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Voluntary Disclosures Program
Income that never got reported. Returns that never got filed. GST/HST collected and not remitted. A foreign account nobody mentioned. The Voluntary Disclosures Program is the route back, and as of 1 October 2025 it is meaningfully more generous and more accessible than it was.
The VDP lets you correct an error or omission in your own tax filings before the CRA finds it. In return, the CRA may waive penalties, reduce interest, and decline to refer the matter for criminal prosecution. You still pay the tax you owe. What you are buying is the removal of everything piled on top of it, and the end of the part that keeps you awake.
Relief is granted case by case rather than automatically. Applying is not the same as qualifying.
The CRA rebuilt the program, and the direction of travel was toward the taxpayer. The current guidance is Information Circular IC00-1R7. Three changes matter most.
The General Program and the Limited Program have been replaced by unprompted and prompted applications. The distinction is no longer about how badly you behaved. It is about whether the CRA had already been in touch about the issue.
This is the significant one. Under the old rules, once the CRA had contacted you about something, your options narrowed sharply. Now a prompted disclosure is still permitted, provided an audit or investigation has not actually been started on the matter. A general education letter or a routine query from the CRA no longer costs you the program.
| Unprompted | Prompted | |
|---|---|---|
| When | You come forward before the CRA raises the issue with you | The CRA has been in contact about the issue, but no audit or investigation has begun |
| Penalty relief | Up to full relief | Up to full relief |
| Interest relief | Up to 75% | Up to 25% |
| Prosecution | Not referred for criminal prosecution on the disclosed matter, where relief is granted | |
Relief generally reaches back across the ten most recent taxation years. The size of a corporation is no longer a factor in the way it once was, which opens the program to businesses that were previously pushed into the narrower stream.
The timing point that decides everything. The difference between unprompted and prompted is worth real money, and the gap between prompted and ineligible is worth considerably more. Every week you wait is a week the CRA might open something. If you are thinking about this at all, the cheapest day to act is today.
The CRA requires all five to be met. There is no partial credit.
If you are unsure whether you meet them, that is not a reason to stay away. The CRA decides on what you submit, and its own guidance is that you may still apply.
The program is broader than most people assume. It is open to individuals, employers, corporations, partnerships and trusts, and to GST/HST and excise registrants. Situations that may qualify include:
The CRA will look at unusual cases individually, but you would not normally get relief where:
Where you want a lawyer, not an accountant. Communications with your accountant are not protected by solicitor-client privilege. If what you are disclosing could carry criminal exposure, rather than being an honest mess, the right first call is a tax lawyer, who can then engage an accountant under privilege.
The CRA runs a pre-disclosure discussion service. You can talk through your situation anonymously, get a sense of the process and the relief available, and decide afterwards whether to proceed. It is informal and non-binding. It is also not a guarantee, and it does not stop the CRA auditing or prosecuting if things go the other way.
It is a useful first step and it is not widely known. You request one through the CRA's callback request form.
A call first, at no charge, to work out whether the VDP is the right instrument at all. Sometimes it is not. A simple late return with no unreported income often just needs filing, and taxpayer relief is a separate route for penalties already assessed.
If it is the right instrument, the work is: establish the years and the amounts, reconstruct records where they are missing, prepare the returns or amendments, assemble the application with the supporting documents the CRA expects, and estimate the tax so payment or a payment arrangement can go in with it. Then correspondence with the VDP unit through to the decision.
Fixed fee, agreed in writing before anything starts. I have no interest in metering an already stressful situation.
Almost certainly not, and the program exists precisely so that people in your position come forward. Where relief is granted, the CRA does not refer the disclosed matter for criminal prosecution. The overwhelming majority of these files are ordinary people who fell behind, not tax evasion cases.
You must include everything relevant to the disclosure. Relief generally extends across the ten most recent taxation years. Part of the first conversation is establishing how far back the problem actually goes, which is often less far than people fear.
You are not disqualified. The fifth condition can be met by requesting a payment arrangement rather than paying in full, subject to CRA approval. Inability to pay is a reason to get the arrangement in place, not a reason to keep waiting.
Probably not, and this is the biggest change in the new rules. A letter or a routine query does not end your eligibility. What ends it is an audit or investigation actually being started on the matter. If you have received something, bring it to the call, because what it says determines a lot.
The returns and information you filed still stand, and you will be assessed on them in the ordinary way with penalties and interest applied. There is a second review process available, and judicial review beyond that. This is one of the reasons the application is worth assembling carefully the first time.
Yes. The program covers GST/HST registrants, along with excise duty and excise tax, the air travellers security charge and softwood lumber export charges. Unremitted GST/HST is one of the more common disclosures.
You can. The risk is condition two, which requires complete information for every period involved. An incomplete application can fail, and a failed application leaves you assessed with your cards already on the table. That is the specific thing worth paying someone to get right.
This page describes the program in general terms as at August 2026 and is not advice for your situation. The CRA's own guidance is the authority: see the Voluntary Disclosures Program and Information Circular IC00-1R7. Relief is discretionary and decided case by case.
Twenty minutes, no charge, and nothing about the call obliges you to do anything afterwards.
Call (905) 207-9639