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Results: 1 - 15 of 204
View Julie Dzerowicz Profile
Lib. (ON)
Thank you so much, Mr. Chair.
I offer a warm welcome to the minister for being here today.
Mr. Gallivan, welcome to you in returning to our committee.
There's a false narrative put forward by the opposition that our federal Liberal government has done nothing to tackle evasion and tax avoidance. We heard from Mr. Gallivan that we've actually made a significant investment since 2015 in terms of tackling tax avoidance and tax evasion. There has been $444 million invested in 2016, $523 million in 2017, $90.6 million in 2018, $150.8 million in 2019, and an additional $304 million in this year's budget.
Minister, we also heard, as you mentioned, that this significant investment of over $1 billion has resulted in over $5 billion of identified additional tax avoidance coming into our coffers.
We've also heard that there's the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, who do a bit of a ranking. They're the ones who broke the Panama papers and they've ranked Canada nine out of 80 in the world. We're among the top in terms of actually being able to tackle these issues on a global scale. Therefore, I want to give a huge thanks to you for your leadership, and a huge thanks for the leadership at the CRA, for the extraordinary efforts and work that they have done. Thank you for that.
To truly appreciate our efforts and how far we've actually come, can you take a few moments to add a little context to our government's efforts to fund the fight against tax evasion, by describing the situation at the Canada Revenue Agency when you took over as minister in 2015, after nearly a decade of Conservative cuts?
View Francesco Sorbara Profile
Lib. (ON)
Thank you, Mr. Gallivan.
Minister, you've been the minister for the Canada Revenue Agency for a number of years. You have submitted a number of budget requests to the government, and in terms of asking for resources to be provided to the Canada Revenue Agency.
Can you again really touch upon just how much we have invested into CRA because of what you have requested as the minister of the Canada Revenue Agency?
View Francesco Sorbara Profile
Lib. (ON)
I'll go back to Mr. Gallivan.
Mr. Gallivan, as you know, at the Canada Revenue Agency, the government has invested significant resources. Can you speak about this in terms of the ongoing breadth of proceedings that the CRA has undertaken, in terms of looking at aggressive tax planning and also, of course, on the tax evasion side, please?
View Luc Berthold Profile
CPC (QC)
Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
I'd like to begin by thanking the witnesses for being with us today.
I know that having to put programs in place quickly during a pandemic has its own set of concerns and risks. As we read through the documents you sent us, we could see which risks had been raised and which had been proven to be real over the weeks and months.
My question is for Mr. Hamilton.
I was surprised to see that, in several places in the documents, there was reference to reputational risks to the Canada Revenu Agency.
Can you explain to me the extent to which these risks were considered among the major potential impacts? Why was so much attention paid to them?
View Luc Berthold Profile
CPC (QC)
You'll understand why I'm asking this question. This is a discussion I want to have because I want to understand what Mr. Gallivan was talking about earlier. He talked about the risk associated with the very small number of audits that will be done of individuals and businesses that received the wage subsidy.
Does the agency want to maintain that tough image, and has this program hurt that image, which you have to maintain to make sure that people pay their due to the government?
View Luc Berthold Profile
CPC (QC)
In terms of collecting money owed to the government, are you concerned that the lack of audits that will be done on the emergency wage subsidy will damage the agency's credibility?
View Francis Drouin Profile
Lib. (ON)
Great. Thank you.
I'll switch gears.
Some Canadians, obviously, felt the impact of their government accounts being closed with the CRA. Can someone explain to me what happened there and why the government took the precaution to shut down these accounts? What is the best way for Canadians to prevent that from happening?
View Gabriel Ste-Marie Profile
BQ (QC)
Thank you.
There may have been a problem with the interpretation. I never implied that KPMG had set up strategies that were deemed illegal. That is not what we are talking about. To my knowledge, KPMG, an accounting firm, does not have the authority to refuse to provide such information to a parliamentary committee in Ottawa.
Just to make sure that we understand each other, the clerk can send you the request that I just made and you can provide us with your response within 30 days.
I will also ask you to provide us with the Canada Revenue Agency decision on each client file at KPMG Canada, including refunded taxes, accrued interest and penalties incurred, for each individual.
Thank you.
View Peter Julian Profile
NDP (BC)
Thank you very much.
I'm going to move on to Ms. Iacovelli. As Mr. Ste-Marie has mentioned, when a committee requests information, it's important to follow that request. As you know, there's a non-cooperative tax jurisdiction list, which basically lists tax havens around the world.
I have a series of questions. As well, we'll be following up with a letter that we'd like KPMG to answer.
First off, how many client companies or shell companies—you called them “client companies”—that currently exist in the Isle of Man and in all of the other tax jurisdictions that are “non-cooperative jurisdictions” has KPMG set up? That's my first question.
Second, how many were established since 1999—again, in the same list—by KPMG internationally?
How many have been dissolved or wound up since 1999? That's my third question.
My fourth question is, how many Canadian clients of KPMG invest in overseas tax havens, either offshore bank accounts or shell companies—you've called them “client companies”—and how many out-of-court settlements has KPMG negotiated on behalf of those clients with Revenue Canada?
