Committee
Consult the user guide
For assistance, please contact us
Consult the user guide
For assistance, please contact us
Add search criteria
Results: 16 - 30 of 179
Jean Couillard
View Jean Couillard Profile
Jean Couillard
2021-02-23 17:24
I agree with Mr. Brière.
In short, I would say that international tax cases are mainly handled in Quebec City, Montreal and Laval.
View Gabriel Ste-Marie Profile
BQ (QC)
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good afternoon, everyone. I'm very happy to be with you all this afternoon.
Since 1992, Revenu Québec has been collecting both the Quebec sales tax, or QST, and the goods and services tax, or GST, which works very well. Until now, Ottawa has refused to entrust Revenu Québec with the collection of federal income tax. As a result, Quebeckers are the only taxpayers in Canada who must file two tax returns. The double tax return entails significant costs for citizens and businesses, in addition to complications related to the need to contact two offices.
Citizens would benefit from filling out a single tax return. This would result in savings of $425 million a year, according to the Research Institute on Self-Determination of Peoples and National Independence, or the IRAI. This includes $39 million for individuals who rely on professionals to prepare their tax returns, $99 million for businesses and $287 million in overlap costs.
Quebec currently has access to foreign tax information only insofar as its international tax rules are modelled on the federal rules. By entering into a collection agreement with Ottawa, Quebec will obtain direct access to foreign tax information. This will enable Quebec to fight against tax havens independently, rather than having to copy the federal legislation, which contains several loopholes in this area.
You'll recall that there's a consensus on the bill in Quebec. The National Assembly unanimously passed a resolution to this effect. The Liberal Party, Coalition Avenir Québec, Québec solidaire and the Parti Québécois are unanimous. In addition, the Legault government made a formal request to the Prime Minister. The polls show widespread public support. Everything known as “Quebec Inc.” supports the idea: representatives of the chambers of commerce; the Conseil du patronat du Québec, or CPQ; independent businesses; the Ordre des comptables professionnels agréés du Québec, or CPA; and so on. There are also some unions, such as the Syndicat de la fonction publique et parapublique du Québec, or SFPQ; and the Centrale des syndicats du Québec, or CSQ.
The bill includes the following three components:
First, it would authorize the Minister of Finance to enter into an agreement with the government of a province in order to allow that province to collect the federal personal and corporation income taxes on behalf of the Government of Canada.
Second, it would require the Minister of Finance—within 90 days of the bill receiving royal assent—to undertake discussions with the government of Quebec in order to enter into such an agreement within one year.
Third, it would require the Minister of Finance to undertake negotiations with the tax authorities of other jurisdictions so that the government of the relevant province has access to all the tax information necessary to implement the agreement directly with those tax authorities.
The jobs issue is extremely important.
I want to remind the committee that the federal public service is understaffed and overly concentrated in Ottawa. I'm asking the government, represented here by Mr. Fraser, to maintain the number of public service jobs in the Shawinigan and Jonquière regions, within the agency, which will always have a role, or within other departments.
In closing, I want to quote Vincent Marissal, the MNA for Rosemont and Québec solidaire's finance, taxation and revenue critic.However, in addition to all these very valid arguments, one fact remains: for Québec solidaire, and for all Quebeckers, the single tax managed here, by us and for us, is more than a mere logistical or accounting matter. It's a matter of national dignity.
This concludes my presentation.
I'd be happy to answer your questions.
View Philip Lawrence Profile
CPC (ON)
I'll follow up on one comment you made in your opening statement. You said that it might give Quebec the ability to close loopholes that the federal government is currently allowing in terms of tax havens. I'm a little bit confused by that, to be honest, because we can't really change the legislation or the tax. As you said, we're just going to amend those tax treaties.
How is the Province of Quebec going to enforce things that the federal government cannot?
View Gabriel Ste-Marie Profile
BQ (QC)
Quebec will do it by simple political will, if I can put it that way.
