Cross-jurisdictional team is making progress
.jpg)
A group of nations has been working together this week on the challenge of tax evasion.
The Joint Chiefs of Global Tax Enforcement – known as the J5 – includes the Canada Revenue Agency and its counterparts from the UK, Australia, the Netherlands, and the United States.
Officials met at the Fiscal Information and Investigation Service in Amsterdam for “The Challenge”, an event to identify, develop, and test tools, platforms, techniques, and methods that contribute to the J5’s mission to crack down on tax evasion.
The group focuses on building international enforcement capacity by sharing information and intelligence, enhancing operational capability by piloting new approaches, and conducting joint operations / investigations.
Established in June 2018 with an inaugural meeting in Montreal, the J5 recognises that single jurisdictions in isolation have limited ability to target those who evade tax.
"Combatting tax evasion across international borders requires partner nations to work together effectively and to understand the available data and tools, commented Canada’s minister of national revenue Diane Lebouthillier. “These partnerships allow us to identify common targets and develop strategies for cases across borders."
For its part in the collaboration, the CRA has specifically identified promoters of tax schemes, including enablers, as one of the top operational priorities of its criminal investigations program the CRA is currently investigating over 15 cases involving promoters of tax schemes and more than 50 cases linked to offshore tax evasion.
We were pleased to collaborate with our colleagues from the US, the UK, the Netherlands, and Australia to optimize international coordination against tax crime. #J5TaxCrime #CdnTax https://t.co/c95H6w4gYr pic.twitter.com/4pHtUNgSL7
— Canada Revenue Agency (@CanRevAgency) November 9, 2018
At the conclusion of ‘The Challenge,’ each team identified new targets of investigations, developed investigative schemes to address those targets and increased their ability to share information and find similar patterns and targets in the future.
“Financial crime goes across borders,” said Hans van der Vlist, General Director of FIOD. “That is why operational collaboration is essential and possible. The J5 is a great example. The goal of this challenge is to define unknown professional enablers of tax fraud and financial crime.”
The J5 has also made progress in identifying websites that enable fraud through the promotion of schemes to hide income and assets offshore.
