Canada Revenue Agency privacy breach leaks prominent Canadians' tax details

  • 25 November 2014
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Business leaders, art collectors, authors and politicians among more than 200 on CRA list of donations

By Dean Beeby, CBC News Posted: Nov 25, 2014
 
 http://i.cbc.ca/1.2849366.1416934201%21/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/16x9_620/margaret-atwood-jean-chretien.jpgAuthor Margaret Atwood and former prime minister Jean Chrétien were among more than 200 prominent Canadians listing on a spreadsheet of tax credits for donations to museums and other institutions. The document was sent to CBC News by the Canada Revenue Agency. (Chris Young/Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)
 
Detailed tax information about the private lives of hundreds of Canadians — many of them rich and famous — was sent to CBC News by Canada's tax agency in an apparent major privacy breach.
The highly confidential details, including home addresses of taxpayers and the value of tax credits they were granted, are contained in a copy of a Canada Revenue Agency spreadsheet covering the years 2008 to 2013.
The 18 pages include information on donations made by such Canadian luminaries as author Margaret Atwood, former prime minister Jean Chrétien, grocery magnate Frank Sobey, cartoonist Lynn Johnston, pollster Allan Gregg, financier Stephen Bronfman, former CBC executive Richard Stursberg, Olympics chief Richard Pound and many others.
The list outlines what donations of manuscripts, photographs and fine art these Canadians have made to Canadian galleries and museums, and includes their home addresses and the value the taxman attached to the donations for the purpose of claiming a tax break.
The values for the donations range widely, from less than $5,000 for some personal papers to a Rubens painting deemed to be worth $200 million and given to the Art Gallery of Ontario.
 
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