Public Accounts committee  I am also a lawyer, so I am very familiar with professional privilege. If we suspect that something is not entirely aboveboard, we have several means at our disposal to collect information. I spoke about information exchanges with other countries, but as of next year, we will al

Public Accounts committee  That is a very good question which is often highlighted in the media. The problem is trying to calculate tax evasion and determine how much money the government is not taking in because of tax evasion. It is quite hard to be able to say with certainty what we do not know. I woul

Public Accounts committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would say that it's pretty standard practice in the compliance world to always examine the cost-benefit ratio. We have all sorts of statistics in the agency that show that, if you invest one dollar in a certain field, you get a rate of return that depends

Public Accounts committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Budget 2013 included a number of measures that will help us in the fight against offshore tax evasion. I referred to a few of them in the opening statement such as the offshore informant tax program, and the electronic funds transfers that we are currently

Public Accounts committee  The Liechtenstein bank list did not have much on those who promote tax evasion. However, it is something we see quite often these days. Fairly harsh penalties are provided for third parties who cooperate in setting up this kind of structure. I do not have the numbers in front of

Public Accounts committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. As the AG's report pointed out, at the time in 2007 when we received this list we made agreements with a number of taxpayers not to prosecute in exchange for full payment, no objection appeals, etc. Again, that was done at the time because this was the firs

Public Accounts committee  Thank you. Again, in 2007, this was the first time we'd ever received the list and there was very little information other than names and perhaps, on the odd occasion, a social insurance number, so we're basically starting from scratch. What we learned from the first list by lo

Public Accounts committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair, for the question. We have collected roughly I'll say $10 million of that total. The other $14 million is currently under appeal. So the way the rules work in the Income Tax Act is that if a taxpayer appeals or objects to an assessment we are precluded from

Public Accounts committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair, for the question. There are a number of procedures and things that have happened in recent years that help us on the offshore front. First and foremost, on the TIEA, the Tax Information Exchange Agreements that we have, we're now up to 18. As I pointed out

Public Accounts committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am here today with Ms. Gina Jelmini, who is our director of the offshore compliance division in our branch. The CRA is pleased to have the opportunity to come before the committee today to speak about the Auditor General's report, chapter 9, “Offshore B