Finance committee  I'm not an expert in this area. However, I would say that in its 2013 budget, the government showed that it intends to hold consultations on the issue of beneficial owners of companies so that we can one day revise our statutes and meet international standards. In the case of co

Finance committee  I don't have information on that. I think the Canada Revenue Agency would have an answer to that question, but I can't—

Finance committee  On automatic exchange, first of all, the revenue agencies under the treaties are tasked with the administration of the treaties, and they can enter into agreements among themselves—MOUs—on any aspect relevant to the administration of the treaty. In most cases, automatic exchange

Finance committee  Yes, absolutely.

Finance committee  The issue you are raising has been discussed in The Economist and in other publications. I think that some governments, including our own, have voiced concerns about this. The OECD has undertaken some very serious and very ambitious work to determine what could be done in this re

Finance committee  Not really. First of all, Canada Revenue Agency is responsible for applying tax treaties. Obviously, if there are problems with one treaty in particular, the agency brings it to our attention. That is why treaties can be renegotiated if some facets aren't clear or a new problem a

Finance committee  I think the people at CRA are able to tell us if the treaty is working as expected or if there are some interpretation issues at the start. We can be made aware of it at that point.

Finance committee  In the cases where we do have explicit limitation in our treaties, it's because the other side wasn't prepared to go beyond on demand, and they wouldn't explain whether it was because they couldn't access the information. For them, they were prepared to go to the TIEA standard, w

Finance committee  The problem you are referring to has to do with tax avoidance, meaning planning to ensure that some income is sent to places with low or no taxation. That refers to what I was talking about earlier. In English we call it base erosion and profit shifting. Is a multilateral agreem

Finance committee  That's correct. Although it's not because you don't have a need for the information that you cannot provide it, but the automatic exchange of information is about the systematic collection of information in order to share it.

Finance committee  Obviously, it is different.

Finance committee  In the case of Namibia, we began in 2005 and finished in 2006, when I arrived. In the case of Serbia, negotiations began in 2003 and also concluded when I took up my position. The negotiations with Poland began in 2008 and lasted two years. In the case of Hong Kong, we began i

Finance committee  Of the six, two explicitly provide that it will be on-demand only. For the others, in the case of Poland it doesn't say anything. If the Canada Revenue Agency thought it were worthwhile to entertain automatic information exchange with Poland, based on the criteria I identified

Finance committee  I think Serbia is also open to....

Finance committee  Namibia is open, yes. There's no restriction.