Evidence of meeting #20 for Industry, Science and Technology in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was industry.
A recording is available from Parliament.
5:30 p.m.
Director, Business Income Tax Divison, Tax Policy Branch, Department of Finance
I'm not sure I understand what you're saying about....
They have to have a certain amount of what in order to qualify?
5:30 p.m.
Bloc
Robert Vincent Bloc Shefford, QC
Companies must be in a position where they can allocate a certain amount of money to R&D. You cover 20 per cent of R&D costs, but often, the companies do not have the other 80 per cent required. They cannot benefit from the financial incentive because they don't have the money required up front.
5:30 p.m.
Director, Business Income Tax Divison, Tax Policy Branch, Department of Finance
I'm still sort of trying to process the question.
5:30 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative James Rajotte
They have to have cash at the research end. Technically, they have to make a profit in order to apply for the credit. I think that's partly what he's getting at.
5:30 p.m.
Director, Business Income Tax Divison, Tax Policy Branch, Department of Finance
The only answer, I think, is that for smaller, Canadian-controlled private corporations, there is refundability. That's because those types of companies have greater difficulty in accessing capital than do public corporations, but there is the refundability element. Refundability means they can receive a cheque for the amount of spending they undertake.
5:35 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative James Rajotte
Thank you very much for coming before us.
I do just want to make sure we follow up with respect to the corporate tax rates between Canada and the U.S., if you can get us a comparison from the finance department. Also, we do have the capital cost allowance classes provided by our researchers, but do you have something comparable between CCA rates here in Canada and CCA rates in the U.S.?
I think a question that was started by Ms. Stronach and a thread throughout is how the finance department decides the criteria by which if someone comes forward--and this goes to Monsieur Arthur's question--and says the useful life of an asset is....
A computer can last for ten years, but from an economic point of view, it's really only useful for about one or two years, if that. So what are the criteria? If you can help us understand that, it would be very helpful in terms of useful life versus actual economic life.
I think, just responding, you've heard the concerns. The concerns from the manufacturing sector are that we're at a disadvantage vis-à-vis the U.S., particularly with regard to CCA rates. If there were better CCA rates, there'd be more capital investment in the manufacturing sector across this country, and it would be better for the environment because you'd have newer processes and newer machinery. We need to get a fundamental answer, and unfortunately we don't have time, but I think that sort of ties in some of the threads from various committee members.
If we could get a formal response to me and the clerk, we'll distribute that to all the members.
We thank you very much for being here. There's a lot of interest in these issues, obviously. Thank you for your time.
We'll ask members to stay. We do have a future business meeting, which we will try to keep very short.
We're going in camera, so we'd ask anyone who is not a member or associated with a member to kindly depart.
[Proceedings continue in camera]