Technically speaking, the Privacy Act authorizes the sharing of information for all the purposes listed in the agreement between the two governments. Once again, the purpose of the agreement is to combat tax evasion. Provided, then, that the information is shared for the purpose of preventing tax evasion, the CRA can transfer that information to the American government under the agreement. Because an agreement exists and because the Income Tax Act provides for that, the sharing of information is allowed under the Privacy Act. I mentioned accounts under $50,000 because the rules around that are not clear.
To pick up on an earlier discussion with the minister and the government officials, I would say that, although the sharing of information is allowed to verify that tax evasion was not committed, it is also important to make sure that the two governments do not share information beyond what is set out in the agreement. That's one of the things we've asked the CRA about because there still isn't a clear answer on the matter.