They ‘touch on several rights under the Taxpayer Bill of Rights,’ says CRA ombudsman Boileau
The Canada Revenue Agency’s ombudsman says his office has opened an investigation into delays involving the processing of complex T1 adjustments after receiving numerous complaints from taxpayers from across the country.
In a statement issued last week, CRA ombudsman François Boileau said the examination was started because they had been receiving a consistently high level of complaints about the delays.
The T1 General (or simply T1) is the tax form issued by the Canada Revenue Agency which is used by individuals living in Canada to file personal federal income tax returns.
According to the CRA’s own reporting, taxpayers have been facing undue delays. Although the CRA’s service standard for complex requests is 20 weeks, as of May 14 the CRA was taking up to 47 weeks to complete complex T1 requests.
“We understand that the CRA is under tremendous pressure to deliver its services to the public,” Boileau said in a statement issued by his office. “But T1 adjustments affect many taxpayers, and delays can cause real issues for those who are seeking redress,” he added.
Possible Bill of Rights violations
“The delays we have been seeing with complex T1 adjustment requests touch on several rights under the Taxpayer Bill of Rights. With a systemic examination, we are hoping to get to the root causes of why the CRA is not currently meeting its service standard.”
In Laval, Tom Laios, a professional tax accountant, said he was mostly unaware of the processing delays described by the CRA ombudsman.
While saying that none of his clients had run into this particular problem, he added, “I know from what I’ve heard from other people, usually it takes them [the CRA] a couple of months to do it.”
In their statement, the ombudsman’s office noted that if a taxpayer wants to change an income tax and benefit return, there are different options to do so.
The CRA’s service standard for routine adjustments requested through “Change my return” in CRA taxpayer accounts or through tax software is to issue a notice of reassessment or a letter of explanation within two weeks of receiving the request. For routine adjustment requests made by phone or mail, the service standard is eight weeks.
20 weeks for complex requests
However, according to the ombudsman’s office, the CRA can determine that a request is complex. This happens when the CRA needs more information or has to review the request. In these cases, the service standard is 20 weeks, which is much longer than the service standard for routine requests, according to the CRA.
In addition to opening a systemic examination, the ombudsman’s office said they sent a service improvement request to the CRA.
“We asked it to change the T1-ADJ T1 Adjustment Request web page to encourage taxpayers to file their T1 adjustment requests online, rather than by printing and mailing the webform as suggested on its website, so that the requests can be processed more quickly,” reads the OTO’s statement, while adding that “our office is committed to carrying out this examination fairly and impartially.”
“With this examination, we are looking to better understand current processes, the root causes of service issues, and what the CRA is doing so that it can meet its service standards,” they continue. Based on the examination’s findings, they say the ombudsman may make recommendations on solutions “to lessen delays so that taxpayers can receive more timely service from the CRA.”
Mandate to improve service
The Office of the Taxpayers’ Ombudsperson (which is the OTO’s official name) describes its role as being to help improve service that the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) provides to taxpayers.
It says it does so by reviewing complaints about the quality of service as well as by identifying and reviewing “systemic and emerging issues that can affect more than one person or a part of the population.”
The ombudsman can also make recommendations directly to the federal Minister of Finance and National Revenue or to the Minister and the Chair of the CRA’s Board of Management to address systemic issues and improve the service the CRA provides to taxpayers. The OTO says it also works to raise awareness of the OTO’s role and the Taxpayer Bill of Rights.
Canada’s Taxpayer Bill of Rights
There are 16 rights that describe the treatment you are entitled to when you deal with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). Additionally, there are 5 small business commitments.
- You have the right to receive entitlements and to pay no more and no less than what is required by law.
- You have the right to service in both official languages.
- You have the right to privacy and confidentiality.
- You have the right to a formal review and a subsequent appeal.
- You have the right to be treated professionally, courteously, and fairly.
- You have the right to complete, accurate, clear, and timely information.
- You have the right, unless otherwise provided by law, not to pay income tax amounts in dispute before you have had an impartial review.
- You have the right to have the law applied consistently.
- You have the right to lodge a service complaint and to be provided with an explanation of our findings.
- You have the right to have the costs of compliance taken into account when administering tax legislation.
- You have the right to expect the CRA to be accountable.
- You have the right to relief from penalties and interest under tax legislation because of extraordinary circumstances.
- You have the right to expect the CRA to publish its service standards and report annually.
- You have the right to expect the CRA to warn you about questionable tax schemes in a timely manner.
- You have the right to be represented by a person of your choice.
- You have the right to lodge a service complaint and request a formal review without fear of reprisal.
