Finance committee  My practice doesn't involve a lot of personal tax returns, but I can answer your question because I do have observations in that area. The CRA has become more automated, especially with the easier tasks that you just mentioned. We do download client information from the CRA website when we are filling out tax returns.

Finance committee  A lot of people are not aware of the disability tax credit, and a lot of people who are have been talked out of applying for it. They're scared of it. They read about how difficult it is. They read about second letters going to doctors about medical histories, and they just don't think that they're going to be eligible and that it's going to cost them a lot of money to access it.

Finance committee  I'm sorry. Could you just mention again the last part of your question?

Finance committee  Yes. Thank you. By the way, to all the people who've made comments about MS and its effect on people, personally I'd like to thank you for acknowledging that. I've been living with MS since 1993—I have my scooter here behind me—hence one of my reasons that I've been quite active on the disability tax credit measures.

Finance committee  Yes, and I am on record saying that.

Finance committee  Thanks, Pierre. Yes, I'd be happy to give my observations. We've now had experience in the trenches with the TOSI rules. What we predicted is what's happening. We have a lot of difficulty interpreting the rules. They're not just tweaks. If you look at the record, if you look at how many interpretations and positions the CRA has released in trying to help auditors, Canadians and taxpayers interpret the TOSI rules, you get a good idea of the number of resources that are being spent just on learning the rules, not even on enforcement.

Finance committee  Thank you. I'll end in 10 seconds. That team was the best in the world in 1972. That's when the tax act was amended. That team wouldn't stand a chance on the ice today. That's the version of the tax act we're working with. Thank you for your time. I'm sorry I went over.

Finance committee  Thank you. I want to thank you for having me here to share my thoughts with you about the upcoming budget. I've been a witness at this committee on other issues before, but just by way of background, I've been an income tax practitioner for over 30 years. While my comments today will be some of my income tax observations, they are informed by years as a student, as an employee, as an accounting student, and for the last 20 years, as a business owner running an accounting practice.

Finance committee  I think that the question you've asked oversimplifies things. Yes, money is retained in companies to fund retirement. It's also retained in capital-intensive companies for expansion, for downturns, etc. As I said earlier in my opening comments, there are some types of corporations that don't need to accumulate as much reserve.

Finance committee  Given CRA's resources now, I do not think they will be able to handle this. CRA is having difficulty handling tax matters as they are now. I feel badly for the CRA employees, but there's an influx of audit work going on. Those audits are not resolved satisfactorily because of subjective issues.

Finance committee  In fairness, it's not a question I can absolutely answer. My gut feeling is that it will cost more than it will benefit.

Finance committee  I think it is fair given the context that there is pension splitting to employees. I think that income sprinkling is a form of income sharing among business owners. I do think if there's going to be fairness in the system, the two should be allowed.

Finance committee  As I said earlier, I think some of the proposals are in line with the government's policy intent and with the platform they ran on, and I think those are workable. I think there's overkill in the proposals the way they are. They're just unwieldy. Unfortunately, the most dangerous pieces of these proposals are buried.

Finance committee  You want a yes-or-no answer. That's a hard one to give a yes-or-no answer to. I think it is part of the government's platform. It was something that they were concerned about. I think it's a fair policy objective, as I said before, but I think it's important to have it based on some measurable, quantifiable measure of contribution, as opposed to a subjective test.

Finance committee  I think in 80% of the cases, yes, it's absolutely fair. I think there are some types of corporations where it's not fair and I think to look at corporations in isolation is also unfair. Individuals who have losses can use their losses against all sources of income. Companies, when they have a loss, those losses are trapped inside the corporation, so we could have this debate about what's fair and which way or the other, but I think tax incentives for corporations to grow capital, to provide capital for corporations, is fair.