Donna Marie's trial has started and, at this point, we have two reports on it;
http://www.kelownanow.com/watercooler/n ... e_Expenses
http://globalnews.ca/news/2089498/alleg ... l-charges/
The basis for the charges is;
Donna Marie Stancer and her business partner Deanna Lynn LaValley were charged with filing false income tax returns between 2010 and 2012 by claiming $191 million in false expenses. The two Vernon women owned the tax preparation firm DeMara Consulting Inc., before it was shut down after a 2012 raid by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA).
The news reports said;
Stancer said the scheme was allegedly taught to her by a number of associates at meetings she attended in Alberta. The 62-year-old detailed how she was taught “how to use T5s and T5008s, and how to use the criminal code”.
In front of the jury of seven women and five men, Stancer said she checked the CRA website for warnings, and then read all the bulletins on the website to find information about the use of T5, T5A, and T5008 forms.
“We had spent quite a bit of time talking to people about it, people who had used it in the past,” explained Stancer.
The T5A is an information slip sent from financial institutions such as banks and mutual funds to taxpayers showing their investment income for the year. It is supposed to be included as part of the filed income tax return. The T5008 is;
The T 5008 is essentially a summary of transactions done by you over the year and reported to CRA by the broker. This is for your information only but you do have to record all the transactions in schedule 3.
This is what CRA's website says about the T5008:
Completing your income tax return
This information slip does not have to be attached to your return, but you have to keep it if CRA wishes to see it.
This information slip reports the amount paid or credited to you for securities you disposed of or redeemed during the year indicated. These transactions may be on account of income or capital. For more information see Bulletin IT-479, Transactions in Securities. ...
You can take a look at the T5 and T5008 here;
http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/E/pbg/tf/t5/t5-14b.pdf
http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/E/pbg/tf/t5008/t5008-14b.pdf
Government tax reporting forms! Exciting stuff indeed!
I have to admit ignorance as to how this scheme is supposed to work. I've not heard details of a tax evasion method using these documents. The news article gives this vague description;
DeMara Consulting opened on January 3rd, 2011 and closed its doors in September 2013 following the raid conducted by the CRA. During that time, the company would help members file the Remedy returns for a charge starting at $400. The very complicated process involved taking a person’s income, filing for a business licence, claiming debts into capital losses, and claiming personal expenses as business expenses. The end result would be to reduce or eliminate taxes owing to the government.
But the judge wan't allowing a defense based on any possible interpretation that the scheme was legitimate;
But the Remedy was not legal, and the $191,145,031 in false expense claims for at least 240 clients and resulting refunds were not legal either. Justice Allison Beames made this point very clear to the jury, so they would not get confused during the testimony.
“There’s no legitimacy to the Remedy,” Beames said directly to the 12 person jury. “It was not a legal method for a tax return. It was an inappropriate way to file.”
Unfortunately it is a jury trial which means that there will be no written decision which might explain how their scheme was supposed to work. A trial by judge would probably have resulted in a judgment but all we'll get from a jury is guilty or not guilty.
I can't see how they could find her guilty, she was only trying to help people;
KELOWNA – A BC Supreme Court trial is underway for two Okanagan women accused of trying to bilk the Canada Revenue Agency out of almost $10 million.
Donna Marie Stancer and Deanna Lynn Lavalley are facing fraud and tax evasion charges.
It’s alleged they tried to claim false capital and business losses of more than $191 million to benefit themselves and 220 clients of their now closed Vernon tax preparation company, DeMara Consulting.
The pair called their tax reduction plan The Remedy.
Testifying in her own defence Thursday, Stancer told the judge and jury: “I was convinced it was a legitimate way to file income tax. I wanted to help other people. There seemed to be a lot of people who needed assistance.”
I'll bet their clients didn't know that they "needed asistance" until Donna Marie offered it for a fee. If you read the first few posts in this discussion Stancer is not as innocent and gullible as she seems to be portraying herself at trial. As I said in an earlier post;
Our holistic sovereign tax evader has finally been charged. She, and her partner, are charged with filing false income tax returns on behalf of an unspecified number of clients that the Canada Revenue Agency claims included $191 million in false expenses. It appears their scheme was a bust with only $53 thousand of the claimed $10 Million in refunds paid out. The article describing all this (below) doesn't explain the point I find most interesting; how the claimed expenses would have triggered refunds of only 5% of the expense amounts. Only thing I can think of is that her clients claimed expenses well in excess of their reported income. Stupid if correct since we don't have your OID system (or whatever it is you Americans have, never figured it out, something to do with interest) that allows refunds in excess of taxes actually paid. All that going into negative territory does is get the CRA interested in you.
This isn't a first time for Stancer. She already has a conviction on exactly the same offense back in 1989 which our "give everybody a second chance" government pardoned. She must have taken that as an endorsement of her scam.
