Finance committee  Certainly. That would be fine. Again, we are here to talk about Bill S-4, which includes two new or revised income tax agreements with other jurisdictions. Canada actually has one of the most extensive networks of income tax treaties in the world, with 92 treaties currently in

Public Accounts committee  Thank you, Chair. I have two comments. First, again trying to stay clear of any discussion of any particular taxpayer's circumstances, I think there is a world of difference between the type of situation that the honourable member raised abstractly in his initial question, and t

Public Accounts committee  Very briefly, I'll make two points again. It seems I always have two points. One is that there is a concern with the terms of the tax burden borne through international transactions, and the OECD, of which Canada is a part, is trying to see if something can be done to minimize ta

Public Accounts committee  I hope it's all right if I respond in English. There is some detail that I would like to add that I wouldn't provide very well in French, I'm afraid. First of all, to the point that there are large corporations that are evading taxes, I think that's, let me say, unlikely to be t

Public Accounts committee  I'll ask my colleague Alex to confirm, but I believe it's the taxation year commencing after the date of the budget.

Public Accounts committee  Thank you for this follow-up question, because it was a comment I was hoping to jump in on earlier. I don't think the fact that a transaction is not actually found by the CRA or by the courts to work, if you will, technically, makes it tax evasion. There may be circumstances in

Public Accounts committee  The answer is yes. It has been advanced. In fact, it was enacted into law last fall as part of the budget measures—

Public Accounts committee  I'm sorry. I'm mixing up my years. It was in 2014. It's in Bill C-43 this year, which has passed in the House of Commons, and is now in the Senate.

Public Accounts committee  That's correct, Mr. Chair.

Finance committee  I'm just offering it as a consideration, that there is a lot of reporting already done and that the expressed notification is not provided today.

Finance committee  As my colleague said, the curing procedures already require contact with a client to find out whether information that indicates a U.S. connection is actually supportive of a U.S. connection. There is that interaction already in many cases.

Finance committee  I think it doesn't matter for the sake of the agreement whether we're agnostic or not.

Finance committee  Just putting aside the question of whether it's legally possible, we talked about that before and I didn't have an answer for you. I guess the question is sort of on the practical feasibility. I would make note that there already exists, and has for some time existed, reporting

Finance committee  —and that that's going to be provided to U.S. tax authorities and if the same thing is done with respect to U.S. citizens resident in Canada, then I suppose people have constructive notice, at least, of that. Whether or not that could actually be made explicit and have the banks

Finance committee  It would reduce it to a single option; that is, they would not be able to collect that information on account opening if the account was less than $50,000. That might entail higher costs for them and for their customers if they only are able to do it later on.