Finance committee  To answer your question, for this commission I studied more about the Canada-Hong Kong treaty, as I explained earlier. I know we have to sign an agreement to avoid double taxation, because there is taxation on business income in Hong Kong, but I find it sad that the treaty we put

Finance committee  Thank you for your question. Time will tell how China will react. The tax regime in Taiwan and Hong Kong seems to be more favourable than the one in China. In Hong Kong, for instance, dividends, interest income and capital gains are not taxed. No tax is deducted at source. This

Finance committee  Thank you for your question. Earlier I heard finance department officials answer your question. You had asked whether the current convention between Canada and Hong Kong was fully functional and legal. I know that the Canada Revenue Agency has given its interpretation of this. I

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Ladies and gentlemen, Canadians, my name is Brigitte Alepin. I am a Tax Expert, tax policy specialist, author, and scriptwriter. Since I was invited on short notice, I will focus on my analysis of the agreement with Hong Kong. I also looked briefly at the

Finance committee  Yes, it is a step in the right direction. However, I would like to make two comments about this issue, although I made one of them earlier. I find that the tax system is sending a mixed message. On the one hand, the investigative measures are extremely tough and restrictive for

Finance committee  Yes, that should concern us more. You are saying that we might need to give them some candy to come to Canada. That's all true. That is why, at the end of the day, once we have gone through all the stages in detaxing multinationals and finished talking about the tax competition t

Finance committee  Right now, this is a problem in Quebec, Canada and elsewhere in the world. I see the problem, but it is an international problem now. When we made the first tax cut announcements 10 years ago, we were all proud, because we thought Canada was going to be the most tax-competitive c

Finance committee  It may simply be publicity to tell the world that Canada has become one of the top destinations for U.S. tax inversions, just like Ireland, Switzerland and the Bahamas. As such, it does not create a lot of jobs. It is more a journal entry transaction than anything else.

Finance committee  Yes, and to explain it, let me give you an example. I will try to make you understand how completely distorted the system has become. For instance, Canadians could use all the tax mechanisms Canada has to start up a multinational. During the lifespan of the multinational, their

Finance committee  As I said earlier, in the past, we have noticed that little things in the voluntary disclosure program could be improved. Overall, the program works very well and it is important to reach out to taxpayers who have used tax avoidance. Attracting them in this way is smart. This sys

Finance committee  Thank you for your question. In 2004, when I started looking at how tax systems were adapting to globalization, Canada had not taken a position yet. Canada had not yet shown what type of tax competitor it would become. I must say that I am a little surprised to see Canada react

Finance committee  That, of course, is a very good question. In terms of private foundations, it is easy. I think the simplest way, and in fact there is one, is to impose additional obligations on private foundations in the charitable sector. Right now, we cannot really say that these foundations

Finance committee  The voluntary disclosure program is a good program, although it can be improved in some ways. I am pleased that the federal and provincial governments are doing something along these lines. To go even further down the road of detaxing Canadian multinationals, I will say this. Ri

Finance committee  Ladies and gentlemen of the Parliament of Canada, distinguished members of the Standing Committee on Finance, Ms. Gilliland, Ms. Lafrance, thank you for this invitation. I have been invited to participate in the pre-budget consultations on how to improve Canada's taxation system