Foreign landlord fails to pay taxes, CRA goes after tenant
www.theglobeandmail.com
A Montreal tenant was audited and ordered to pay the tax he had failed to withhold on the monthly rent to his non-resident landlord

Absolutely insane ruling but unsurprising that the government would fuck over renters in yet another way. They say it's the tenants responsibility to know if their landlord resides in another country and to plan for that. This is just going to incentivize foreign landlords to not pay taxes and pushing all the responsibilities onto the tenant.

Real back to colonial absentee landowners vibes

  • glans [it/its]
    ·
    7 months ago

    [31] As part of her audit procedures, Ms. Jiofack verified whether Sebastiana Trimarchi, the recipient of the rental payments was declaring this income. She discovered that Sebastiana Trimarchi had a social insurance number but did not file any income tax returns nor did she find any information returns such as those related to employment or interest income. In addition, other than providing her address at 1402-4175 Sainte Catherine Ouest, the Equifax report the auditor requested came back "“empty”." Ms. Jiofack testified that, after consulting the land register, she was unable to find property, other than unit 501, tying Sebastiana to Canada.

    Is it possible in Canada to find out what income someone is declaring if you are not a CRA auditor??

    [32] Through information obtained from family members, Ms. Jiofack reached Sebastiana Trimarchi in Italy. I note that the telephone number used is the same one as that provided by Sebastiana on the lease she signed in 2010. During that conversation, Sebastiana stated that she was living in Italy. Ms. Jiofack testified that there was no contestation and no ambiguity that she was living in Italy and they had a discussion about Sebastiana’s tax obligations as a non-resident.

    Is this kind of investigation what is expected of a tenant?