ENABLERS TARGETED BY CRA & CBSA ALIKE
RECENT ACTION ON CAR THEFTS EASILY TRANSLATES TO TAX & CUSTOMS MATTERS
Recent news reports about Project Chickadee – the OPP and CBSA joint project aimed at dismantling organized car theft rings exporting stolen Canadian vehicles overseas – focused on an effort to target not only the direct causes of these thefts (the gangs stealing the vehicles), but also the ENABLER: freight forwarding companies, shipping companies, and other intermediaries effectively aiding and abetting the process.
The Canadian government’s ability to intervene in situations that it does not ultimately like (i.e., tax schemes, GST shams, tariff fraud) knows no bounds. And the government’s response does not always require joint work with the OPP or RCMP, but can come in much more innocuous ways.
In this report, we examine a couple of ways in which Canada Revenue Agency (“CRA”) and Canada Border Services Agency (“CBSA”) can target persons indirectly associated with GST or customs non-compliance.