Let's take the example of the taxation of the Web giants. Quebec has started to do it, and it works well. Similarly, if Quebec chooses to do more investigations of Quebec residents who use tax havens illegally, Revenu Québec could obtain the information directly. The Canada Revenue Agency has the power to do so at this time, but the government is being lax in this area, so not much progress is being made on the file. One can think of the leak of confidential documents—the Panama Papers or the Paradise Papers. Every country has gone looking for cases, but Canada has done nothing, due to a lack of political will.
View Julie Dzerowicz Profile
Lib. (ON)
Thank you so much, Mr. Chair.
I'm just going to turn up my volume, pump up the jam, as they say.
Thank you so much, Mr. Ste-Marie. Thank you for your presentation today.
Mr. Lawrence actually started on the track that I was going to go on.
In your original comments, when you introduced this bill in the House, you talked about how this law would enable Quebec to fight more effectively against the use of tax havens. For the record, I want to dispute your next comment here, that Ottawa is dragging its feet in that regard.
I will tell you that Davenport residents, the people of my riding, really care about people paying their fair share of taxes. They get very angry when they start hearing about tax havens. I will tell you that I was very proud of our government for putting over $400 million, I believe, within the first year of our being in office, to fight these tax havens and to fight those who are trying to avoid paying their fair share of taxes. We've actually increased it to over $1 billion now. We did that, Mr. Ste-Marie, because it has actually been effective. I know the Minister of National Revenue is very passionate about this issue, and I don't want to do a disservice to her and the amazing team of people who are working very hard on this.
I didn't hear an answer in terms of how Quebec is going to be more effective on its own against the use of tax havens. Perhaps I'll give you a few minutes to tell me how you think you can be more effective, and then I have another question for you.
View Gabriel Ste-Marie Profile
BQ (QC)
Fine, thank you.
If we look at what Canada is doing to combat the use of tax havens, both the illegal part and the legal part that should be illegal, or if we compare it to the United States, European countries and other countries around the world, we see that our country is doing poorly, unfortunately. I repeat that it is dragging its feet and that it is a dunce in this area.
The problem goes back a few decades, and it is not unrelated to the role of finance ministers. Take the example of Mr. Paul Martin. While he was finance minister, his personal company, Canada Steamship Lines, was doing business in Nigeria. When the law was amended, that company was transferred to Barbados. Was it in his interest to stop using Barbados as a tax haven? He was taking advantage of it himself.
The former Minister of Finance, Mr. Morneau, for whom I have great respect, owns a family business. Even today, the company's website mentions that it can advise an insurance company or a pension fund administration company, for example, on how to make good use of tax havens so as not to pay taxes here. In Toronto, the big Bay Street banks all have subsidiaries in tax havens. Reducing their tax liability saves them a lot of money.
As far as I know, the banking sector is immune to foreign competition and it is very lucrative. Every quarter we see record payments. I'm proud of this system because it's very stable. Although I prefer the Quebec model of the co-operative, it's a good system, especially internationally. However, why allow such practices? It's the amalgamation of Canada's economic and political forces.
To get back to your question, currently, if Revenu Québec suspects a fraudulent user of doing business in tax havens, it is not able to confirm the information because the information it wants to obtain is kept by the Canada Revenue Agency; further, it does not receive a message from the federal government recommending that it respond to this request or intervene.
At the end of the day, Canada is doing very poorly in the fight against tax havens around the world. That needs to change.
View Peter Julian Profile
NDP (BC)
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you again, Mr. Ste-Marie.
I strongly disagree with Ms. Dzerowicz, who just said that the federal government has taken some steps to counter tax evasion. As you know, the Parliamentary Budget Officer has already told us that $25 billion a year escapes from the Canada Revenue Agency because it ends up in tax havens. Why is that? Because, as we know, the government has never provided these officials with the tools they need. We were told that this summer and I know you are aware of that, Mr. Ste-Marie.
Officials said they could not reach a single person or large company mentioned in the Panama Papers, the Bahamas Leaks or other documents containing information related to tax havens because they lacked the legislative and administrative tools necessary to counter massive tax evasion, which costs us at least $25 billion each year.
Mr. Ste-Marie, can you tell us how we could change this situation?
