Irvin Leroux’s Sane Response to CRA’s Insane $5 Million Dollar Mistake :CRA SOTW
Alan Baggett
Mistake :CRA SOTW
The following letter from Irvin Leroux appeared in the July 2009
edition of TruckSpeaker (http://www.truckspeaker.com/) (email:
edi...@truckspeaker.com)
“CRA Million Dollar Mistake Cost Me Everything,” By Irvin Leroux
For 12 years I have fought the Canada Revenue Agency over a million-
dollar tax bill I didn’t owe – and won. Tax Court of Canada
deliberations concluded that I didn’t owe a million dollars in
personal income tax and GST, but I had judgments and a writ of seizure
and sale on ALL my assets for that amount. I was guilty until proven
innocent. I lost my house, my business, my land, my income, my
savings, my future; I lost it all – approximately $4.5 million in
assets. Why? Because CRA wouldn’t admit to their mistakes. They would
sooner destroy me and try to bury me than admit they did wrong.
I built a state of the art RV Park and developed an 11 lot subdivision
in a beautiful valley in the mountains and saw my dream come true. I
hosted 10,000 visitors a season and won a prestigious Tourism BC
aware. My dream started to fall apart in 1996, when an auditor from
the tax agency showed up to look at my records for 1993-1995. The
auditor took my business receipts and other records, than misplaced
those records at his office. He told me that someone put them on the
pile that was to be shredded. Without my receipts to show my business
expenses, numerous tax audits over several years concluded that I owed
almost $900,000 in personal income tax, plus over $100,000 in GST,
including interest and penalties.
Over the past 12 years I have gone through the system to seek
restitution for what CRA caused me to lose. In December 2006 with the
support of my MP Richard Harris (Cariboo – Prince George) I was in
direct contact with [then] Minister Carol Skelton and spokesman
Terrence Scheltema. I was informed that [the Minister] “was using my
case as an example to create her new taxpayers bill of rights and she
wanted the outcome of my case to be an example of how Revenue Canada
must be held accountable for its abuses of Canadians.” The outcome she
referred to was the advice her office had given to me to file a legal
statement of claim against CRA in November 2006 “in order that CRA
could respond with a settlement offer.” Thirty months and 3 ministers
later I am no further ahead and have another lawyer to pay.
In May 2007 the Financial Post wrote an article called So Much For Tax
Fairness. Canada Revenue Agency was unveiling an improved Taxpayer
Bill of Rights and plans for an Ombudsman – Finance Minister Jim
Flaherty called it the “next important step” in creating an
accountable, fair tax system. Minister of National Revenue Carol
Skelton stated “Canada’s tax system worked well for government but not
always for taxpayers.” The Ministers’ speak the words but never put
the words into action.
CRA has unlimited resources to fight ordinary hardworking Canadians –
I say its time to turn the tables. MY goal is to make 4.5 million
friends. This represents the $4.5 million that was taken from me by
the actions of the CRA. Each friend will hear my story and I will give
them a forum to tell their story and let them know they are not alone.
We will be able to pool this information which will give us strength
and knowledge. No one wants an audit. Every friend will learn avenues
that are available to them to protect themselves. Every friend will
tell two friends to tell two friends and so on. Your newspaper is well
aware that there is strength in numbers and I admire you for it.
Editor’s Note: Irvin started a FaceBook page: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid+51951718823
For more details on Mr. Leroux’s story review the following tax tales:
CRA Bankrupts BC Couple Over Nothing Part 1 of 2 :CRA SOTW
http://groups.google.com/group/can.taxes/browse_thread/thread/559cea95d252dc/a402a74aaa4f432f?q=
and
CRA Bankrupts BC Couple Over Nothing Part 2 of 2 :CRA SOTW
http://groups.google.com/group/can.taxes/browse_thread/thread/bdde6e32ab007b87#
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Visit the CRA SOTW Library at http://canada.revenue.agency.angelfire.com
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Alan Baggett – Tax Collector’s Bible