Thursday, September 27, 2007

Fishing in Cyberspace

The Globe and Mail is reporting that the Canada Revenue Agency's merry band of bureaucratic thieves is fishing in cyberspace.
The Canada Revenue Agency has won a Federal Court order requiring eBay Canada Ltd. to turn over the names, addresses, phone numbers and e-mail addresses of all high-volume sellers on the popular website. The CRA wants to find out whether those individuals or companies are reporting the income they made from online sales in 2004 and 2005.

"The CRA is seeking to verify compliance with the obligations and duties under the Income Tax Act of certain Canadian taxpayers selling goods in an online marketplace," said an affidavit filed in court by Aziz Fazal, a Toronto tax officer who heads an audit group within the CRA that is leading the probe. "In particular, the CRA seeks to verify the reporting of income by certain Canadian taxpayers selling goods via the eBay marketplace."


Is it really so much to ask that Canada Revenue Agents have at least some evidence or grounds for reasonable suspicion of wrong-doing before initiating law suits and tax witchhunts on the public dime? And if you cannot comprehend why the behaviour of the CRA has no place in free society - perhaps you should give serious thought to relocating to a country which is more simpatico with your worldview. I hear Beijing is pleasant this time of year.

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