Alberta woman convicted after faking statements to collect tax benefits
A Calgary-based woman has been convicted of making false statements in the filings she made for over 50 individuals, according to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA).
A CRA investigation found that Monique Van Dijk filed over 200 T1 tax returns and “change my return” requests between March 2016 and July 2019 for over 50 individual taxpayers.
On November 16, 2023, she pleaded guilty in the Alberta Court of Justice to one count of making, or participating in the making of, false or deceptive statements in a tax return under the Income Tax Act, the CRA said.
“The false and other unsupported claims resulted in the CRA paying excess refunds or refunds to which the individual taxpayers were not entitled,” reads a statement from the CRA.
“Cheating on your taxes affects the services and programs we all rely on to improve our quality of life.”
According to the CRA, Van Dijk made false statements and claims to benefit from the Working Income Tax Benefit along with other refunds.
She was fined a total of $116,000 and received a conditional sentence order of 12 months of house arrest, followed by a 12-month probation.