Access to the Canada Revenue Agency’s Voluntary Disclosure Program
The Canada Revenue Agency’s Voluntary Disclosure Program (VDP) provides taxpayers the potential to realize some dispensation from late filing penalties and partial relief from interest charges, by correcting previous instances of “non-compliance”, including non-disclosure and non-payment. For example, such as if taxpayers failed to file a tax return, did not meet their tax obligations, if they claimed ineligible expenses, failed to remit source deductions, or failed to report or remit the GST/HST. The VDP also applies to disclosures for excise tax, excise duties and source deductions.
In response to criticism that the current VDP is overly generous, suggested revisions to the program are current being formulated and are scheduled to take place on January 1 of 2018. These changes would involve making the program much more restrictive. Persons who may be motivated to access the program are encouraged to do so before January 1, 2018, when the changes are scheduled to take effect.