A financial advisor has been sentenced to three years in prison after the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) successfully appealed a conditional sentence imposed on him for evading income tax.
Joern Scholz (Scholz), also known as John Scholz, of Port Carling, Ontario, was found guilty by a jury in April 2019 of one count of fraud over $5,000 for evading federal income tax and the goods and services tax. The Court of Appeal of Ontario found that a prison sentence was merited because the tax evasion constituted a large-scale fraud on Canadian taxpayers.
According to CRA, its investigation indicated that Scholz operated an investment counselling business but did not report any of the commission fees he received from his clients for the tax years 2011-2013 inclusive.
By failing to report taxable income totalling $2,149,730 for these years, Scholz evaded a total of $605,355 in federal income tax. Scholz also did not file GST/HST returns for the periods ending in 2011 to 2015 inclusive, evading the remittance of GST/HST totalling $445,789.
CRA ensuring income earned is income reported
CRA also said that from April 1, 2020 to March 31, 2021, there were 36 convictions of 15 taxpayers who were sent to jail for a total of 26.2 years. These individuals were sentenced for wilfully evading payment amounts totalling $10,902,950 in tax.
The CRA said it is working towards making sure that individuals and businesses report income earned and eligible losses, and claim benefits to which they are entitled. “As a result of COVID-19, we are seeing the increased importance of these benefits, and are working to make sure that they continue to be available to Canadians. Any individual or business who underreports income, or claims losses or benefits to which they are not entitled, including ineligible claims for COVID-19 benefits, may have to repay the benefit amounts and may be subject to other possible action.”
