It's Not Just KPMG That's Looking Bad

With the revelations emerging about the accounting giant, KPMG, and the sketchy - no, worse than sketchy - Isle of Man tax dodge deal, the Canadian Revenue Agency may not be getting the attention it so richly deserves for its part in this.

As Alan Freeman wrote in iPolitics last month, the revenue agency is "rotten to the core." It's a perfect opportunity for Mr. Trudeau to clean house, or in this case, the stables. It would be a challenge befitting of Hercules cleaning the Augean Stables.

Let's Hope They Don't Get the Full Mulroney

Within a few months Canadian tax authorities should know the identities of Canadians who've buried an estimated $5-billion in Swiss bank UBS.

So far seven taxpayers are said to have made "voluntary disclosures," paying the overdue taxes plus interest on their holdings to avoid penalties (fines) and prosecution.

When Brian Mulroney was finally forced to come clean on undeclared cash payments he received from Karlheinz Schreiber, Revenue Canada cut him a sweetheart deal, accepting 50-cents on the dollar of what he owed this country. That sparked a lot of anger to which the Canadian Revenue Agency assured taxpayers that such deals are no longer tolerated.

And if the Conservative government is going to allow voluntary disclosure leniency for the UBS account holders there needs to be a clear cut deadline. Once the Swiss hand over names and account particulars tax evasion investigations should be deemed to have been started disqualifying errant taxpayers from applying to be let off lightly.