Speech (House debate)

{
    "time": "2017-06-14 23:55:00",
    "attribution": {
        "en": "Ms. Kamal Khera (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Revenue, Lib.)",
        "fr": "Mme Kamal Khera (secr\u00e9taire parlementaire de la ministre du Revenu national, Lib.)"
    },
    "content": {
        "en": "<p data-HoCid=\"4956350\" data-originallang=\"en\">Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my hon. colleague for raising this extremely important question, and I welcome the opportunity to speak about the actions that the government and the Canada Revenue Agency have taken to crack down on offshore tax evasion and aggressive tax avoidance.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"4956351\" data-originallang=\"en\">Court records show that it is through the efforts of the agency that the KPMG offshore tax avoidance scheme was discovered and that many of its participants have already been identified. On November 29, 2016, the Federal Court dismissed with cost a KPMG motion challenging the judicial order allowing the<a data-HoCid=\"214329\" href=\"/politicians/diane-lebouthillier/\" title=\"Diane Lebouthillier\">Minister of National Revenue</a> to request client information from KPMG. It remains the government's position that all participants in this tax avoidance scheme must be identified and brought into full compliance with their tax obligations. </p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"4956352\" data-originallang=\"en\">The confidentiality provisions of the Income Tax Act prevent the CRA from discussing the details of specific cases related to a particular individual or group of individuals beyond what is already on public record, but what I can tell the member is that the litigation uses significant financial and judicial resources with no guarantee of achieving a desired outcome. The CRA takes all steps available to meet its obligations to recover all taxes owed to the crown and to resolve issues before the court in a timely manner. In addition, it is well known that audits and investigations can take months or years to complete, depending on factors such as the complexity of the cases, the number of taxpayers involved, the availability of information and evidence, co-operation from taxpayers, and the various legal tools necessary to establish a case.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"4956353\" data-originallang=\"en\">Make no mistake: our government continues to ramp up its actions to crack down on offshore tax evasion and aggressive tax avoidance. Our government has committed close to $1 billion to cracking down on tax evasion and combatting tax avoidance. By focusing resources in the areas of highest risk both domestically and internationally, and with increased information-gathering capabilities, the CRA now has access to more information than ever before. </p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"4956354\" data-originallang=\"en\">Using intelligence gathered through these tools and using experienced audit and investigation teams, the CRA has a robust system in place to tackle tax evasion and aggressive tax avoidance on many fronts. </p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"4956355\" data-originallang=\"en\">That is what Canadians expect of their government, and that is exactly what we will continue to deliver for them.</p>",
