Finance committee  The after-tax salary of the Governor General would certainly be determined by his own personal situation. The calculation of the salary for 2013 was based on the assumption that he has other income upon which he pays taxes. Therefore, his salary adds to his taxable income and is taxed at the top marginal rate for a person living in Ontario.

Finance committee  In terms of whether other countries have adopted a stretch tax credit idea, we're not aware of any that have done so.

Finance committee  In analyzing any proposal for a tax policy change, we would look at the cost and the implications. Especially with the charitable donations incentive, one of the major considerations is whether you're going to be subsidizing existing donations or actually providing an incentive for new donations.

Finance committee  I do understand the point you're making. I think Mr. Julian had the question about what the value is of the tax benefit that is being provided as a result of this measure, which is what we're trying to show in the tax expenditure report. Yes, you could say that without that incentive, the person would not have donated those shares.

Finance committee  Blaine, do you want to take this one?

Finance committee  I don't know that we would have any specific recommendations. In general, a very generous tax regime is currently in place. When any regime provides an opportunity for people to benefit, there's going to be abuse. There has to be a balance. Each time we assess proposals, we're trying to assess the opportunities for abuse.

Finance committee  I don’t have those figures with me, but I could provide them to the committee.

Finance committee  The tax credit that applies on the first $200 of charitable donations is not necessarily limited to the donation that an individual may make to one organization. If they gave $100 to the United Way and $100 to another organization, then that's the first $200. Anything above that amount that the individual chose would receive a credit at 29%.

Finance committee  I am going to let Ms. Hawara answer that question.

Finance committee  “Tax expenditure” is a term used across countries, and there's generally an understanding that essentially it's just an estimate of the revenues foregone as a result of having this measure in the income tax system.

Finance committee  What I said in my opening remarks was that charities are able to engage in advocacy and political activities, and these must be limited. The “limited” definition is that they represent no more than 10% of the charity's resources. They must be limited and they must be ancillary and incidental to the charitable purposes and be non-partisan in nature.

Finance committee  Do you mean if they had never been donated?

Finance committee  Yes, essentially--

Finance committee  In the personal income tax system, that's right, yes.

Finance committee  The government publishes a tax expenditure report, which is the name that's provided, and generally that's used across--