The Voluntary Disclosures Program (VDP) grants relief to taxpayers who voluntarily come forward to fix errors or omissions in their GST/HST filings before the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) knows or contacts them about it.
The CRA has announced changes to the existing VDP that will be effective October 01, 2025.
Some of the changes are highlighted below:
- The application form has been improved to make it simpler. The new form will be available on October 01, 2025.
- VDP will be less restrictive, as CRA communications regarding potential non-compliance would not disqualify a taxpayer from applying. However, taxpayers who are under audit/investigation or egregiously non-compliant would be ineligible.
- The erstwhile General and Limited Programs have been replaced with General Relief and Partial Relief.
o General Relief – 100% relief of penalties and 75% relief of interest.
o Partial Relief – Up to 100% relief of penalties and 25% relief of interest.
Wash Transactions category remains the same.
Relief from criminal prosecution is available in all cases.
For additional information on the CRAs new VDP program, please refer the link below:
If you have identified or believe there has been a non-compliance in Canada, please reach out to us for a free 30-minute chat to discuss your options.