Ottawa, ON

Non-payment of tax evasion fine leads to extra jail time for dentist

Ottawa, Ontario, October 19, 2016… The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) announced today that, on October 17, 2016, Tania Kovaluk was sentenced in the Superior Court of Justice in Ottawa to 1,825 days (5 years) in jail for deliberately choosing not to pay a court-imposed fine for criminal tax evasion. On November 20, 2012, Kovaluk pleaded guilty to multiple counts related to income tax and GST evasion, and counseling others to participate in the Paradigm Education Group (Paradigm) tax protestor scheme which “educated” people on how to structure their affairs in a way to illegally avoid taxes She was sentenced to two years and five months in jail, and was fined $887,328, which was payable in full by June 30, 2014. Since she was released from jail she has made no attempt to pay her court-imposed fine.

Kovaluk, a dentist, knowingly failed to report $2,578,987 in income she earned from 2003 to 2007, thereby evading $721,617 in federal taxes. She promoted the Paradigm scheme through seminars held in Ottawa and Toronto, and counseled others to join the Paradigm program, including nine employees working at Kovaluk’s dental practice in Ontario. In addition to spending large amounts of money on personal luxury items such as art, jewelry, vacations, a home in Ottawa, and personal home furnishings, Kovaluk invested her money in offshore assets, including two villas in Costa Rica. Kovaluk transferred her ownership of these villas to third parties for no consideration, with the intention of avoiding payment of her court-imposed fine.