The auditors then asked about the contents of some other filing cabinets they saw in Leroux’s home. One cabinet contained business records relating to other years not being audited, while the second cabinet contained personal papers unrelated to his business—documents such as his birth certificate and his will. He told them not to remove any of those documents, since they were originals for which no copies existed. Leroux then left for work, trusting the auditors to abide by his instructions and respect his privacy.
When he returned home, the auditors were gone—and so were virtually all of his original documents, including both the business and personal documents from the two filing cabinets. (…)
About 6 weeks later, Hansen phoned Leroux and invited him down to the CRA office because he had some “bad news” to give him. When Leroux arrived, Hansen told him that all of his original documents—both business and personal—were missing, and might have been inadvertently placed on a pile that ended up in the shredder.
Nevertheless, CRA took the position that Leroux was still responsible for proving his deductions and tax credits, and it was “not our problem” if he could not supply copies of the documents the CRA had lost.
