Women gets house arrest, fine for filing falsified tax returns
A Calgary woman has been fined $116,000 and sentenced to house arrest for filing multiple false tax returns, says the Canada Revenue Agency.
On Nov. 13, Monique Van Dijk pleaded guilty to one count of making, or participating in the making of, false or deceptive statements in a tax return under the Income Tax Act.
The CRA said its investigation revealed Van Dijk had filed more than 200 T1 tax returns and “change my return” requests for more than 50 individual taxpayers between March 2016 and July 2019.
“On a significant number of those tax returns and requests, Van Dijk made false statements and claims in order to obtain the Working Income Tax Benefit and other refunds,” the CRA said in a statement. “The false and other unsupported claims resulted in the CRA paying excess refunds, or refunds to which the individual taxpayers were not entitled.”
Fines levied in such cases are to the full amount of tax owed by the offender plus interest and any penalties assessed by CRA, said the federal agency.
In addition to the fine, Van Dijk was sentenced to 12 months of house arrest, followed by a year of probation.
In September 2022, the Alberta Court of Appeal overturned a chamber judge's ruling requiring Van Dijk be compensated for a laptop confiscated and held by the CRA for almost two years.
Van Dijk had argued she should be compensated because she couldn't work without the laptop. The chambers judge had ordered Van Dijk be paid $2,500 and that pertinent personal information from it be provided to her.