        "fr": "<p data-HoCid=\"4956350\" data-originallang=\"en\">Monsieur le Pr\u00e9sident, je remercie ma coll\u00e8gue d'avoir soulev\u00e9 cette question extr\u00eamement importante, car elle me donne l'occasion de parler de tout ce que font le gouvernement et l'Agence du revenu du Canada pour s\u00e9vir contre l'\u00e9vasion fiscale \u00e0 l'\u00e9tranger et l'\u00e9vitement fiscal.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"4956351\" data-originallang=\"en\">Comme on peut le constater \u00e0 la lecture des d\u00e9cisions des tribunaux, c'est gr\u00e2ce aux efforts de l'Agence que le stratag\u00e8me d'\u00e9vasion fiscale mis au point par KPMG a \u00e9t\u00e9 mis au jour et que bon nombre de ses b\u00e9n\u00e9ficiaires ont d\u00e9j\u00e0 pu \u00eatre identifi\u00e9s. Le 29 novembre 2016, la Cour f\u00e9d\u00e9rale a rejet\u00e9 avec d\u00e9pens la requ\u00eate de KPMG visant \u00e0 contester l'ordonnance qui autorisait la <a data-HoCid=\"214329\" href=\"/politicians/diane-lebouthillier/\" title=\"Diane Lebouthillier\">ministre du Revenu national</a> \u00e0 demander \u00e0 KPMG de lui fournir les coordonn\u00e9es de ses clients. La position du gouvernement n'a pas chang\u00e9: tous ceux qui ont pris part \u00e0 ce stratag\u00e8me doivent \u00eatre identifi\u00e9s et ils devront ensuite se conformer \u00e0 la totalit\u00e9 de leurs obligations fiscales.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"4956352\" data-originallang=\"en\">Les dispositions de confidentialit\u00e9 de la Loi de l'imp\u00f4t sur le revenu emp\u00eachent l'Agence de discuter en d\u00e9tail du dossier d'un particulier ou d'un groupe au-del\u00e0 de ce qui est d\u00e9j\u00e0 du domaine public, mais je peux assurer \u00e0 la d\u00e9put\u00e9e que les services juridiques du minist\u00e8re ne l\u00e9sinent jamais sur les ressources financi\u00e8res et judiciaires, m\u00eame quand ils n'ont aucune garantie que leurs d\u00e9marches seront fructueuses. L'Agence du revenu du Canada fait tout ce qui est n\u00e9cessaire pour honorer ses obligations et recouvrer toutes les sommes qui sont dues \u00e0 l'\u00c9tat et pour conclure rapidement les causes port\u00e9es devant les tribunaux. Je n'apprendrai par ailleurs rien \u00e0 personne en disant que, selon les circonstances \u2014 complexit\u00e9 du cas, nombre de contribuables en cause, disponibilit\u00e9 de l'information et de la preuve, collaboration des contribuables vis\u00e9s, outils juridiques n\u00e9cessaires pour monter un dossier, et cetera \u2014, les v\u00e9rifications et les enqu\u00eates peuvent prendre des mois, voire des ann\u00e9es, avant d'aboutir.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"4956353\" data-originallang=\"en\">Qu'on ne s'y trompe pas: le gouvernement continue d'intensifier sa lutte contre l'\u00e9vasion fiscale \u00e0 l'\u00e9tranger et l'\u00e9vitement fiscal abusif. Nous avons consacr\u00e9 pr\u00e8s de 1 milliard de dollars \u00e0 la lutte contre l'\u00e9vasion fiscale et l'\u00e9vitement fiscal. En concentrant les ressources dans les secteurs qui pr\u00e9sentent les risques les plus \u00e9lev\u00e9s au Canada et \u00e0 l'\u00e9tranger et dans l'am\u00e9lioration des capacit\u00e9s de collecte d'information, l'Agence du revenu du Canada a acc\u00e8s \u00e0 plus de renseignements que jamais auparavant.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"4956354\" data-originallang=\"en\">Gr\u00e2ce aux renseignements recueillis par ces outils et au recours \u00e0 des \u00e9quipes chevronn\u00e9es de v\u00e9rification et d'enqu\u00eate, l'Agence du revenu du Canada profite d'un syst\u00e8me robuste qui lui permet de lutter sur plusieurs fronts contre l'\u00e9vasion fiscale et l'\u00e9vitement fiscal abusif.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"4956355\" data-originallang=\"en\">Voil\u00e0 ce \u00e0 quoi s'attendent les Canadiens du gouvernement. C'est exactement ce que nous continuerons \u00e0 leur offrir.</p>"
    },
    "url": "/debates/2017/6/14/kamal-khera-1/",
    "politician_url": "/politicians/kamal-khera/",
    "politician_membership_url": "/politicians/memberships/4194/",
    "procedural": false,
    "source_id": "9621054",
    "h1": {
        "en": "Adjournment Proceedings",
        "fr": "Motion D'Ajournement"
    },
    "h2": {
        "en": "Canada Revenue Agency",
        "fr": ""
    },
    "document_url": "/debates/2017/6/14/",
    "related": {
        "document_speeches_url": "/speeches/?document=%2Fdebates%2F2017%2F6%2F14%2F"
    }
}