A tax amnesty or a Tax pardon is also referred to as a voluntary disclosure in Canada. This is a procedure which enables you to deal with income tax or General Sales Tax returns which have not been filed. It involves income which has not been reported. When you appeal for a tax amnesty, you may be able to avoid penalties, charges for income tax evasion and prosecution too.

It is always advisable to seek a professional tax representative to help you. A tax firm has experience with tackling voluntary disclosures and ?representatives can guide you through your personal or corporate tax situation.

Revenue Canada has a voluntary disclosure program which is generally known as tax amnesty or a VDP, which enables taxpayers to declare their income voluntarily and file their tax returns, which have not been filed earlier or have been filed inaccurately.

The tax amnesty program helps in the waiver of civil penalties and it may save you from criminal prosecution. The crucial thing to remember is taxpayers have to act as on voluntary basis, being fully cognizant of their legal responsibilities as per the Income Tax Act and the Excise Tax Act by reporting their tax affairs before the CRA begins to take any action or investigates against them.

All taxpayers who take the shield of the tax amnesty program will have to pay their outstanding tax amounts as assessed by the CRA along with the interest charges on the unpaid amount with the penalties waived.

Canadian non-residents can also be accommodated for the tax amnesty program and if they are able to meet certain requirements, they can extend their date of submission under Section 216 returns. The program also enables anonymous disclosure under the provision of a No-Name Policy which has been created to protect the identity of the compliant taxpayers.

If the taxpayer decides to remain incognito and confidential, he or she will be allowed to proceed with the voluntary disclosure and cannot be prosecuted up to a period of ninety days. This period of ninety days starts from the effective date of disclosure. The effective date of disclosure is established by the date the written voluntary disclosure is submitted to the CRA, whereby a receipt is given on the VDP Taxpayer Agreement Form from the tax services office.

During this period, the taxpayer will be safe from any CRA interference or charges of prosecution. This anonymity is also applicable if the income which has not been reported has been earned from offshore sources or through ambiguous or criminal activity.

To summarize, tax amnesty is applicable when there has been a failure on a taxpayer?s part to report his or her income; or if the income has been reported inaccurately with some missing information. If apply successfully, the taxpayers can enjoy the benefits of penalties free or even reduced interests treatment on their taxes.

The Voluntary Disclosure Program of CRA has been created to encourage the taxpayers to disclose their income which is not reported earlier on a voluntary basis.?Toronto VDP assures the taxpayers that they will not be held liable or prosecuted for evasion of tax if they disclose their unreported income voluntarily. There will not be any civil penalties that will be imposed on these taxpayers. The accrued interest on their tax account will also be reduced. This interest has to be connected to the statute exempted years.

The disclosure by taxpayers has to meet four?Toronto VDP?conditions. These conditions are that the disclosure has to be on voluntary basis; the disclosure has to report the total concealed income; the disclosure has to be involved with a penalty application and the disclosure has to include all information for the period that is at least dating back to one year or more.

The taxpayers have to go through a possible three stages to qualify for?Toronto VDP. These stages are the initial submission, the administrative review and the judicial review. The CRA looks at the circumstances that surround the motive for the particular disclosure.?Toronto VDP legal submissions have to be made to theCRA, disclosing all the facts and laws surrounding that disclosure. The application has to support a stance that the undeclared income of the taxpayer has to be accepted by theCRA and that it should be secured against civil penalties or a case of criminal prosecution.

The taxpayer would be well advised to take the help of a professional tax accountant to understand how CRAis likely to audit this information given on the disclosure through?VDP Toronto. In some cases, taxpayers may not be completely certain that they have one hundred percent of their information relating to their disclosure and thus decided not to report them. This can turn out to be disastrous in the future if the CRA catches them.

The application requires that the taxpayer to submit additional evidence or facts to make his or her case stronger. There is a possibility that the taxpayer may have missed out reporting these facts earlier. This is the last opportunity that the taxpayer will get to initiate any arguments to escape prosecution for evasion of tax.

The last stage for?Toronto VDP is the application for the administrative review. Once the administrative review starts, the taxpayer has to file the application for judicial review to the CRA within three month from the time that the acknowledgement was communicated to the taxpayer by the CRA. The taxpayer could also apply for time extension trying to get the?Toronto VDP accepted. If the CRA accepts the?Toronto VDP after it meets all the conditions set forth, then the disclosure will finally be considered a valid one and the taxpayer will not be penalized or prosecuted in connection with the disclosure.