May 6, 2016
Royal Bank of Canada has agreed to hand over 40 years of records on hundreds of its clients revealed in the Panama Papers to federal tax auditors, in the first public step the government has taken to crack down on anyone named in the huge data leak.
The Canada Revenue Agency filed a motion Wednesday in Federal Court to get the bank to turn over the files, saying it wants to determine whether the RBC clients might have used offshore accounts and shell companies to evade tax.
“It is the experience of the CRA that Canadian taxpayers who hold … property through an offshore entity, or who may carry on business through an offshore entity, may not comply with their duties and obligations under the [Income Tax Act],” the court application says.