On February 23, 2021, President Debi Daviau testified before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance (FINA) about our concerns with Bill C-224, which would create a single tax return for Quebecers to be processed by Revenu Québec.
She outlined the reasons why we oppose the bill:
- It will have a negative financial impact on taxpayers across Canada
- It will not result in tax processing efficiencies for residents of Quebec
- It’s a step backward in the fight against tax evasion
- It’s a move away from tax fairness
- It will lead to the loss of high-quality jobs in Shawinigan and Jonquière, two smaller provincial communities already hard hit by the pandemic
We are not the only ones to take this position.
Academic and expert literature on this issue demonstrates that there is no clear evidence that decentralization of Canadian tax administration to a provincial authority would result in greater aggregate savings, efficiency, compliance or accountability as compared to centralizing the administration of provincial taxes at the CRA.
Bill C-224 should not be adopted. A better way to go, if we want less paperwork, a lighter tax filing burden on individuals, and a guarantee that people get the benefits they are entitled to, would be automatic tax filing. This is something the Trudeau government has committed to implementing and we support that initiative. The CRA has the capacity to effectively process Quebec taxes, as it already does for the other provinces.
We continue to meet virtually with Members of Parliament on this issue and we will report back to our members on the status of the bill in the weeks ahead.