For each of the following independent cases, indicate whether you believe any penalty would be assessed under ITA 163.2 on any of the parties involved. Explain your conclusion.
Case 1
In preparing a tax return for one of his established clients, an accountant relies on the financial statements that another accountant has prepared for the client's business income. Nothing in these statements seemed unreasonable.
On audit, the CRA finds that the business income financial statements prepared by the other accountant contained material misrepresentations.
Case 2
An accountant is asked to prepare tax return for a new client. The accountant had no previous acquaintance with the individual.
The client provides statements, prepared using the appropriate tax figures, showing a net business income of $45,000. He has no other income. He indicates that, during the current year, he made a $32,000 contribution to a registered Canadian charity, but has lost the receipt and has requested a duplicate. As it is now April 29, in order to avoid a late filing penalty, the accountant e-files the tax return, claiming a tax credit for the contribution without seeing the receipt.
Case 3
An accountant has been engaged by a new client to use his records to prepare an income statement and to use the information in this statement to prepare a tax return. As part of this engagement, the accountant reviews both the expense and revenue information that has been provided to him by the new client. He finds revenues of $285,000 and expenses of $201,000. The information used to arrive at these figures seems reasonable and, given this, the accountant files the required tax return.
When the client is audited, the CRA finds a large proportion of the expenses claimed cannot be substantiated by adequate documentation and may not have been incurred. Furthermore, it appears that the client has a substantial amount of unreported revenues.
Case 4
An accountant who lives in an expensive neighbourhood notices that the house next door has just been sold. It was listed for $1 million. The accountant introduces himself to the new neighbour and they become friends.
At tax time the friend hires the accountant to prepare his return. The accountant is given a T4 with $25,000 in income reported. Thinking that the gross income is on the low side, the accountant asks if this is all the income he has and the friend replies that it is so. The accountant is still not satisfied with the answer as the income seems to be out of proportion with the living standard of the friend, so he then asks him if he has received money from any source other than his employment and the friend replies that he received a substantial inheritance from his mother last year.
The accountant does not ask any further questions and prepares and files the return. When the friend is audited it is discovered that he has over $200,000 in unreported income.
Case 5
Units in a new limited partnership tax shelter are being sold by a company. The company has established this limited partnership by acquiring a software application in the open market for $100,000. However, the prospectus prepared by the company states that the fair market value of the application is $5,000,000, a value that was supported by an independent appraiser. The tax shelter is registered with the CRA and is available as an investment opportunity in the current year.
On audit, the CRA determines that the $100,000 that was paid for the software application is, in fact, its fair market value on the date of the transfer. In discussing the matter with the independent appraiser, the CRA finds that the appraisal was not prepared using normal valuation procedures. In addition, the appraiser based his work entirely on assumptions and facts that were provided by the company. The appraiser was paid $50,000 for his work.
Case 6 (Requires Basic GST/HST Knowledge)
An accountant is asked to file a HST return for a client who has not kept records of the HST paid or payable on her business purchases for the year. However, the client does have financial statements for her business which, after a brief review, the accountant finds to be reasonable.
In his review, the accountant found that these statements contain large amounts for wages and interest expense, as well as a significant amount of purchases that are zero-rated. (HST is not paid on any of these types of expenses). In preparing the HST return, the accountant applies a factor of 13/113 to all of the expenses shown in the income statement. This results in an overstatement of input tax credits reported on the HST return.

By Making All Instalments on the Basis of the CRA's

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