Those are the questions that we will ask you to follow up on.
I also note that you are here voluntarily. We certainly appreciate that. We will be convening other witnesses from KPMG, I believe, including Serge Bilodeau, who runs your Montreal office, and we appreciate that co-operation.
Can you also indicate, when you receive a notice to preserve documents, how those notices are observed within KPMG internationally?
My final question is around Parrhesia, which you've acknowledged is a KPMG client company incorporated on the same date as the “sword” companies on December 17, 2001. First you said in your testimony that it was a common registrar that KPMG had approached, and then you said that nobody was engaged to actually incorporate Parrhesia. Could you clarify that, please? Who within KPMG actually moved to register that client company?
View Annie Koutrakis Profile
Lib. (QC)
View Annie Koutrakis Profile
2021-05-06 16:44
Thank you.
Senator Downe, you said in your testimony that the CRA has done a really great job on the domestic tax evasion side, but you've been critical of the agency's ability to address overseas tax evasion. What tools or powers does the CRA need to effectively address foreign tax evasion to the same extent as domestic tax evasion?
View Tamara Jansen Profile
CPC (BC)
Thank you very much.
Ms. Daviau, you mentioned how CRA was criticized in the previous decade for focusing audits on small businesses and charities and how that impacted auditing work. You also mentioned in your testimony that the focus should be on wealthy individuals and powerful corporations who do the majority of the cheating. Is there a justification for the fact that CRA appears to be aggressively focusing on small mom-and-pop shops for audits during COVID and ignoring the wealthy individuals and powerful corporations you just identified as the real problem?
View Julie Dzerowicz Profile
Lib. (ON)
Okay.
I don't know who I should direct this to. Maybe it's for Mr. Cohen or even Senator Downe.
We've spent a significant amount of money to try to deal with tax evasion. My sense has been that it's to try to deal with a lot of the international tax evasion. I think it was $444 million in 2016. I know it was $523.9 million in budget 2017. I know that in our fall economic statement, we invested another $606 million over five years to close the high-net-worth compliance gap, to strengthen technical support for high-risk audits and to enhance a criminal investigations program.
Has none of that been helpful to actually deal with the tax evasion issues, primarily internationally, as we've been talking about?
Mr. Cohen—
View Elizabeth May Profile
GP (BC)
Thank you. I would love to give Sean back some time. I will try to be really brief.
I've been troubled for decades by consistent reports from the Auditor General's Office that CRA does not take seriously their efforts to go after fat cats with complicated structures and lots of lawyers as much as they do in going after little guys like my friends or in auditing my daughter as a university student. You have to wonder.
As experts in how CRA operates, going first to PIPSC—either Ryan or Debi—and then to Senator Downe if there's time, is there a cultural problem within CRA that's deep and systemic, which both through resources and culture would make them go after Canadians with limited means rather than pursue complicated files on well-heeled tax evaders?
View Kelly Block Profile
CPC (SK)
I call this meeting to order.
Welcome to meeting number 29 of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts. The committee is meeting in public today and is being televised.
Pursuant to Standing Order 108(3)(g), the committee is meeting today to study “Report 4—Canada Child Benefit—Canada Revenue Agency”, of the 2021 reports of the Auditor General of Canada.
Today's meeting is taking place in a hybrid format, pursuant to the House order of January 25, 2021, and therefore members may be attending in person in the room or remotely by using the Zoom application.
I have a few reminders for you.
Interpretation services are available for this meeting. You have the choice at the bottom of your screen of “Floor”, “English” or “French”. Before speaking, click on the microphone icon to activate your own mike. When you are done speaking, please put your mike on mute to minimize any interference. When speaking, please speak slowly and clearly. Unless there are exceptional circumstances, the use of headsets with a boom microphone is mandatory for everyone participating remotely.
Should any technical challenges arise, please advise the chair. Please note that we may need to suspend for a few minutes, as we want to ensure that all members are able to participate fully.
Now I'd like to welcome the witnesses who have joined us today.
From the Office of the Auditor General are Martin Dompierre, Assistant Auditor General; Philippe Le Goff, principal; and Lucie Després, director. From the Canada Revenue Agency, we have Bob Hamilton, commissioner of revenue and chief executive officer; Marc Lemieux, assistant commissioner, collections and verification branch; Frank Vermaeten, assistant commissioner, assessment, benefit and service branch; and Heather Daniels, director general, benefit programs directorate, assessment, benefit and service branch.
With that, welcome, all.
I will turn the floor over to Mr. Dompierre for five minutes.
View Corey Tochor Profile
CPC (SK)
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you to our witnesses today. Thank you for doing the important work during these trying times during a pandemic to make sure the taxpayers' dollars are spent wisely. Any improvements on the system are much appreciated by everyone.
First off, you touched on the fact that 265,000 new families were receiving payments with the top-up. I have a question along those lines. It's a two-part question. I'm not sure who to ask first.
Has there been increased usage because people's incomes have been down due to COVID-19? Is that the reason there have been over a quarter million new families receiving benefits?
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