Last week, MPC met with MP Francesco Sorbara, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Revenue, the ministry responsible to oversee Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), to discuss enhancing mortgage fraud prevention through client-authorized income verification of CRA declared income. Often referred to as “Line 150” access, lenders and mortgage insurers have long been asking for access to CRA data for verification of declared income on mortgage applications.
While some commercial tools exist to provide this access today, they are not widespread, nor does CRA permit client authorised access to prior tax filing information specifically for our industry purposes. With the increased due diligence requirements for lenders and mortgage insurers outlined in OSFI’s Guideline B-20, the ability to confirm incomes disclosed to Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) is tremendously valuable. It is in our collective interest to want such services to continue and improve. Since comparable authorized access is permitted by CRA for other industry sectors, such access should not be unreasonably denied our sector.
Following our meeting, MPC penned a letter to Mr. Sorbara summarizing our request and arguments, which he has kindly subsequently forwarded to the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister, along with other senior ministers and policymakers. We thank Mr. Sorbara and the federal government for considering this issue as quickly as possible, and we will keep you informed of our ongoing discussions and future developments.
You can read our letter to Mr. Sorbara here.