On the other hand, one sometimes hears criticism of the information-sharing agreements that are currently in place with Canada. Could you tell us how this information would be transmitted under a single tax reporting system?
View Gabriel Ste-Marie Profile
BQ (QC)
Mr. Julian, thank you for your comments.
I totally agree with you.
Like you, I believe that the illegal and immoral use of tax havens is a gross injustice. Why can the wealthiest and the multinationals use these systems with impunity?
Quebec held a parliamentary commission on the use of tax havens and one of its major conclusions was that the power is in Ottawa. Even if Quebec wanted to do more, it is very limited since it does not have access to information abroad.
This is the bet I'm making. If this bill is passed, Quebec will have the power to do more against tax evasion or tax avoidance. It could certainly inspire Ottawa to do the same, as it has done with subsidized child care programs and pharmacare. These are Quebec projects that you are pursuing. Quebec also collects QST from the Web giants, and Ottawa is now getting ready to do the same. This could prod Ottawa to move forward on tax havens.
At present, even if the Quebec National Assembly has the will to act, it does not have the power to do so since it does not have access to the exchange of information. However, the system would be fairly simple to put in place and the issue could be resolved by the adoption of this bill.
If we compare what Americans are doing about the Panama Papers and the Paradise Papers...
View Julie Dzerowicz Profile
Lib. (ON)
That's very helpful. Thank you so much for that.
Under “Efficiency in international taxation”, you mentioned, “Convincing our partners to make changes to include other subnational tax administrations is not a given”. If we go outside of that comment, if we set that aside, and if this moves forward and is implemented, would you have any commentary about how this bill might impact the federal government's ability to continue to fight tax havens and tax evaders?
Mireille Laroche
View Mireille Laroche Profile
Mireille Laroche
2021-02-16 18:57
The comment I'll make is that typically these large corporations do not just operate in one province. They're everywhere in the world, including in all provinces and territories, in terms of how they do business, so there would be a need for very close relations between the two administrations to be able to work collaboratively on files, to be able to attain.... I would say that one of the first impacts that I see would be a need to have real collaboration in terms of looking at these large businesses that have dealings across the country.
View Peter Julian Profile
NDP (BC)
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
My next question goes to Mr. Jovanovic.
Mr. Jovanovic, thank you for joining us today.
You mentioned 120 tax agreements that have been signed between Canada and other countries. How many of them are signed with countries that previously had tax evasion strategies or are suspected of having them? In other words, which countries are considered to be tax havens?
Miodrag Jovanovic
View Miodrag Jovanovic Profile
Miodrag Jovanovic
2021-02-16 19:04
I don't have the answer to that question at hand.
The underlying question is whether there is an international definition of a tax haven. There really is no such definition.
The countries of the European Union may have their own list of a limited number of countries, depending on the situation. We will probably have to get back to you about that. The question is to determine what, specifically, we understand by “tax haven.”
View Peter Julian Profile
NDP (BC)
Thanks, Mr. Chair.
I gather from the response that there hasn't been an evaluation done by the Department of Finance, and I find that somewhat disturbing, given the situation we're in and the important investments that have to be made to support Canadians.
I am also wondering about companies that are listed in the Bahamas papers, the Paradise papers and the Panama papers, and to what extent the Department of Finance tracks those companies. These are companies that have obviously used offshore tax havens. I know this is also a responsibility through CRA, but does the ministry track any of those companies that have been listed in these publicly listed papers?
Andrew Marsland
View Andrew Marsland Profile
Andrew Marsland
2020-12-08 17:37
Again, thank you for the question.
I think, as was identified, it's really an issue for the Canada Revenue Agency, which has used resources that the government has devoted to the whole issue of international tax avoidance and evasion. There have been resources and efforts in that area over recent years, and recent budgets have dedicated funds towards those efforts.
View Sébastien Lemire Profile
BQ (QC)
Thank you for this very pertinent information.
Do you think our current law is strong enough to protect us from investments by countries that are tax havens?
Results: 16 - 30 of 179 | Page: 2 of 12

|<
<
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
>
>|
Export As: XML CSV RSS

For more data options, please see Open Data