Canadian multinationals face tougher tax scrutiny

OTTAWA — The agency that issues passports to Canadians is projecting a quarter of its workforce could be cut as it rolls out new chip-embedded, 10-year travel documents. Passport Canada expects to have the equivalent of 2,512 full time staff this year, says a Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade report. But that number drops to 1,874 by fiscal 2015-16 in the plans and priorities report. The agency says it expects fewer people to apply for the new, more secure travel documents by then.

OTTAWA — As an international investigation of tax evaders broadens to include Canadian authorities, the federal government says it has convicted just 44 individuals of offshore tax cheating since 2006. And the total amount of fines levied — $6.8-million — is less than the $7.7-million in taxes that were evaded. Between April 2006 and March 2012, a total of 44 convicted tax evaders were collectively sentenced to 337 months in jail, an average of about seven months each.

The Canada Revenue Agency’s total uncollected tax debt has soared about 60% to $29-billion in the past seven years, at the same time the cost of “doubtful accounts” unlikely to be collected has more than doubled to almost $12-billion. The CRA has, however, also significantly increased its collection of other tax debt in recent years — resolving $40-billion in 2011-12 — demonstrating it’s having mixed results in snaring the tax dollars owed by Canadians.

WASHINGTON — Mary Jo White vowed Tuesday to make “bold and unrelenting” enforcement of Wall Street a high priority if she is confirmed chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. White, a former federal prosecutor, says investors need to know the playing field is level and that wrongdoers will be “aggressively and successfully” pursued.

(Reuters) - Calling them "tax cheats" and their lawsuit a "travesty," a U.S. appeals court threw out an effort by some American customers of UBS AG to recover damages over bank services that resulted in their having evaded U.S. taxes.

Clever heads come up with a way to side-step SIFT rules while not offending Canada Revenue Agency