The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) announced that Sylvain Quirion, a tax protester from Montréal, pleaded guilty today to fraud charges before the Court of Quebec in Laval. He received a nine-month conditional sentence.

Mr. Quirion acted as a facilitator for a tax protester group called Les Créditeurs. A CRA investigation revealed that between May 2010 and May 2011, Mr. Quirion and his group advised and enabled 50 individuals to evade, or try to evade, a total of $1,080,930 in federal income tax by claiming non-deductible losses against their taxable income.

All case-specific information above was obtained from the court records and can be found at the Laval courthouse located at 2800 Boulevard Saint-Martin O, Laval, QC H7T 2S9.

The scheme employed is based on an argument made by tax protesters, which Canadian courts have repeatedly and consistently rejected. Tax protesters are individuals who support the false notion that they do not have to pay tax on the income they earn on the basis of a combination of legal and other arguments to place themselves beyond the reach of Canada’s tax laws. Participating in a tax protester scheme can have serious consequences including a criminal prosecution leading to jail time and fines. Between 2006 and 2018, 81 taxpayers/promoters, including tax protesters, were convicted of tax offences related to tax schemes, leading to $7.4 million in court imposed fines and 1,122 months (94 years) of jail time. To learn more, go to canada.ca/tax-alert.

The CRA has set up a free subscription service to help Canadians stay current on the CRA’s enforcement efforts.

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Contact

Frédérick Fink
Canada Revenue Agency
Telephone: 514-283-2628