Financial and Taxation Statistics for Enterprises
Detailed information for 2002
Status:
Active
Frequency:
Annual
Record number:
2510
The objective of this annual series is to cover business activity within a calendar reference period. These statistics are used in two broad ways. First they provide a measure of financial position and performance of incorporated businesses by industry aggregations. Second, they are used as the benchmark for the quarterly estimates of corporate profits in the Canadian System of National Accounts (CSNA).
Data release - March 8, 2004
Description
The data presented herein comprise financial statements typically prepared by incorporated businesses to record their financial position and performance. The data include: asset, liability and equity items encompassed in a balance sheet, revenue and expense items as reported on an income statement, a reconciliation of profit to taxable income and taxes payable, along with several common financial performance ratios.
These statistics are used in two broad ways. First, they provide a measure of financial position and performance of incorporated businesses by industry aggregations. They are used by a wide variety of economists and industry analysts in both the private and government sectors. Second they are used as the benchmark for the quarterly estimates of corporate profits in the Canadian System of National Accounts (CSNA).
Reference period: Calendar year
Subjects
- Business performance and ownership
- Corporate taxation
- Financial statements and performance
Data sources and methodology
Target population
The domestic economy consists of personal, business and government sectors. These statistics cover incorporated enterprises of the financial and non-financial business sectors and business enterprises controlled by federal or provincial governments. In addition, non-profit enterprises considered to be part of the incorporated business sector are also included. However enterprises classified to Funds (NAICs 5269) and Public Administration (NAICs 91) are excluded.
Instrument design
This methodology does not apply.
Sampling
Data are collected for all units of the target population, therefore, no sampling is done.
Data sources
Data are extracted from administrative files and derived from other Statistics Canada surveys and/or other sources.
Three sources of data are combined to form a census of all units in the population of interest. These consist of :
- Annualized data from the Quarterly Survey of Financial Statements (QFS) obtained from the Industrial Organization and Finance Division at Statistics Canada.
- A survey of provincial or federal level government business enterprises (GBE) that operated in the business sector, with data obtained from the Public Institutions Division at Statistics Canada.
- Administrative corporate taxation data in the form of T2 Corporation Income Tax return and the General Index of Financial Information (GIFI) obtained from the Tax Data Division at Statistics Canada.
Data collected from the Quarterly Survey of Financial Statements were annualized.
Information from all three data sources was provided in different formats with different sets of variables. In order to merge the data it was necessary to transform all three data sources into a common set of variables that contained a complete set of financial statement information. Certain details were omitted in the process due to the unavailability of data from all sources.
While QFS and GBE data were collected at the enterprise level, the administrative corporate taxation data, on the other hand, were collected at the non-consolidated single legal entity level. Data for single legal entities belonging to a corporate family (multi-legals) are then rolled up to the enterprise level.
The objective of this annual series is to cover business activity within a calendar reference period. Data derived from the Quarterly Survey of Financial Statistics approximate the calendar period. The Government business enterprise data reflect fiscal periods which often are governed by the April to March fiscal year of governments. The administrative data used from Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) is based on financial statements filed along with income tax returns by corporations for their fiscal year which ended in the calendar period. Thus the calendar period is estimated by industry aggregations which actually consist of a combination of both calendar and fiscal periods which may not coincide perfectly with the calendar period.
Error detection
At the micro level, several checks are performed on the data to verify internal consistency and identify extreme values. At the macro level, the data are subjected to a detailed quality review process, including a comparative analysis to prior year; material errors are thereby identified and corrected.
Estimation
Since data are obtained from one of the three data sources for each enterprise in the population of interest, estimates are derived from the simple tabulation of data.
Due to certain financial reporting constraints, data for enterprises in the insurance industry could not be obtained through the administrative data source. Data for the industry are therefore derived using QFS weighted estimates rather than a census.
Quality evaluation
The combined survey results are analyzed before publication. In general, the analysis includes a detailed review of the individual responses (especially for the largest enterprises), a review of general economic conditions as well as historic trends and comparisons with other data sources.
Disclosure control
Statistics Canada is prohibited by law from releasing any information it collects which could identify any person, business, or organization, unless consent has been given by the respondent or as permitted by the Statistics Act. Various confidentiality rules are applied to all data that are released or published to prevent the publication or disclosure of any information deemed confidential. If necessary, data are suppressed to prevent direct or residual disclosure of identifiable data.
The confidentiality of the reported statistics is protected under the provisions of the Statistics Act. For this reason, statistics are released in aggregate form only, with no potential identification of individually reported information. The confidentiality provisions of the Statistics Act override the provisions of the Access to Information Act to guarantee the confidentiality of reported data of individual respondents.
Revisions and seasonal adjustment
Each year, the previous year's data are revised.
Data accuracy
While considerable effort is made to ensure high standards throughout all collection and processing operations, the resulting estimates are inevitably subject to a certain degree of error. There are two categories of errors in statistical information - sampling errors and non-sampling errors. Non-sampling errors is the only type that applies to this program, given that there was no sampling process used to produce these estimates (with the exception of the insurance industry).
Non-sampling errors can arise from a variety of sources and are difficult to measure and their importance can differ according to the purpose to which the data are being put. Among non-sampling errors are gaps in the information provided by corporations in their tax returns and errors in processing, such as data capture.
Although imputation for total non-response was required for close to 36% of enterprises in 2002, the overall impact of imputation on operating revenues across all industries is about 23%.
Documentation
- Data Quality, Concepts and Methodology for Financial and Taxation Statistics for Enterprises
- Date modified: