Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, it is. As you speak of tax preparers, yes, that is a category we examine.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Well, typically when issues arise and we have concerns with respect to non-compliance with tax statutes by a particular group--and in this case we've had, over the years, some focus on unscrupulous tax preparers because they've emerged, if you wish, as a concern, and there have b

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Mr. Chairman, I would like to thank you for this opportunity to appear before the committee today. My name is Denis Meunier. I am the Director General of the Enforcement and Disclosures Directorate in the Compliance Programs Branch of the Canada Revenue Agency. The Canada Reven

Finance committee  Thank you. As Ms. Lafleur so clearly stated, in the case of transactions reported to FINTRAC, no threshold applies. Therefore, a FINTRAC official to whom a transaction is disclosed may find himself dealing with either small or large transactions. The information disclosed can va

Finance committee  Indeed, but it's very clear that given the way in which the amendment is worded, it changes the whole spirit of the clause. CRA would have an advantage over law enforcement agencies, which would be somewhat inequitable. The aim of the amendment, namely to facilitate the exchange

Finance committee  Thank you. As you so clearly stated, Madam, ...

Finance committee  I'm sorry, Mr. Chair. I'm Denis Meunier. I'm the director general of enforcement and disclosures at the Canada Revenue Agency.

Finance committee  A couple of hundred criminal investigations are conducted every year, and obviously we concentrate on the ones that are most egregious to the tax system. There is a difference between audits conducted in a civil environment and criminal investigations.

Finance committee  No.

Finance committee  You suggest in the case of audit, and that's not the purpose of the legislation, to query FINTRAC for civil purposes. In this case, it's specifically in the context of FINTRAC providing us with information, particularly with respect to tax evasion, and in most cases it's somethin

Finance committee  Perhaps I may answer that. The information that is proposed in the legislation to expand the context, and particularly a number of elements that are included there, such as the reasons for suspicion, the indicators, additional information with respect to who is involved in regar

Finance committee  The way FINTRAC is set up, it's not a query system. For instance, when we pursue a criminal investigation we do have the opportunity to provide to FINTRAC a voluntary information report that would give some outline with respect to criminal investigation. Our legislation, the Inco

Finance committee  In answer to your question, we believe that the bill, by expanding the number of data elements that are providing additional designated information in a disclosure, will be helpful to investigative bodies, including the CRA. And certainly--