Finance committee  I'm not really in a position to comment on proposals, particularly prior to a budget, but I would say that we're, of course, in the process of working on the issues that were outlined in the minister's mandate letter, in preparation for providing advice to the government in the context of the budget.

Finance committee  I can't really comment on the Parliamentary Budget Officer's numbers. I'd have to go back and look at the methodology used, but I will commit to the committee to come back to you with our comments on that report.

Finance committee  These kinds of evaluations are very sensitive to how you measure them, what the baseline is and what assumptions you use. On that basis, I don't really want to comment on whether I agree with that assessment or not.

Finance committee  The department continues to examine the corporate tax system. It continues to examine issues on a multilateral basis with the OECD and to implement measures to protect the base. We look at specific arrangements that we consider contrary to the policy, and we bring forward measures in every budget to address those.

Finance committee  Thank you for your question. Perhaps I'll begin by underlining the work we do multilaterally with the OECD. For a number of years now, the OECD has been engaged in an exercise about base erosion and profit shifting. That exercise laid out certain mandatory approaches, certain common approaches, and so on.

Finance committee  I'm not going to comment on particular taxpayers, but I'd begin by saying that there is nothing wrong in principle with deducting interest. That's all part of the calculation of income. Where that becomes a challenge is where debt is allocated between jurisdictions, which reduces the tax base of a particular jurisdiction at the expense of another, and so on.

Finance committee  Yes, I'd be pleased to do that. In December the government announced a phased-in increase of the basic personal amount, as we mentioned earlier, and the equivalent amounts for spouses and eligible dependants. That will increase steadily to $15,000, up from about $12,000, I believe.

Finance committee  It's somewhat challenging to compare. There are a number of ways to compare the tax burden overall. For example, you can look at the percentage of GDP that the tax revenues represent. Canada is at about 32.6% of GDP. That's total taxes, federal and provincial. France is at 46%. The U.S. is somewhat lower, at 25%.

Finance committee  I don't believe so. I think that, when you look at the assumptions around the CPI.... The basic personal amount prior to the change and in the future will be indexed for inflation.

Finance committee  I believe there's a slight difference there, but it's not material.

Finance committee  I'm sure there is, but I don't have that information.

Finance committee  Perhaps I can give some background on my understanding of those numbers. I believe that the costing of the platform was based on the basic personal amount only. There are essentially three credits: the basic personal amount, the eligible dependant credit and the spousal amount, which are equivalent.

Finance committee  That would be...yes.

Finance committee  What I'm saying is that the numbers are derived from different data sources, which sometimes give somewhat different results.

Finance committee  It's just over $6 billion, I believe.