Recieved Friday, March 09, 2001 2:55 PM
Subject: Re: [Wednesday's Article in The Star Phoenix Re. Revenue Canada]
CASE COULD CRIPPLE REVENUE CAN ... 03/07/2001
Publication: StarPhoenix
Category: Local
Day: Wednesday
Published: 03/07/2001
Page: a 5
Keywords: revenue canada, income tax evasion, saskatoon, voth, financial
records, court prov
Case could cripple Revenue Canada's power: lawyer
Judge reserves decision on fate of man charged with hiding financial
records
Byline: Lori Coolican of The StarPhoenix
Revenue Canada will have a tough time prosecuting income tax evaders
if a Saskatoon judge sides with a local man who's fighting several
tax-related charges, a federal prosecutor said Tuesday.
"If he's successful, I think we're all finished," Horst Dahlem said.
"The teeth of the Income Tax Act (would be) removed."
David Marlon Voth faces two charges of failing to comply with Revenue
Canada's requests to see his financial records.
Provincial court Judge Bria Huculak reserved her decision after
closing arguments Tuesday. She is expected to deliver a verdict next
month.
Voth, 42, wasn't in court in person -- thereby avoiding a summons
from Revenue Canada informing him of three new charges, this time for
failing to file tax returns for the 1997, 1998 and 1999 taxation years.
"He's been evading service on us for years," Dahlem said, referring
to the government's past difficulties in locating Voth, who apparently
travels outside the country frequently.
Revenue Canada does not know how the man earns his living, or how
much he makes, because he has refused to provide any financial records
-- making it difficult to prove that he has broken the law, Dahlem said.
"We have no evidence of any sort."
Revenue Canada decided to audit Voth a few years ago after suspicions
were raised that he may have had unreported income in previous years, he
said. Investigators demanded his financial records for the purpose of
the audit, but instead Voth sent a questionnaire to his local tax
office.
One of the questions asked if a criminal investigation was under way.
In its reply, Revenue Canada said it couldn't answer the question,
because it would need to perform the audit before deciding if an
investigation was needed -- and because the decision to criminal
investigation is up to the Department of Justice, not Revenue
Canada, Dahlem said.
"He's saying he did not have to comply with the request because we
did not answer his question," Dahlem said.
Voth's lawyer, Jay Watson, argued that when the request was made, the
law did not allow the government to use its audit powers to further a
criminal investigation.
His client reasoned that if a criminal investigation was under way, a
judge would eventually find the documents inadmissible, so he had no
need to supply them in the first place, Watson said.
If Revenue Canada had simply told Voth that he was not the subject of
a criminal investigation, he would have been compelled to supply his
financial records, and Revenue Canada would still be able to launch an
investigation later, Watson said.
Voth has not filed a tax return since 1995 and makes his living
giving seminars and selling pamphlets on how to get away with it, Dahlem
said. The law clearly states that refusing to comply with a Revenue
Canada audit request is against the law. Without that audit power,
criminal tax evasion charges could never be proven, he told Huculak.
Watson said he did not know how Voth makes his living. Voth could not
be reached for comment.
Similar legal tangles are under way across the country, Dahlem said
in an interview. "It's very important that the law be clarified in that
area."
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