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Results: 136 - 150 of 179
View Claude DeBellefeuille Profile
BQ (QC)
Madam Chair, does the minister realize that she's being filmed and recorded and that she isn't answering my question? I don't want to talk about cheats. I want to talk about companies that use a legal mechanism to avoid paying taxes and to put their money in tax havens. I can see that she doesn't want to answer my question. I'll ask her another question.
Can she tell me how many companies legally take advantage of tax avoidance in tax havens? How much money escapes taxation through this legal mechanism? The government could invest this money in its economic recovery post-COVID-19.
View Diane Lebouthillier Profile
Lib. (QC)
Madam Chair, I completely understand my colleague's impatience. However, she must understand that this type of issue is very complex. Under the former Conservative government, the issue wasn't a priority at all. Regarding tax evasion abroad, our leadership made it possible for the agency to conduct twice as many audits in three years as it conducted in 10 years under the Conservatives. Over 50 criminal investigations related to international tax evasion are ongoing.
View Julie Vignola Profile
BQ (QC)
Yes, thank you.
I'll come back briefly to tax havens. From what I understand, we don't have a clear list of Canadian companies that use tax havens, which is unfortunate given the amounts invested in research in that regard.
What is the estimated amount of money that we miss out on annually and doesn't end up in our coffers because of tax havens?
Andrew Marsland
View Andrew Marsland Profile
Andrew Marsland
2020-05-04 15:19
First of all, I think the challenge is that there is no kind of internationally accepted list regarding what is a tax haven. There are lists that various international organizations have established of non-co-operative jurisdictions, those that don't meet the standards of transparency and so on. Those tend to be fairly short lists.
There are other perceptions of low-tax jurisdictions, which some people might consider tax havens or which might be so called in common parlance. There's no common terminology accepted throughout the world as to what is a tax haven.
The Canada Revenue Agency has done estimates of the tax gap, and I can undertake to ask my colleagues at the Canada Revenue Agency to provide those. Those are not necessarily responsive to your question entirely, because there are tax gaps on the corporate side and so on that include more than just what one might consider planning and tax havens.
View Gabriel Ste-Marie Profile
BQ (QC)
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
As Ms. Dzerowicz and Mr. Fraser have done, I would like to say that our thoughts are with the families of the victims of the Nova Scotia killings, and with the families and colleagues of the victims and members of the forces who went missing in the helicopter crash.
Mr. Fraser, my questions will focus on assistance for big business and banks. Last Saturday, economic columnist Michel Girard suggested linking this assistance to 10 conditions. I would like to know the government's position and your reaction to that.
The first condition is that the company receiving government assistance must not use tax havens in any way in the course of its commercial activities, either directly or indirectly, that is to say, through commercial allies that are established in tax havens.
What is the government's position on this?
View Sean Fraser Profile
Lib. (NS)
View Sean Fraser Profile
2020-04-30 14:35
First, thank you for your kind and sincere thoughts for the victims from my home province.
My initial reaction is that I expect there are many things my colleague and I agree on, but there is one area where we may need to distinguish our positions from one another a little.
Certainly when it comes to illegal tax evasion, I expect we both believe measures should be implemented to prevent that kind of illegal abuse. However, in other situations, while companies may play within the rules, the rules may not provide a sense of justice to certain individuals. We should be working together in a nonpartisan way to help advance rules that limit the kinds of practices that we don't think are appropriate. However, we can place ourselves in a very dangerous position if we're not careful about how we craft these policies. I find that a simple solution for many of these complex problems doesn't actually pan out in reality.
The wage subsidy, for example, is a program designed to ensure that support reaches directly to workers and families. That program may run through large employers but is ultimately for the benefit of workers. What we can't do is put in a rule that may on its face sound like it's pursuing a laudable objective but has the consequence of denying income to workers who are actually able to maintain a position of employment throughout this crisis.
I very respectfully suggest that the devil may be in the details. When it comes to some of the programs, I would certainly rather tackle the tax avoidance or tax evasion issue, but not at the cost of providing support to workers who may otherwise go hungry.
View Peter Julian Profile
NDP (BC)
Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thanks to our witnesses. We hope your families continue to be safe and healthy. As my colleagues have done, I share my condolences with the families of the victims in Nova Scotia, and we think of our Canadian Forces members as well.
I want to start by asking about the issue around tax havens. Other countries have taken action. France, Denmark and Poland have all said public money, corporate bailouts and those kinds of public funds will not be used for companies that use overseas tax havens.
