the affected years if, for example, a taxpayer filed returns for the
years in question and did not make any misrepresentations attributable to neglect, carelessness,
or wilful default on the returns.
11. Taxpayers may submit payment with
their disclosures. Generally, in the absen