Voluntary Disclosures Program
The Voluntary Disclosures Program lets a taxpayer correct unfiled returns or inaccurate filings before the CRA contacts them about the issue, in exchange for relief from penalties and part of the interest.
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Key facts
| Category | Returns & filing |
|---|---|
| Also known as | VDP, tax amnesty, coming forward |
| Purpose | Correcting unreported income, unfiled returns, or omitted information returns |
| Relief | Penalty relief and partial interest relief; the tax itself remains payable |
| Key condition | The disclosure must be voluntary — before the CRA contacts you about it |
| Also required | Complete information, a penalty exposure, and information at least one year overdue |
| Authority | Canada Revenue Agency; Revenu Québec runs a parallel programme |
What it means in practice
An application must meet several conditions to be accepted. It has to be genuinely voluntary — made before the CRA initiates any enforcement action or contacts the taxpayer about the matter — complete, and involve the potential application of a penalty. It must also generally relate to information that is at least one year overdue, and any tax owing must be paid or arranged. Relief is not uniform. Accepted applications fall into different tracks depending on how serious the conduct was: straightforward oversights receive fuller relief, while cases involving deliberate avoidance receive limited relief and may still face partial penalties. Acceptance is discretionary throughout, and the program does not guarantee an outcome. The critical point is timing. The moment the CRA writes about the specific issue, the disclosure is no longer voluntary and the opportunity is gone. Anyone with unfiled returns or unreported income is in a strictly better position acting before that letter arrives than after. Revenu Québec operates its own voluntary disclosure program for Québec taxes, and a taxpayer with both federal and Québec exposure normally needs to apply to each.
Voluntary means before, not after
The programme closes the moment the CRA initiates contact about the issue. A review letter, an audit notice, or a request tied to information received from another jurisdiction can all end eligibility — including where the contact was directed at a related person or corporation. Because international information exchange now routes foreign account data to the CRA automatically, the practical window for foreign income disclosures is narrower than it once was. An application must be complete. Disclosing one year while leaving another unreported does not meet the condition, and a partial disclosure can leave the taxpayer worse off than filing nothing, because it draws attention to the years left out.
FAQ
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Need this applied to your situation?
A definition only gets you so far. Talk to a Montréal CPA about what this means for your return — in English or French.