Evidence of meeting #136 for Finance in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was million.
A recording is available from Parliament.
10:25 a.m.
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Carleton, ON
Sorry, just to clarify, once they pass the 20- or 200-hour threshold for small and big businesses, respectively, are they incented to produce a change?
10:25 a.m.
Assistant Commissioner, International, Large Business and Investigations Branch, Canada Revenue Agency
There's no financial incentive, but there's an expectation that, past those preliminary hours, there would be a change. I'd almost frame it the other way. We give our auditors 200 hours or 20 hours to make sure that it isn't the case of a compliant taxpayer. If it is, they down screen the audit, and they don't proceed. If they pass that hourly threshold, the expectation is that there would be a change. There is absolutely no financial incentive for the auditor related to that, though.
10:25 a.m.
Assistant Commissioner, International, Large Business and Investigations Branch, Canada Revenue Agency
The second relates to quality, for small, medium, and large enterprises. We have a quality regime where there is a distinct unit that looks at the quality of the file. We have material and non-material errors, and auditors, based on their level of training, are expected to work towards zero errors in terms of their audit work, their working papers, and the clarity of the letter going to the taxpayer.
10:25 a.m.
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Carleton, ON
Are there any performance requirements or incentives related to the amount of money audits and assessments produce?
10:25 a.m.
Assistant Commissioner, International, Large Business and Investigations Branch, Canada Revenue Agency
The answer is no. Individual auditors receive no financial incentive or performance pay. There are projections established by region, because from a headquarters perspective, we have to allocate resources between small and medium enterprises and large enterprises, and between Atlantic Canada, the Prairies, and the Pacific provinces. At that very high level, we do have projections around how much revenue is expected to be yielded.
10:25 a.m.
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Carleton, ON
What if it's not yielded? Are managers, auditors, or any other employee of the agency rated based on whether or not those revenue expectations are achieved?
10:25 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Wayne Easter
We're probably sliding a little beyond the estimates, but it's up to you if you want to go beyond the estimates, Mr. Gallivan.
10:25 a.m.
Assistant Commissioner, International, Large Business and Investigations Branch, Canada Revenue Agency
I would say the primary purpose of that is to prompt a conversation and an adjustment.
10:25 a.m.
Assistant Commissioner, International, Large Business and Investigations Branch, Canada Revenue Agency
The primary purpose of that number and analysis. In other words, you may not be surprised that Atlantic Canada, population for population, has less of a financial need than Bay Street.
10:25 a.m.
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Carleton, ON
Sorry. The question wasn't what the purpose or primary purpose was. The question was whether managers or anyone else in the agency is assessed based on whether they yield the revenues that are expected.
10:25 a.m.
Assistant Commissioner, International, Large Business and Investigations Branch, Canada Revenue Agency
We work very hard to have a broad-based assessment of all of our executives on a number of different criteria.
10:25 a.m.
Conservative
10:25 a.m.
Assistant Commissioner, International, Large Business and Investigations Branch, Canada Revenue Agency
Again, of maybe 50 line items that may appear in my assessment, there may be one line related to a revenue target alongside 50 other items.
10:25 a.m.
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Carleton, ON
Therefore, they are assessed, and their performance is rated based on how much revenue they generate by audits and assessments.
10:25 a.m.
Assistant Commissioner, International, Large Business and Investigations Branch, Canada Revenue Agency
I would say that the Government of Canada made certain commitments around revenue-generation, and at my level, it's part of my accountability to see whether I met it or not, alongside numerous other measures.
10:25 a.m.
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Carleton, ON
Can you list the expectations? You said the government has made certain expectations around revenue generation for CRA. Can you list them?
10:30 a.m.
Assistant Commissioner, International, Large Business and Investigations Branch, Canada Revenue Agency
Again, right on point, in budget 2015 from the prior government and in budgets 2016 and 2017 under the current government, when incremental resources are made available to the CRA, there is an expectation around how many audit bills will result from that.
10:30 a.m.
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Carleton, ON
The government says it has dedicated an incremental $1 billion to the CRA's budget to crack down on “tax cheats”. How many dollars did CRA commit to generating out of that $1 billion commitment?
10:30 a.m.
Assistant Commissioner, International, Large Business and Investigations Branch, Canada Revenue Agency
Five billion.
10:30 a.m.
Conservative
10:30 a.m.
Assistant Commissioner, International, Large Business and Investigations Branch, Canada Revenue Agency
Last year the expectation or the projection was that we would find $380 million, and we found $500 million. This fiscal year the expectation was $800 million, at Q3 we were roughly at $800 million.
10:30 a.m.
Conservative
10:30 a.m.
Liberal