Deer Lake businessman fined $125,955 for tax evasion

Corner Brook, Newfoundland and Labrador, December 2, 2015… The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) announced today that Ronald Thomas of Deer Lake, Newfoundland and Labrador, pleaded guilty on November 30, 2015 in Corner Brook Provincial Court to two counts of tax evasion and was fined a total of $125,955.

A 12-month CRA investigation revealed that Mr. Thomas evaded $78,925 in personal income taxes for the 2005, 2006 and 2008 taxation years by understating his total business income earned by $307,930. The investigation showed that Mr. Thomas didn’t report income on his T1 Income Tax Return from land sales from his construction and real estate development business. Mr. Thomas also failed to file $47,030 of HST for seven quarterly periods between October 1, 2004 and September 30, 2008.

In addition to the court-imposed fines, Mr. Thomas must also pay the outstanding amount of tax owing, plus interest and any civil penalties that may be assessed by the CRA.

The preceding information was obtained from the court records.

The CRA takes tax evasion very seriously. When an individual or business does not fully comply with tax legislation, an unfair burden is placed on law-abiding taxpayers and businesses and the integrity of Canada's tax base is jeopardized.

If you have ever made a tax mistake or omission, the CRA is offering you a second chance to make things right through its Voluntary Disclosures Program (VDP). If you make a valid disclosure before you become aware that the CRA is taking action against you, you may only have to pay the taxes owing plus interest. More information on the VDP can be found on the CRA's website at http://www.cra.gc.ca/voluntarydisclosures.

Further information on convictions can be found in the Media Room on the CRA website at www.cra.gc.ca/convictions.

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For media information

Mayya Assouad
Communications, Atlantic Region
902-426-9889

Date modified:

2015-12-03