Erhard Unger was convicted in Penticton, BC of failing to file
income tax returns and was fined $1,000. This amount is the minimum
penalty possible, and he could have been liable for a much larger
penalty and even jail time. He deliberately failed to file Canadian
tax returns from 2012 to 2015 despite receiving demands to file tax
returns from CRA. The income tax returns were filed in January of
2016 but he had already been charged with failure to file tax
returns. The Canadian Income Tax Act has a number of penalty
provisions, with tax evasion and tax fraud being the most well
known and bearing the most severe penalties, including jail time of
up to 5 years in the case of an indictment. Failure to file tax
returns is an offence under subsection 238(1) of the tax act and
carries a penalty of between $1,000 and $25,000 and jail time of up
to 12 months. Mr Unger's failure to file the returns was
deliberate and stemmed from a dispute with CRA. He claimed a bad
debt on his