Putting aside any direct support to workers, can the government be clear about the issue of tax havens? The Prime Minister has contradicted himself in English and French. The Minister of National Revenue has contradicted the Prime Minister. I'd like the parliamentary secretary just to state very unequivocally that any corporate bailout funds will not used for companies that use overseas tax havens.
View Sean Fraser Profile
Lib. (NS)
View Sean Fraser Profile
2020-04-30 14:43
Peter, as a point of clarity here, which programs are you speaking about? Is it the emergency measures more broadly or measures that have not yet been announced but may be in the future?
View Peter Julian Profile
NDP (BC)
It's measures that have not been announced but that will be announced, and any direct support to corporations that isn't going to workers but going directly to the corporate side.
View Sean Fraser Profile
Lib. (NS)
View Sean Fraser Profile
2020-04-30 14:43
Look, I think you'll appreciate that I'm not in a position to speak about the details of programs that have not yet been developed or announced for, perhaps, obvious reasons.
Each of the programs you've seen announced to date has been to respond to a targeted need. I used the wage subsidy example previously because it was trying to target wage subsidies. To the extent that other programs seek to meet similar needs, I suppose the same answer would apply.
I will not, at the cost of the Canadians we are trying to support, let a particular rule prevent that support from reaching them. However, that doesn't mean that we can't work together, simultaneously, to continue our work to both punish those who evade taxes illegally and change rules that would create a fairer tax system.
I think we would agree that all Canadians, whether they're individuals or businesses, need to pay their fair share, but I'm not in a position to speak about the details of programs that do not yet exist.
View Peter Julian Profile
NDP (BC)
The amount, according to the Parliamentary Budget Officer, as we know, is more than $26 billion a year, in both legal and illegal tax evasion. Of course, this government has expanded the access of the corporate sector to legal tax evasion through the use of tax havens and treaties with tax havens.
I'll move on to two other issues.
The first is the issue of banks, and certainly, we're moving up to May 1. We have seen mortgage deferrals approved but always with interest, penalties and fees in the banking sector. Of course, the credit card rates and lines of credit continue to be very high. The credit union sector has reduced in many areas to zero per cent for credit cards and lines of credit for Canadians struggling to get through this crisis. The banking sector has said very clearly that if the government provides direction, they will follow. Why hasn't the government stepped up yet to ensure that there isn't profiteering during this crisis by the banking sector, by Canada's big banks?
Second, around the issue of rent relief for May 1, the federal government did take initial steps around commercial rent relief, but one-third of Canadian renters, one-third of Canadian families, are going to have difficulty paying their rent tomorrow. Will the government take steps immediately to provide the same rent relief for residential tenants that they provided for commercial tenants?
View Christine Normandin Profile
BQ (QC)
If I may, I will start my question over. I think I was about 40 seconds in.
I was saying that, in 2009, the government amended the income tax regulations. The amendment of section 5907 made it possible to exempt from taxation a number of businesses that are involved with tax havens. A simple amendment to the regulations helped liberalize about 22 tax havens.
What can be done through regulations can also be undone through regulations. That is actually what our political party proposed in the previous Parliament. According to a principle, when someone can do something, but does not, it's simply because they don't want to.
So why does the government not want to benefit—
View Justin Trudeau Profile
Lib. (QC)
Since 2015, our government has taken very seriously the need to fight tax evasion and tax avoidance. That is why we have invested more than $1 billion in the Canada Revenue Agency to fight tax evasion and tax avoidance and to ensure that everyone pays their fair share in taxes. We continue to do that. We have worked on measures with the revenue agency and internationally to prevent the practices of tax evasion and tax avoidance.
View Gabriel Ste-Marie Profile
BQ (QC)
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
We have adopted a number of measures to support the economy. Concerning assistance to large businesses and banks, business reporter Michel Girard suggests setting 10 conditions for receiving assistance.
Here is the first. The company benefiting from government assistance should in no way use tax heavens in its commercial activities, be it directly through local branches in those territories with a more favourable tax system or indirectly through commercial allies implanted in those tax heavens.
Does the Minister of Finance agree with that condition?
View Bill Morneau Profile
Lib. (ON)
Mr. Chair, I thank the member for his question.
I think it is very important to have measures that will enable companies to establish a bridge by the end of the crisis. At the same time, we know that it is important to take our laws and our situation into account. We will consider....
Results: 136 - 150 of 179 | Page: 10 of 12

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