Finance committee  That's correct, Mr. Chairman. I'm the general director of the tax policy branch in the Department of Finance. I'm joined by my colleague, Lawrence Purdy, who is the senior chief of the tax legislation division in the Department of Finance's tax policy branch. We don't have any

Finance committee  I believe the issue of interest deductibility has been examined on a number of occasions. The Auditor General had occasion to mention it specifically with some detail in 1992 and 2002. The technical committee on business taxation, the so-called Mintz committee, looked into it and

Finance committee  Certainly changes have occurred to the tax system and the economy generally in that time. One change in particular that I would point to is the rather dramatic reduction in our tax rate since that report was issued. I made the comment before a committee hearing on another matter

Finance committee  For this purpose—a low-tax jurisdiction when talking in the context of interest deductibility—what matters is that there's a low-tax jurisdiction with which we have a tax treaty. That's what makes a double dip work.

Finance committee  Its tax rate is lower than ours.

Finance committee  I think the question generally suggests the correct answer. With respect to the U.S. and Japan, and I'd add the U.K., which are probably the three largest countries that have a system whereby on foreign earnings--and we're talking all within the multinational group, not individua

Finance committee  I'd love to give you a single yes or no to that, but the answer is that the change will restrict interest deductions in the future for Canadian companies where they would have been allowed to take an interest deduction in the past. So just viewed in that narrow perspective, it's

Finance committee  Yes. Where it places Canada vis-à-vis other countries, such as the U.S., the U.K., and Japan, will depend on what happens. If the money is being brought home and there's more money being earned by the foreign affiliate than the interest expense associated with it, our regime is

Finance committee  I believe that's right, and to reference Mr. Carney's remarks, on the whole there have been some very dramatic changes trying to make Canada's system overall more competitive. Our corporate tax rates at the beginning of this millennium were 50% higher than they'll be a decade aft

Finance committee  I apologize for answering a question with a question, but it seems to me, following Mr. Carney's remarks, that as far as a sales tax or consumption tax in Canada is concerned, we have neutrality in the system today. Whether a good is produced in Canada or produced in China, when

Finance committee  I believe the considerations mentioned by Mr. Poschmann are relevant. It has also been noted that real estate investment trusts have largely obtained recognition internationally. The government of the day made changes explicitly for the purpose of facilitating real estate investm

Finance committee  Mr. Chairman, I believe the question was answered previously with the letter from the deputy minister to the chair of—

Finance committee  I'm verifying the date, February 6. I'm saying that advice to this government or the previous governments was not something that we're proposing to—

Finance committee  I will make a comment in that respect. My colleague is the leading expert in the department on the revenue estimates that have been put together on this. But in some respects, it seems to me that the market has actually opined on this since our announcement. The only change that

Finance committee  I'm not suggesting that the markets signed on to the Department of Finance over anyone else. I'm really expressing the view, which the Governor of the Bank of Canada articulated when he was here the other day, that you can take the effect, the market impact, as a result of the ch