The Canada Revenue Agency has intensified its fiscal surveillance by directing its attention toward thousands of investors of the firm Dapper Labs. This offensive seeks to recover approximately 72 million Canadian dollars related to crypto tax allegedly undeclared by users of the platform.
Delving into the details of the investigation, the tax body obtained a court order to demand detailed information on high-profile accounts. Initially, the agency sought data on 18,000 users, but after complex negotiations reduced the scope of the investigation to 2,500 specific files. Current audits have revealed that 40% of digital asset users could be at risk of non-compliance, although to date no criminal charges have been formalized against any individual. Furthermore, this movement is part of a broader campaign that has already managed to recover more than 100 million in audits during the last three years of operations.
Will tax regulation be able to close the gap between evasion and compliance?
This scrutiny is not an isolated event, but responds to the urgent need to control the digital underground economy. Predrag Mizdrak, project lead at the agency, noted that digital markets present significant risks of tax non-compliance within the economy.
On the other hand, Canada is preparing to further tighten rules by implementing the Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework in 2026. Thus, authorities seek legal tools like the “unnamed persons requirement” to access records of anonymous taxpayers without directly accusing the involved technology platforms.
The implications for investors are severe, as casual transactions face capital gains taxes under current law. While half of the profits are taxable, frequent traders must report all their business income to avoid severe penalties from the regulator. Therefore, this precedent with Dapper Labs could extend to other platforms, forcing users to regularize their situations before facing massive fines or exhaustive audits by Canadian federal authorities.
The outlook suggests that the era of opacity in digital assets is coming to a definitive end in Canada. With a budget of 50 million allocated to strengthen compliance, it is expected that surveillance over digital transactions will intensify considerably in the coming years. Finally, although there are no criminal charges yet, the creation of a national financial crimes agency indicates that the government will not tolerate tax evasion in the growing market of NFT and digital assets.
