Finance committee  Mr. Chair, on the first question I commit to come back with a more specific number, but I understand that it may be that anywhere between 60% and 70% of the files that are returned to us are filed through a third party. I think it is in that range, but I will confirm it. Secondly, in terms of the quality of the packages that are sold by third parties, what I can tell you is that there is a certification process that they need to follow.

Finance committee  There is one. Unfortunately, I don't have that information with me, but I can send it to the committee. There is a division between the auditors who are assigned to businesses and auditors who are assigned to individual taxpayers.

Finance committee  Mr. Chair, while I don't have the specifics, I can tell you that the T1 system brings in about $154 billion. The number of tax filers has been increasing over time. We do have those volumetrics. As I said earlier, the agency has historically realigned resources internally to deal with that workload increase, but we have seen a steady growth in the number of income tax returns we process.

Finance committee  Mr. Chair, it's very hard for me to project that, but if I were to respond I believe that the growth will continue—albeit based on the trend we've seen up to date.

Finance committee  That, Mr. Chair, is something to which I really am not in a position to respond. I know my colleagues at the Department of Finance are more involved in forecasting the projections from the various tax aspects. I'm not in a position at this point to respond. My colleagues at the Department of Finance may have more insight into it.

Finance committee  Mr. Chair, the U.S. has taken steps over the last 10 years or so to make progress along those lines. It has explored various tools, one of which is making software packages more readily available, and making it mandatory for certain taxpayers or tax preparers to use software. So there have been several measures put in place to get to the 83%.

Finance committee  Mr. Chair, first of all I'd like to take a moment to reaffirm the CRA's confidence in the integrity and professionalism of its employees. I believe that is key. Our success is in large part as a result of their exemplary conduct in carrying out our complex audit activities every day for Canadian taxpayers, in a manner that demonstrates integrity and professionalism.

Finance committee  Mr. Chair, from a concrete perspective we have taken actions against those involved. As the committee may be aware, we have dismissed those who are involved. Secondly we are putting in place measures to strengthen our values and ethics framework. We are increasing and continuing to increase the competency our internal investigative capacity.

Finance committee  Mr. Chair, out of the 9,000 or so, we have approximately 8,000 or so auditors who are accountable for the audit programs and are auditing the various files, etc. We have another—and this is an estimate—approximately 900 auditors who are assigned to what we call the enforcement and disclosure program.

Finance committee  Mr. Chair, first of all, I would like to confirm that this is not a request for incremental funding. That is indeed the case. The agency, up until about a year and a half to two years ago, had one operating vote, which was operating vote number 1; but in recognition of the need to be transparent in terms of our capital expenditures, we established a separate vote, vote 5, a capital vote, similar to what other departments and agencies have.

Finance committee  Mr. Chair, I would say that is exactly the intent of the creation of the capital vote, our vote 5b, to segregate our capital expenditures and facilitate the depreciation and the accounting aspects of our operations. The aspect of transparency in our $4 billion budget is just as--and probably more--important.

Finance committee  Mr. Chair, our objective is to be able to make this kind of adjustment once and to be accountable for the projections that we're putting in place for both capital and operating expenditures. Our objective is to manage to these newly established budget levels and to be accountable for them exactly.

Finance committee  I indicated in my earlier response that there are no planned cuts from the audit perspective at this time. I can tell the committee that we have approximately 9,000 auditors in the agency. That level has been pretty much consistent. The budget for the audit function has remained steady over the years, so I can confirm that is the base of the audit community in the agency.

Finance committee  Mr. Chair, just for clarity, while I won't speak to specific cases, the individual was a CRA employee and not an employee of the Department of Finance. Mr. Chair, I do want to state that the CRA has strict policies governing the security, physical assets, and the confidentiality of taxpayer information.

Finance committee  Between 60% and 64% of Canadians are electronically filing their income tax returns. We believe there's an opportunity to bring that number up. I can share with the committee that our colleagues in the United States are at approximately 83%. We believe we can continue to progress towards that objective.