Evidence of meeting #63 for Public Accounts in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was cra.
A video is available from Parliament.
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
Jean Yip Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
Okay. Thank you.
Mr. Hamilton, what timelines are generally associated with the review of complaints?
5:10 p.m.
Commissioner of Revenue and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Revenue Agency
Mr. Chair, as I think I mentioned earlier, that would depend upon the complexity of the complaint that is being raised. In a relatively simple situation, as I said, for a charity that is not involved in complex operations and the infraction being reported is simple, we can probably go through it fairly quickly. Some charities and foundations are very big, very complex, and somebody might be raising a very subtle point, so those could obviously take longer.
I certainly don't have an average of all of those things. I think we can go back and look at what data we have, but it would vary quite a bit, depending on what is being raised and the complexity of the situation.
I don't even know if we track.... For a lot of these, we would look at it and it would turn out that there's nothing there, or we might find something that is there. Then we could have an education process, a back-and-forth. We might have a compliance agreement. The finishing point wouldn't necessarily be a revocation. It could be something in between.
I'll see if we have any data on that, but my guess is we don't have a good estimate for you.
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
Jean Yip Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
In the process of reviewing complaints, is there an opportunity for a charity to appeal? At what point do they have to move on to another way of appealing and maybe go to the courts?
5:15 p.m.
Commissioner of Revenue and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Revenue Agency
Yes, there's definitely a process for them. If we are investigating a lead, say, they would have an opportunity to talk to us and give their perspective. In the end, if we decide that there's a revocation—if I use that example—they would have an opportunity to file an objection within the CRA.
We have an appeals branch that's independent. It takes a second look at that. If the organization still isn't happy after that, then there are courts that they could appeal to, so it's a sort of layered process. Through it all, we do give the entity an opportunity to present its version of what it thinks is going on and to test whether the facts we have or the analysis we've done is correct.
I don't know if you want to add anything to that, colleagues. Is that good? Okay.
5:15 p.m.
Liberal
Jean Yip Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
In your opening remarks, you mentioned that the decision is put on your website.
5:15 p.m.
Commissioner of Revenue and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Revenue Agency
Mr. Chair, that would be the case if there was a penalty. If we looked at it and said, yes, there was something bad happening and we're going to issue a penalty or we're going to revoke, those decisions show up on our website. I don't know if any other sanctions appear, but those are there. That's the only thing we would say publicly about that.
For example, if we did some education and the charity decided it understood what the problem was and was going to fix it, if we were satisfied with that, it would not show up on our website.
Oh, maybe it would. Go ahead, Sharmila.
5:15 p.m.
Director General, Charities Directorate, Legislative Policy and Regulatory Affairs Branch, Canada Revenue Agency
I just wanted to add that after we receive a lead, in the end we might impose a sanction or have a revocation, and you might see it on the website, but it may not necessarily be related to that initial lead.
We might go in and audit and find lots of different types of non-compliance. The lead may have led us to go in and have a look, but it might not necessarily be the reason that we revoked or sanctioned a charity. Often when we have a revocation or a sanction, there are multiple things going on that aren't in accordance with the Income Tax Act.
5:15 p.m.
Liberal
Jean Yip Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
Is there anything else that you would like to add that wasn't answered when others asked questions?
5:15 p.m.
Commissioner of Revenue and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Revenue Agency
There isn't for me. I think we covered a fair amount of territory.
5:15 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative John Williamson
Over to you, Ms. Sinclair-Desgagné, for two and a half minutes.
5:15 p.m.
Bloc
Nathalie Sinclair-Desgagné Bloc Terrebonne, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Let's talk about public funds.
In your experience, have you seen many cases of mismanaged private organizations receiving that much public money? Have you seen that a lot in your respective careers?
5:15 p.m.
Commissioner of Revenue and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Revenue Agency
I would turn to my colleague.
May 11th, 2023 / 5:15 p.m.
Assistant Commissioner, Legislative Policy and Regulatory Affairs Branch, Canada Revenue Agency
I think that's a bit beyond the bounds of what we were coming here to talk about in the world of charities. I can't comment on a broad question about public funds.
5:15 p.m.
Bloc
Nathalie Sinclair-Desgagné Bloc Terrebonne, QC
However, you are in charge of administering revenue and taxes paid by organizations. You oversee all of their tax activities.
Can't you tell me whether you see a lot of instances where this much public money is provided?
5:15 p.m.
Director General, Charities Directorate, Legislative Policy and Regulatory Affairs Branch, Canada Revenue Agency
I just wanted to say that unless we are auditing a charity and looking at each receipt that the charity issued, we're only seeing aggregate information on the donations that a charity received.
5:15 p.m.
Bloc
Nathalie Sinclair-Desgagné Bloc Terrebonne, QC
All right. Thank you.
I want to come back to the issuing of tax receipts in a name other than the donor's.
What is the consequence of that practice under the Income Tax Act? Does the act really prohibit that type of practice, which is after all terribly wrong?
I would appreciate it if you could keep your answer as concrete as possible. I realize that you look at the circumstances over a period of time, that you average things out.
I'm trying to figure out whether the act provides for a direct consequence.
5:20 p.m.
Commissioner of Revenue and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Revenue Agency
Yes, there are consequences related to improper receipts.
Sanctions are possible. However, in terms of the other aspects we've talked about, in the case of minor offences, it is possible for sanctions not to be imposed. More serious sanctions can be imposed when the offence is more serious.
Now I'll turn to Ms. Khare to see whether she has anything to add.
5:20 p.m.
Director General, Charities Directorate, Legislative Policy and Regulatory Affairs Branch, Canada Revenue Agency
No.
It's really—
5:20 p.m.
Director General, Charities Directorate, Legislative Policy and Regulatory Affairs Branch, Canada Revenue Agency
Exactly.
5:20 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative John Williamson
Thank you.
Mr. Desjarlais, you have the floor for two and half minutes, please.
5:20 p.m.
NDP
Blake Desjarlais NDP Edmonton Griesbach, AB
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I want to follow up on some of the questions I was asking earlier. In particular, I'm trying to sort out....
When an organization reaches out to the CRA, whether it's through the leads program or any alternative way they do that, is there any kind of process beyond the organization's own application to the leads program? Does the CRA take any proactive action to mitigate or to reduce these kinds of issues?
5:20 p.m.
Commissioner of Revenue and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Revenue Agency
If I understand the question correctly, yes, we do get leads, and if you're asking if we proactively go and look for stuff, yes. We monitor. We have our own way of coming up with issues that we might see if we have a concern. It might be a lead or it might be something that we see somewhere else informally. We have a team that would say there might be something happening here that's a bit of a high risk, and we can proactively look at that.
Those are the avenues through which we get our ideas. Then we proceed with them in the way that we have discussed.