A Chief Financial Officer for a ski resort was sentenced to one year in jail and fined $106,000 in a tax evasion case. The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) announced that Derek Kwasney of Calgary was sentenced to 12 months in jail and fined $106,000.
Kwasney pleaded guilty on September 26, 2024, to evading payment of taxes by understating his taxable income on his T1 Individual Tax Returns.
A CRA investigation revealed that, as the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Controller of the Lake Louise Ski Resort Area Ltd. (LLSR), Kwasney misappropriated funds from LLSR in 2015 and 2016, totalling over $350,000. Kwasney failed to report the misappropriated funds as part of his taxable income for the 2015 and 2016 taxation years, evading more than $100,000 in federal income tax.
In addition to the court-imposed fines and/or jail sentences, convicted taxpayers must pay the full amount of tax owing, plus related interest and any penalties assessed by the CRA. CRA reminds people that tax evasion is a crime. Falsifying records and claims, wilfully not reporting income, or inflating expenses can lead to criminal charges, prosecution, court-imposed fines, jail time, and a criminal record, the agency cautions.
For the five years from April 1, 2019, to March 31, 2024, the courts convicted 135 taxpayers for evading the payment of more than 44 million dollars in federal tax combined. As of March 31, 2024, these convictions resulted in sentences totalling $25.1 million in court fines and more than 108 years in jail.
