Finance committee  No, it's actually only in one official language.

Finance committee  The other thing we do is a tax policy, which I brought for you, Mr. Chair. I would be happy to distribute it to the other members of the committee.

Finance committee  What I will say is that the last bill was introduced in 2001, so it's been 12 years, right? Before that, the Department of Finance had followed, for a few years, the process of bringing bills forward on a more regular basis. Then this came along. I'd say there are a lot of reas

Finance committee  One thing you can take some comfort from is that the community is really helping you to do your work.

Finance committee  It could happen very quickly. It could happen in days or it could take weeks.

Finance committee  Mr. Chair, I'd just like to volunteer that at the Canadian Tax Foundation's annual conference in November, Tim Wach, a former finance official who now works with Gowlings, did a presentation on the technical bill. If the committee members would like to see the presentation, I wou

Finance committee  Gabe and I are not on opposite ends, but I'm a bit more skeptical about how much we can actually simplify the legislation. There's a trade-off between fairness and simplicity, and that happens every day. If you have a taxpayer before you, and you ask that taxpayer if he would rat

Finance committee  You know what? I think we need to strive for greater simplicity. That's absolutely a worthy goal. But in my 30 years' experience in this profession, I've only seen the act grow in complexity. I think the professions are being a bit disingenuous if they don't take some responsib

Finance committee  Back to what this committee can do, I think it might be useful to have a timetable of when we're going to check in with the Department of Finance on technical legislation at a specific time of year. The fall is an excellent time of year to do that, particularly given their worklo

Finance committee  No, I think the process works very well. I think Finance is open to consultation and that's a positive. Finance doesn't always agree with the input they receive, but this is complicated stuff and reasonable people have differing views.

Finance committee  To answer your last question first, a comfort letter does not have the force of law. You people have the force of law, and until you enact it, they are only comfort. That's why they're aptly named. The thing that's very good about the system we have, Ms. Nash, is that over hist

Finance committee  Gabe and I have talked about this a little bit in terms of the need for clarity around whether we're talking about tax avoidance or tax evasion. Tax havens are used for all kinds of purposes. Some of them are less than desirable for the tax system and fall into the evasion camp.

Finance committee  Those who are willing comply.

Finance committee  Mr. McCallum, I would agree with that too. I think some of the problems have been that the taxpayers have found it convenient to call the agency when they have questions. They've had a line where they've spent a lot of resources answering those questions. They've changed their ap

Finance committee  I agree that annually would be good. It may not always be possible to do it annually, but certainly I would say there's no reason why we couldn't see it every two years. I think annually would be a good target.