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Tax accountants have told the Canada Revenue Agency that it gives up too easily on going after wealthy Canadians who hide money in overseas tax havens.

Accountants and other experts who took part in focus groups last year for the agency raised “significant questions about the integrity of the tax system,” and how little effort the agency seemingly puts in to chasing wealthy tax cheats, versus the resources it puts towards “smaller players who claim a few too many dollars in charitable donations,” reads a report by the Walker Consulting Group for the federal tax collector.

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The greatest concerns were raised by focus-group participants in Vancouver, some of whom believed the CRA seemed “easily dissuaded” from trying to recoup unpaid tax from wealthy Canadians who hide money overseas.

“There was a perception that as soon as tax lawyers are brought in by the wealthy, the CRA backs off, and in the eyes of those people (the focus groups), the CRA needs to follow through on some of those ‘large fish’ to preserve the integrity of the system,” says the report, recently posted to a government website.