Calgary woman convicted of making false statements in the filings she made for over 50 individuals

The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) announced today that Monique Van Dijk of Calgary, Alberta, pleaded guilty on November 16, 2023, in the Alberta Court of Justice, to one count of making, or participating in the making of, false or deceptive statements in a tax return under the Income Tax Act. Van Dijk was fined a total of $116,000, and received a conditional sentence order which included 12-month house arrest, followed by a 12-month probation.

A CRA investigation revealed that Van Dijk filed over 200 T1 tax returns and “change my return” requests between March 2016 and July 2019 for over 50 individual taxpayers. 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 false and other unsupported claims resulted in the CRA paying excess refunds or refunds to which the individual taxpayers were not entitled.

All case-specific information above was obtained from the court records.

Cheating on your taxes affects the services and programs we all rely on to improve our quality of life. The CRA publicizes tax evasion and tax fraud convictions to maintain confidence in the integrity of Canada’s self-assessment tax system and to deter others from committing tax and other financial crimes. For more information, go to Tax evasion, understanding the consequences.

In addition to the court imposed fines and/or jail sentences, convicted taxpayers have to pay the full amount of tax owing, plus related interest and any penalties assessed by the CRA.

The CRA is dedicated to maintaining the integrity of Canada’s tax system, thereby contributing to the social and economic well-being of Canadians. The CRA continues to aggressively pursue tax evasion, and false claims with all the tools available to it. The CRA works to make sure that individuals and businesses report all income earned and only claim benefits to which they are entitled, so that important benefit programs can be administered to those who need them. Any individual or business who underreports income, or claims losses or benefits to which they are not entitled may have to repay the benefit amounts and may be subject to other possible action.

The CRA has set up a free subscription service to help Canadians stay current on the CRA’s enforcement efforts.

Associated Links

• Reporting suspected tax or benefit cheating in Canada
• Voluntary Disclosures Program

Contacts

Media Relations
Canada Revenue Agency
613-948-8366
cra-arc.media@cra-arc.gc.ca

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