A former tax preparer has been sent to jail after being found guilty of fraud for providing false charitable donation receipts.
The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) announced that David Ajise, a former tax preparer operating in Toronto, was sentenced to a 30-month jail term in the Ontario Court of Justice in Brampton, Ont. He was found guilty of one count of fraud over $5,000 last year.
The CRA says that its investigation revealed that Ajise, who ran a Toronto-based tax preparation service, Datronix Solutions, participated in a scheme that generated over $5 million in fraudulent charitable donations for the 2003 to 2005 tax years.
It says that in addition to a fee of $30 to $50 for tax return preparation, Ajise charged his clients 10% of the face value of the fraudulent charitable donation receipts he provided. The fraudulent receipts were claimed by Ajise’s clients on 623 income tax returns and resulted in over $1.4 million of taxes evaded, it says.
Last year, the director of a charity also received a conditional sentence of two years less a day for his role in the scheme. The CRA reports that Eto Ekpenyong Eto, a director of the Tractors for Our Daily Bread Canada charity, provided charitable donation receipts for amounts larger than the donor’s actual contribution. He pled guilty to a single fraud count.
“Our taxes pay for the high level of government services that Canadians count on,” said Darrell Mahoney, assistant commissioner of the CRA’s Ontario region. “When someone tries to evade taxes, it affects all Canadians.”