Mr. Speaker, Return to Written Question 11-14(3) asked by Mr. Dent to the Minister of Finance concerning compliance audits of Northwest Territories businesses.

Q.1Twelve field audits have been performed on collectors; in addition to these, the government performs desk audits on all registrants once a year on receipt of their annual return.

Q.2Six field audits were performed on registrations in the Northwest Territories and six were on southern companies. Desk audits are performed on all filers of annual returns. Of these, 1,088 had a mailing address in the Northwest Territories and 707 were on companies registered outside the Northwest Territories.

Q.3Seven field audits showed under-reporting, one audit showed over-reporting, and the balance confirmed the amounts reported. Field audits are undertaken based on a risk assessment. Annual desk audits findings are treated as corrections to returns and not tracked as over or under-reporting.

Q.4Of the 12 field audits performed half were southern companies.

Q.5 Including direct and indirect costs, the payroll tax costs $163,000 annually to administer.