[OTTAWA, ON] — The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) issued a warning today regarding electronic sales suppression software (often referred to as "Zapper" software) that is currently being marketed and sold to some Canadian businesses.
Electronic sales suppression software is designed to work with point-of-sale systems and electronic cash registers. It can be used to select and delete cash sales from computer records in order to evade federal and provincial taxes. In some cases identified by the CRA, businesses have collected taxes from patrons, suppressed sales records using this software, and not sent the taxes to the CRA as required by law.
While Canada has one of the highest rates of compliance in the world, the illegal use of Zapper software is a problem that the CRA is actively addressing. The CRA says it is increasing its efforts to identify those who develop, sell, or use electronic sales suppression software for illegal purposes.
Businesses that have used electronic sales suppression software to underreport their revenues will have to pay the taxes they did not report, plus interest and penalties. The owners of these businesses could also face criminal prosecution leading to court-imposed fines, and possibly even jail time.