Finance committee  Again, I would say the discrepancy in time allowed is driven by the complexity of the case and the burden of proof, as opposed to any type of preference or softness on the part of CRA.

Finance committee  Thank you. Factually, a more complex audit will take more time, and factually, when the CRA has the onus of proof, it needs to gather evidence that will withstand a challenge in court. It does take more time because we think it's in the Crown's best interest. That's what the OA

Finance committee  I'll repeat the answer quickly in English that I provided previously in French, which is that the CRA did become aware of the situation and we are pursuing additional facts. To the extent that we can get facts and data, we will apply whatever consequences we can legislatively. I

Finance committee  If you want to know globally what all tax authorities have done, I'll have to get back to you with a written answer.

Finance committee  Again, I think I'm going to choose to go after some of the premises in the question. I think it's true that we've had some overzealous auditors who have asked too many questions of small business, and I talked about our interest in shifting the culture of towards empathy and gett

Finance committee  As a former interim director of the Summerside tax centre, sir, I will find out. I would presume that there is a good reason why that hasn't been restored, but that question will be in the next email I send today.

Finance committee  The CRA continues to enjoy significant investment, so lack of funding is not a preoccupation. We've recently received additional funding for legal support from colleagues at the Department of Justice. I mentioned earlier the 140 additional lawyers, so that's certainly important.

Finance committee  My message is that we have joined the team already working on this file. We are trying to gather the best information available. As we gather the facts to the extent possible, we will move forward and determine the consequences based on those facts.

Finance committee  As a quick answer, we have a real estate program, which is probably broader than just abuse. That program has yielded $1 billion over the last four or five years, mainly focused on the Lower Mainland of B.C. and the GTA. However, that would be a lot of things, including sales tax

Finance committee  It certainly would be my observation that the stakes are high enough. If somebody is facing a $40-million bill, $4 million in legal fees to either reduce that or have it go away seems reasonable. We're seeing more and more cases where taxpayers are spending $5 million, $10 milli

Finance committee  I do want to sincerely answer your question. I feel, at some level, it's the combination of the tools. If you put pressure in one direction, that's not enough, but it's the cumulative pressure of all of those things.... I also think—and again this is tough to measure—people start

Finance committee  I would say any automatic data exchange where CRA is getting data from a third party—we're getting it automatically and across the board, and people know we have the data—kind of has a chilling effect.

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Perhaps I will make a start. My colleagues might come in afterwards. follow me. Again, I think it's the premise of the question. Aggressive taxpayers are certainly “voting” by coming in increasing numbers to make voluntary disclosures. They are disclosing

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Let's start with one of the premises, which was COVID. During COVID, my colleague Alex MacLean, who looks after international tax and large business, never stopped. They never downtooled those audits. We continued to focus on those taxpayers while giving si

Finance committee  I might start. It's very awkward, because the Department of Finance holds the pen, but we are sometimes sitting on the front line of how the treaties play out. I would observe, one, because we've been more active internationally, the collections component and the number of treati