Finance committee  Mr. Chair, on your first point, there was a time when being audited by Revenue Canada could have been as simple as bad luck on a random selection of a file. Today it isn't bad luck; it's because the Revenue Agency has identified your file for review for a good reason or reasons.

Finance committee  If I may, Mr. Chair, we've acknowledged that we need far more refined and developed information systems to help us. The business of tax administration is the business of managing risk, and the same applies to tax collection. We have good information right now, but the information

Finance committee  I'd like to comment, Mr. Chair. One of the things the agency is taking a hard look at, as we do what all modern organizations have to do, which is look at the right critical mass necessary to deliver a service.... We have the good fortune of having such a terrific, competent, di

Finance committee  Mr. Chair, I too am familiar with a number of the studies that attempt to associate the level of taxation with the level of non-compliance. I think one thing that is useful for committee members to acknowledge, though, or to understand, is that a change in the tax rate doesn't im

Finance committee  First of all, we have made a number of our core documents available in different languages, to different groups in Canada. We also, for instance, have a record of our employees' language abilities so that we can arrange to converse with a taxpayer in the language of his or her ch

Finance committee  With permission, Mr. Chair, we'd ask John Kowalski, the acting deputy assistant commissioner of compliance programs, with responsibility for the underground economy, to answer this question.

Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chair, the points are taken from the member, but I think we have to keep the whole thing in mind as well, in fairness: 95% of the tax debts are paid. And that doesn't happen by accident; it happens—

Public Accounts committee  I understand that, but the singular focus on what is not collected does unfair service to the work that is done to collect what is collected. We can't lose sight of the entire amount of accounts receivable and how they are managed.

Public Accounts committee  I'll just repeat what has been stated before. Where we have deficiencies—and we acknowledge those deficiencies—we are developing plans to fill the gaps. We do not have all the gaps filled yet.

Public Accounts committee  I think generally we do, Mr. Chair. Every year, through our experience, and for instance, as we develop the vision and do the work on the information systems and so on, we may identify additional needs. It's standard practice that we would raise those with the Department of Fina

Public Accounts committee  If I may clarify regarding the example you used of $500 owed to the agency, we pay the province the value of the assessment under the tax collection agreement. They get the $500 right away. Of course, if they only pay $300 initially, the first order of business is to establish an

Public Accounts committee  Our plan, Mr. Chair, is designed to improve the overall performance of the collections program regardless of economic plight.

Public Accounts committee  My general understanding is that an outstanding amount of tax debt in that range is not unusual for types of businesses. What makes us unusual is the sheer volume--$18 billion is $18 billion. It's a difficult number to ignore, even if it is only 5% or 6% of the total amount that

Public Accounts committee  That would be everything. That would be moneys recovered as well as debts written off.

Public Accounts committee  You're referring to the views of an individual, and I can tell you that the agency sets performance standards for all its programs. Individual senior executives such as Mr. Proulx are accountable in terms of achieving specific outcomes, both in terms of core production and strate