P.E.I. man 'shocked' to receive N.L. woman's audit papers from CRA

When Joe Amelia received his audited tax documents back from the Canada Revenue Agency last month, he was "shocked" to discover he also received financial information that wasn't his.

Amelia was audited by the CRA this year. The Crapaud, P.E.I., resident said he submitted several personal documents, including log sheets, receipts and financial paperwork for his personal trucking business.

When the audit was completed, the CRA sent his documents back to him, along with an unsealed, blank envelope containing personal tax information that belonged to Kim Hunt, a woman living near Corner Brook, N.L.

"I was horrified at first," Amelia said in an interview. "We expect the CRA to provide a level of security way beyond anybody else because these documents are so private."

He said he found the envelope among his stack of audited materials. Inside were property insurance papers, receipts and a financing agreement for a car.

Contacting the owner

"The first thing I did was call the owner of the documents and inform them," Amelia said.

Hunt said when she received the call, she thought it was possibly a scam or a prank.

"But when he told me what documents he actually had, I knew that he was telling me the truth," Hunt told the CBC. "I knew he was telling me the truth because it was all the stuff I had sent to the CRA."

"For example, my lease agreement with Mazda that I had, he knew that," she said.

Hunt was also audited by the CRA and had electronically submitted her financial documents earlier this year.

I don't know how to explain the feeling when someone calls you and tells you they have all your personal information and how it makes you feel.— Kim Hunt

"My biggest concern right now is what other documents belong to me are gone to somebody else," Hunt said. "I don't know how much of my privacy has been breached because of this and I don't know who else may have some documents that belong to me."

Amelia said he contacted the CRA and the RCMP several times to figure out the best way to get the documents back to their owner. The CRA knew nothing about the documents being missing when he called, he said.

"That really concerned me," Amelia said. "I thought they kept much tighter control over the documents they had in their possession."

CRA response

Hunt said she spoke to a security officer with the CRA who would collect the documents from Amelia in Charlottetown and deliver them to her by next week.

Reported misdirected mail incidents are extremely rare.— Canada Revenue Agency

"Right now, I'm waiting to hear back from the privacy commissioner from CRA," Hunt said. She plans to file an official complaint with the CRA about the incident.

In a statement written to the CBC, the CRA said "reported misdirected mail incidents are extremely rare," and any incident involving the unauthorized disclosure of personal information is taken very seriously. The agency said an investigation into this particular case is ongoing.

"The CRA sincerely regrets any inconvenience this incident may cause and has taken steps to advise affected taxpayers," a spokesperson for the agency wrote. "The CRA makes every effort to safeguard the security and privacy of client information. Any incident involving unauthorized disclosure of personal information is taken very seriously by CRA officials and thoroughly investigated."

'It's very personal…'

Amelia turned the documents into the CRA in Charlottetown Friday and said he will also be filing a complaint. There needs to be more careful oversight if mistakes like this are able to be made, he said.

"I'm not injured," Amelia said, "I'm just very, very hurt and lost confidence in the CRA and our government."

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