The CRA says it has already received 3,600 voluntary disclosures detailing offshore holdings under an amnesty program that allows taxpayers to report hidden wealth to avoid prosecution, reports said.

Countries around the world have, with varying levels of success, sought to hunt down alleged tax evaders through a mixture of amnesties and penalties, targeting offshore bank accounts. Defenders of international financial jurisdictions say they are being unfairly scapegoated for other countries’ financial problems, largely home-grown.

Canadian government officials have been looking at how their counterparts in the US have mounted an aggressive campaign to clamp down on tax evaders, waging a legal battle against UBS, the Swiss bank. It has been reported that another major non-US bank which has US clients is now in the cross-hairs of the Internal Revenue Service.

The CRA’s figure of C$600 shows a strong increase. In the previous fiscal year, there were about 1,900 such disclosures, revealing less than $100 million, reports said.

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