CRA must try harder says Canada's Taxpayers' Ombudsman

Thousands of complaints were received by the Office of the Taxpayers’ Ombudsman in the 2020-2021 tax year.

In its annual report, published this week, the Ombudsman said that Canadians made a total of 3,533 complaints between April 1, 2020, and March 31, 2021.

A total 1,227 complaints were passed to the Canada Revenue Agency.

There were a record number of enquiries, twice the number of complaints, almost two times the calls, and double the referrals of compelling issues to CRA for review.

"I assumed my role as Taxpayers' Ombudsperson in the midst of a global pandemic, when the CRA was delivering essential emergency benefits to Canadians and our Office was under tremendous pressure to help those facing financial distress,” said François Boileau, Taxpayers' Ombudsperson. “By probing and questioning the CRA, our Office was able to better understand the issues, form recommendations and help more taxpayers and benefit recipients." 

What were the hot topics?

Many of those contacting the Ombudsman were facing financial hardship and there were several recurring issues that taxpayers needed help with:

• COVID-19 benefits - Canadians commonly expressed frustration with the delays that were caused by many factors, including the verification of eligibility.
• CRA account - the lack of clear information that was provided when the CRA locked out over 180,000 users in February 2021
• Contact centres - Canadians are commonly faced with long wait times, premature disconnections, or are told the queues are full making it difficult to reach the CRA to explain the issues they may be facing.
• Income tax and benefit returns and adjustment requests - delays in the CRA's processing of income tax and benefit returns and adjustment requests
• Canada child benefit (CCB) - CRA's administration of the CCB and proving eligibility

"While I do acknowledge the CRA provided COVID-19 benefits in record time, we found that the CRA did not always provide clear, accurate, and timely information to Canadians when they needed it the most" added Boileau.

What should be done?

The report makes several recommendations for the CRA:

1. The Taxpayers' Ombudsperson recommends that the CRA provide a link, from its landing page canada.ca/revenue-agency, and canada.ca/taxes, to our landing page canada.ca/taxpayers-ombudsperson.
2. The Taxpayers' Ombudsperson recommends that the CRA make Canadians aware they can complain or provide feedback about the service it provides.
3. The Taxpayers' Ombudsperson recommends that the CRA create a process to ensure that any unclassified information that is provided by a CRA area to assist contact centre agents is also made publicly available.
4. The Taxpayers' Ombudsperson recommends that the CRA develop a way for people to securely submit documents electronically, without the need for them to access their CRA account.
5. The Taxpayers' Ombudsperson recommends that the CRA provide Canadians with the opportunity to request a callback, without the need to call the contact centre first.