Thank you for inviting the Canada Revenue Agency to be here today.
The CRA is impacted by this legislation in two distinct operational areas. As you may know, the CRA plays a part in Canada's anti-terrorism framework through its administration of the Charities Registration (Security Information) Act, CRSIA, which was enacted as part 6 of the Anti-Terrorism Act. That legislation recognizes the contribution the CRA can make to detecting and disrupting support for terrorism because of our responsibility to review the operations of organizations that are registered as charities or applying for such status.
However, our present information-sharing authorities fall short of the FATF standards. As you know, the FATF is the international standard-setting body. Consequently, the focus of these proposals, as they relate to charities, has been on allowing, within clear limits, the sharing of information so that, on the one hand, we will be able to receive information from FINTRAC that will help us administer Income Tax Act provisions relating to charities, and on the other hand, so that we can make available to appropriate investigative authorities information that can then be used to proper advantage in the government's overall efforts to combat terrorism.
These proposals take into consideration that the charities registration system already has a very long--over 30-year--history of drawing a policy distinction between the disclosure rules that apply to charities and the concept of complete tax confidentiality as it applies to other taxpayers. Very importantly, these changes continue to respect privacy concerns by ensuring that donor information would not be subject to these new disclosure provisions.
Turning to the issue of disclosures made to the CRA where there is a suspicion of tax evasion, the CRA has been a partner in the national initiative to combat money laundering since its inception. The PCMLTFA provides that FINTRAC may disclose designated information to CRA once it has determined, first, that the information is relevant to money laundering or terrorist financing activities, and second, that it is relevant to tax evasion or an attempt to evade taxes.
The proposed amendments to the PCMLTFA with respect to disclosures of information from FINTRAC serve to expand the type of designated information that can be disclosed to all recipients of FINTRAC disclosures; clarify that the concept of tax evasion extends to obtaining, or attempting to obtain, a tax rebate, refund, or credit to which the taxpayer is not entitled; and allow the CRA, following receipt of a disclosure from FINTRAC, to apply to the courts for a production order to obtain additional information on a specific disclosure.
Thus, these amendments will, in essence, clarify the forms of tax evasion and facilitate further disclosures to CRA while respecting the dual threshold as established in the legislation. When designated information is provided, it will assist CRA in its determination of the appropriate enforcement actions to be taken.
My colleagues and I would be very happy to answer any further questions you may have regarding the administration aspects of these proposals from the CRA standpoint.
I am the director general of the charities directorate, and I have with me Donna Walsh, who is the director of review and analysis in our charities directorate; and also, Mr. Denis Meunier, director general of enforcement and disclosures directorate in our compliance programs branch.
Thank you very much.