A Grande Prairie donair shop owner who spent five years fudging his financials has been fined by the Canada Revenue Agency in a $1-million tax evasion case.
Balasem Salame, owner of Twister’s Donair, Pasta & Pizza in the northwestern Alberta city, was fined $747,887 after pleading guilty in August to one count each of personal income tax evasion, corporate income tax evasion and GST/HST evasion, the CRA said Tuesday in a news release.
In addition to the fine, which was issued Friday in provincial court, Salame must serve a conditional sentence of two years less a day. And he still has to clear his unpaid tax bill, along with the accompanying penalties and interest assessed by the federal agency.
In the news release, the CRA describes an elaborate scheme involving two separate bank accounts for the business (formerly 1051342 Alberta Ltd.) and states that Salame “personally oversaw the restaurant’s operations and managed its finances” during the tax years in question, from 2008 to 2013.
Salame “disclosed records for only one of the bank accounts to his accountant, evading close to $400,000 in corporate income tax and more than $250,000 in GST/HST,” stated the news release.
As well, Salame took money both from the restaurant and from the undisclosed bank account for personal use, leading to the personal income tax evasion charge.
“By not reporting the misappropriated funds as personal income, Mr. Salame failed to remit close to $400,000 in personal income tax,” added the news release.
According to CRA statistics from 2018-19, there were 22 convictions of individuals sentenced for evading payment of almost $4.2 million in taxes. Twelve taxpayers were sent to jail for a total of 19 years.