Canada Tax Collector Seeks to Force Crypto Exchange Coinsquare to Fork Over Client Records

The demand mimics a play tax enforcers at the IRS deployed against Coinbase.

Nov 6, 2020 at 6:05 p.m. UTC

Updated Sep 14, 2021 at 10:28 a.m. UTC

The Canadian Revenue Agency is asking a judge to force cryptocurrency exchange Coinsquare to hand over seven years of client data in a legal action that could help it audit Canadians for unreported crypto gains.

CRA wants to check whether Coinsquare's users "complied" with their tax reporting obligations, according to the National Post.
Canada's tax collectors appear to be testing a tactic their U.S. peers at the Internal Revenue Service deployed against Coinbase: pursue crypto customer records (with the help of the courts).
However, CRA's demands for data on all customers dating back to 2013 is far larger than the IRS' comparatively limited request for documents on high-spending clients, a play that ultimately netted some 13,000 records.
Coinsquare CEO Stacey Hoisak told the National Post her exchange is still deciding how to react in response to the CRA's September demand.
It was not immediately clear if CRA's inquiry is related to the Ontario Securities Commission's July crackdown on Coinsquare's reported fake trading volume.
Coinsquare's top brass resigned and paid hefty fines in a settlement where they admitted to orchestrating a wash trading operation.

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