Senator Downe wants CRA data; PBO to sue for data on tax gap
Charlottetown Senator Percy Downe is calling on the Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) to take the
Canada Revenue Agency
(CRA) to court in order to compel it to provide information necessary to calculate the tax gap, the difference between what is owed in taxes and what has actually been collected.
The CRA is required, under the Parliament of Canada Act, to supply the PBO with “free and timely access to any financial or economic data in the possession of the department that are required for the performance of (the PBO’s) mandate”.
By refusing to supply the information the PBO has repeatedly requested, the Canada Revenue Agency is in violation of both the spirit and the letter of the law, Downe said in a recent press release. He said that it is important to note that the PBO is only requesting raw data, not the personal information of any taxpayer.
“There is a long established method of resolving such disputes - it is called the court system. As it stands, the PBO has little choice but to pursue legal action against the CRA in order to compel them to provide the information he requires—and for which the CRA is obliged to provide—in order to execute his duty to Parliament,” Downe said.
In the statement he said that this time and expense could be avoided if Prime Minister Justin Trudeau directs his revenue minister to have the agency provide the information to the PBO.
“Regrettably, years of stonewalling by the CRA have prevented the PBO from making any progress in measuring the tax gap and Canadians deserve to know what citizens of other countries already know, that is, the size of their country’s tax gap, and how much money their revenue agency should be collecting.”
The senator said that the Conference Board of Canada, in its February 2017 report, estimated the tax gap to be up to $47 billion, he said. If the CRA collected that money, Canada would have no deficit, taxes could be reduced and new programs funded.
“The reason an independent analysis is required, entirely separate from any report prepared by the CRA, is quite simple: Given their recent track record, Canadians cannot trust the Canada Revenue Agency.”
For example, a recent investigation by the auditor general of the agency’s call centres revealed that its claim of 90 per cent rate of successfully connected calls (to an agent or the automated help line) was only accomplished by hanging up on 29 million calls. When that factor is taken into account, the “success” rate drops to a staggering 36 per cent.
“Similarly, the revenue minister has claimed that we have invested nearly $1 billion over the past two years to fight tax evasion. However, the minister neglects to mention the amount is to be paid out over six years and that, as of March 31, 2017, less than $40 million has actually been spent,” he said.
There are many hard-working, conscientious employees at CRA, and it “must be very discouraging for them to have a management team that operates in this consistently misleading manner.”