International Trade committee  Thank you for inviting the Canada Revenue Agency to appear before this committee on the subject of Bill C-46. My name is Richard Montroy. I am the deputy assistant commissioner for the compliance programs branch in the Canada Revenue Agency. With me today are Mr. Brian McCauley,

International Trade committee  If the question is whether we believe tax treaties are the way to go, Canada's vast network of tax treaties includes the recently amended article 26, which addresses the exchange of information. Most if not all countries are striving to achieve the OECD standards of effective exc

International Trade committee  I stand corrected; it was Budget 2007 and not 2008. I apologize.

International Trade committee  Yes, that is correct.

International Trade committee  Yes.

International Trade committee  In 2007, the government's new policy aimed to treat dividends brought back from certain countries the same way as dividends brought back from the Bahamas, or other countries which had tax treaties with Canada. Budget 2007 simply confirmed that countries wanting to conclude tax in

International Trade committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. It was the Department of Finance that wrote the letter to Panama. If my memory is correct, this occurred last July. The purpose of this letter was to invite Panama to negotiate a tax information exchange agreement. I do not believe that it is unusual for a

International Trade committee  I will be brief. I was not here on November 3, and I cannot really answer for Mr. Castonguay. However, I believe that Mr. Castonguay meant that not only must Panama sign 12 tax information exchange agreements, it must also meet the criteria set out by the OECD, which were approv

International Trade committee  That's correct, yes.

International Trade committee  Yes.

International Trade committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Finance committee  I was going to attempt to answer the first part of your question, Mr. Chair. If I understand the question correctly, it seemed to infer that we were farming out to the outside public the audit workload that the CRA would undertake. To my knowledge, we have never farmed out audit

Finance committee  The voluntary disclosure program originated in 1973. It has existed in that form for a long time. We have made changes over the years to the program. As recently as this past year, we looked to make sure that our program continued to meet its objectives. As Madame Ricard pointe

Finance committee  The voluntary disclosure program was reviewed this year, as I pointed out, and we feel that it's a very successful program. When someone comes to the CRA, they come on a no name basis, but they have to provide all the information needed. Once we agree to the voluntary disclosure,

Finance committee  Thank you. Mr. Chair, when we receive a file, we assess the evidence and try to obtain the best possible proof. At one point, we consult with our colleagues at the Department of Justice to ensure that we have the evidence needed to support our case and engage criminal proceeding