Evidence of meeting #56 for Finance in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was cra.
A recording is available from Parliament.
4:15 p.m.
Conservative
Carol Skelton Conservative Saskatoon—Rosetown—Biggar, SK
We don't have that information, but we will provide it to you as soon as we get it.
4:15 p.m.
Commissioner, Canada Revenue Agency
I'm not sure we have any information yet.
4:15 p.m.
Conservative
Mike Wallace Conservative Burlington, ON
So on any of those tax changes that were announced in the budget, CRA may not see the actual results until people submit their income tax. Is that not correct?
4:15 p.m.
Conservative
Mike Wallace Conservative Burlington, ON
Thank you for that.
I know we recently announced in Ontario--I'm an Ontario member of Parliament--that we have amalgamated our tax system, in a sense, our payment system with the province. Can you explain that to me? What difference will that make?
4:15 p.m.
Commissioner, Canada Revenue Agency
This is one of the largest projects we have with a provincial client now. There will be a single return for corporate taxes in Ontario in 2009. The project is a very complex one. We're in the process of implementing it with Ontario right now. Starting as early as next year, we'll combine the audits and then gradually implement the project. By 2009, Ontario businesses will have one single return.
4:15 p.m.
Conservative
Mike Wallace Conservative Burlington, ON
Oh, and only one auditor calling on them. That will make people keep their hair longer.
I have two more questions, if I have time. I've talked to staff in my constituency office about the kinds of things they see. Often it's people who are uptight about CRA and the issue of dealing with big bad government. Are we doing anything, or do we have any projections about what we might do, to try to make it easier for people to not be as afraid of the tax system as they are with CRA?
4:15 p.m.
Conservative
Carol Skelton Conservative Saskatoon—Rosetown—Biggar, SK
When I gave my opening remarks, I talked about trying to make it easier for people and cutting the paperwork down to make it as simple as possible. We're trying to make the toll-free numbers, anything that we do to help people.... Our volunteers who help people complete their tax forms give tremendous hours and work very hard. I know with working with people in the agency—
Can I read something into the record? This just came. It's dated October 30:
On October 30, 2006 I spoke with two wonderful ladies when I called the Revenue Canada toll-free number regarding my company's GST number.
She has the name of her business listed here, but I won't read that.
I would like to thank those ladies for their help and kindness.
Since I've taken over as minister, I've stressed over and over to the departments that I really want to be people-friendly. But the reputation of the tax agency goes back many years, and it's going to take us awhile to get over that.
4:15 p.m.
Conservative
Mike Wallace Conservative Burlington, ON
Okay.
On more of a technical question, just based on my previous experience, you're telling us we're running 5% or 5.5% in terms of accounts receivable. Is that correct? Do we do any comparisons on how other governments are doing, whether provincially or federally, in terms of returns? Are we ahead of the curve on that? Is there an actual goal for the department?
4:15 p.m.
Deputy Commissioner and Chief Operating Officer, Canada Revenue Agency
Mr. Chair, we do assess our performance relative to other countries. It is extremely hard to do it on a numbers basis because every tax administration is different. For instance, we collect provincial taxes that most national tax administrations don't. We also collect outstanding benefit payments and so on.
I can tell you, though, that I just recently saw a report from the OECD that is looking at the debt collection practices of a number of different countries, and Canada was cited an extraordinarily large number of times for the work we're doing on modernizing our good collection practices.
I should also point out that just about every developed country is experiencing some of the same pressure we are with growth in revenue collections partly because the economy has been growing.
4:20 p.m.
Liberal
John McKay Liberal Scarborough—Guildwood, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am glad to see that once a year the government receives a nice card.
4:20 p.m.
Conservative
4:20 p.m.
Liberal
John McKay Liberal Scarborough—Guildwood, ON
I've been trying to get a handle on how much it costs to administer a tax credit. The last budget contained a whole potpourri of tax credits, and there has to be some administrative cost every time you put a line in there.
Can anyone, the minister or otherwise, give me some handle on how much it costs? I will pick an example: the sports credit. What is that going to cost to administer?
4:20 p.m.
Commissioner, Canada Revenue Agency
I can't answer the member with specifics on this particular credit.
The only thing I want to mention to the committee is that we're working very hard now to provide some indicators to the committee in the next reports we will table to Parliament on how much it costs to administer the flow of money, because it is very important. The agency collects taxes and administers credits, but it also administers benefits. So singling out one element is extremely difficult to cost. Sometimes it's possible; sometimes it isn't.
What we are trying to do now is to determine how much it costs to administer $100. If we can get all the data, in the next few reports to Parliament we're hoping we'll be able to give you some very precise numbers on how this is evolving.
4:20 p.m.
Liberal
John McKay Liberal Scarborough—Guildwood, ON
If you knew how much $100 would cost you to administer, presumably you'd know what a $500 tax credit would cost you to administer.
4:20 p.m.
Commissioner, Canada Revenue Agency
Not really. It would be $100 of a flow of money in the agency, either through a benefit or through a tax collection.
What this will allow the committee to do is to compare from year to year whether it is costing us more or less to administer the same amount of dollars.
4:20 p.m.
Liberal
John McKay Liberal Scarborough—Guildwood, ON
I'm surprised that at this stage of the game, given the sophistication of the CRA, that you don't have a clue as to how much a credit costs you.
4:20 p.m.
Commissioner, Canada Revenue Agency
We can provide some data on certain credits or certain payments that we do for certain programs.
