Carol Skelton

[Canada Revenue Agency, February 26th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, the internal audit of the CRA demonstrates yet another example of the Liberals ignoring the Auditor General's recommendations.

In 1996, the AG made recommendations to the Liberal minister but it took 10 years and nothing was done. The Liberals may not take the Auditor General seriously but this government does and the internal audit will be implemented this year.

[Questions on the Order Paper, January 29th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, the Canada Revenue Agency, CRA, has included the following contextual information to provide a framework for its response to the honourable member’s question.

Canada is part of a global trade and financial system. Countries compete to attract investors and trade partners, and this competition extends to tax systems. Countries offer tax concessions and favourable tax rates to all or some industries/investors. Some of these competing countries are tax havens. Every country has the right to structure its tax system to meet its needs and these are issues of tax policy for each country, not for tax administrations.

Residents of Canada must report and pay tax on their worldwide income. The CRA has no view on where Canadian businesses or individuals invest so long as they report their income and pay taxes as required under Canada’s tax laws. The CRA’s concern lies with the abusive use of tax havens; i.e., when taxpayers use bank secrecy laws, or the absence of effective exchange of information with other countries, to conceal assets and income that should be taxed.

The abusive use of tax havens is an element of what is known as “aggressive tax planning”. Aggressive tax planning consists of transactions that offend the object and spirit of the Income Tax Act, the Excise Tax Act, or of treaties. As part of the strategy to combat aggressive tax planning, the CRA established 11 “centres of expertise” across the country in 2005-2006, and created teams of experts from the specialized audit areas of international tax and tax avoidance to, among other things, combat aggressive tax planning and the inappropriate use of tax havens and tax shelters, both domestic and international.

a) In the context mentioned above and at any given time, the CRA has a number of active audit cases of corporations whose business transactions include offshore jurisdictions (though not necessarily lower rate jurisdictions and/or tax havens). As of the end of November 2006, there were 305 such audits underway. (Please note that the CRA uses the term “investigations” to describe suspected cases of criminal tax fraud, whereas “audits” are carried out to ensure compliance with tax laws.)

b) In this context, the CRA refers to “additional taxes assessed” rather than “recoverable taxes”. The value of additional taxes assessed is only known when audits are completed. In 2005-2006, the CRA assessed additional taxes of $174 million directly related to aggressive international tax planning and, in the first six months of 2006 2007, the CRA assessed additional taxes of $215 million.

c) As the number of audits, auditors, and the amount of time spent each day on any specific file can vary at any given time, the CRA does not monitor the cost per day of carrying out its compliance activities. Rather, the CRA captures the total audit time on a file.

d) While the CRA does capture information on the component parts of additional tax assessed for each completed audit, it does not aggregate each of the components across all 300,000 plus compliance actions each year. The CRA does report additional tax assessed in total and for each of its programs such as large business and GST/HST audits in its annual report.

It should be noted that the 2005 federal budget allowed for specific funding for the aggressive international tax planning program. In 2005-2006, the CRA began tracking results related to aggressive international tax planning separately. Statistics are not available for years prior to 2005.

During 2005-2006, the CRA assessed additional taxes of $174 million directly related to aggressive international tax planning and, in the first six months of 2006 2007, the CRA assessed additional taxes of $215 million.

[Committees of the House, December 12th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, I have a comment and then a question for the hon. member.

The member noted he had been doing a lot of reading. I read a blog titled “Small Dead Animals” and I ask him to look at it. There is a comment in the blog about the Canadian Wheat Board by Larry Weber from Weber Commodities in Saskatoon. He is a noted marketing authority. I would like my colleague to have a look at that website and read the comments. After he does, I would be interested in hearing back from him.

How many farmer producers of wheat and barley are in his riding?

[Certificates of Nomination, December 5th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to table this nomination on behalf of the Prime Minister today. It is pursuant to Standing Order 111(1). It is a referral to the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics. It is a certificate of nomination for the Information Commissioner.

[Privilege, November 1st, 2006]

No, it was after because he said something to me about Mayor Basil Stewart, and what he had told him after he met with me.

It is false. The numbers were given to me by Revenue Canada officials.

[Privilege, November 1st, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, the numbers I received from my officials in Revenue Canada were the numbers that were given. The member opposite never spoke to me until after the mayor of Summerside visited me.

[Canada Revenue Agency, October 31st, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, the MP from Summerside and his Liberal colleagues have never come directly to me with any questions or concerns, but I am not surprised.

Under the Liberal government, CRA jobs were lost in P.E.I. and local Liberals were silent. In fact, since 1999, the Liberals cut 459 CRA positions in Summerside alone. Shame on the Liberals for their record and shame on them for trying to mislead those in Summerside, causing all excellent employees concern.

[National Revenue, October 6th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, in 13 years the Liberal government was unable to secure a corporate tax agreement with the province of Ontario. This new Conservative government has been working hard with Ontario and we are pleased to announce today that we have reached an agreement on the collection of corporate taxes with the province of Ontario.

The Canada Revenue Agency will now collect all corporate and personal taxes on behalf of the Ontario government. Once again, this government is delivering results where the Liberals could not.

[Criminal Code, October 2nd, 2006]

Yes, blames me for not being a lawyer, saying negative things. I am here to do a job for my constituents, and they want street racing banned.

[Criminal Code, October 2nd, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, I came here for a purpose. I take great offence with my colleague across the way, when he accused me--