Canada on Wednesday launched Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) initiative to crack down on international tax evasion and aggressive tax avoidance, according to Canada Revenue Agency.

Starting from Jan. 1, 2015, financial intermediaries, including banks, credits unions, caisses populaires, financial service cooperatives, trust and loan companies, and crown corporations that accept deposits, are required to report to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) incoming and outgoing international EFTs of 10,000 Canadian dollars (one Canadian dollar is about 0.97 U.S. dollar) or more.

The new reporting requirements are the same as those for reports currently provided to the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Center of Canada (FINTRAC). Financial intermediaries will submit one report to both FINTRAC and the CRA at the same time. EFTs must be filed no later than five working days after the day the transfer occurred.

The information that must be reported includes the transmission of instructions for a transfer of funds through any electronic, magnetic or optical device, telephone instrument or computer, made at the request of a client.

The information collected under this measure will be safeguarded by the CRA. The data will only be used for the purposes for which it is collected, will be subject to strict security protocols, and held in a segregated database.

Through this initiative, financial intermediaries will play an important role in helping the CRA to detect offshore transactions that are potentially associated with tax evasion and aggressive tax avoidance. Endite

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