CRA eases tax-filing pain
Some big wins but still room for improvement
Very few departments or agencies stir as much consternation among entrepreneurs as the Canada Revenue Agency. While some of this is due to its enforcement mandate, a great deal of angst comes from issues such as bad or confusing advice, poor customer service and a lack of understanding of the realities of running a small business. In the past few years, however, I’ve witnessed a heartening evolution in their relationship.
Receiving timely, accurate and reliable information from the CRA is a big issue. The consequences of misinformation can seriously damage a business. Imagine being advised on the phone by a CRA agent to follow a course of action, only to learn the advice was wrong. If you think this is an issue only a few firms face, think again. A CFIB “secret shopper” study found CRA agents gave incorrect tax advice to business callers nearly 20% of the time, while CRA’s internal study showed incorrect advice was being given 25% of the time.
Yet, if a mistake turns up at audit, even with the telephone guidance of a CRA employee, the business will still be subject to penalties and interest, on top of taxes owing.
But significant progress has been made, which is why CFIB named Minister of National Revenue Kerry-Lynne Findlay the winner of the 2015 Golden Scissors award for the CRA’s effort to streamline how businesses remit taxes. The change allows smaller firms to remit taxes less frequently.
The CRA has been gradually implementing changes that have added much accountability to a system that desperately needed it. Some of the big wins for small businesses include:
CRA call centre agents now provide an ID number callers can record;
Business owners can now ask questions via the internet, through their CRA My Business Account, and re- ceive an electronic answer;
CRA will honour the advice it provides through My Business Account, even if it turns out to be incorrect; and
A Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights and a Taxpayers’ Ombudsman were introduced to promote fair treatment of taxpayers.
While we welcome these progressive changes, more communication is needed to ensure small businesses are taking advantage of these new tools, particularly the ability to ask questions and get answers in writing.
So where does this leave the CFIB’s relationship with the CRA? Like they say on Facebook, it’s complicated.
The CRA is clearly moving in the right direction with its service delivery, and the various measures enacted to promote greater accountability. Its efforts to improve the relationship are laudable.
They would be that much more reassuring if they were not being undermined by a few vocal staff members at the CRA, who regularly engage in political advocacy on social media, railing against and sometimes even threatening small business owners who dare to speak their concerns.
Twitter trolls aside, we’ve seen some real progress in our dealings with the CRA, and in particular, with Ms. Findlay.
In its 2015 pre-budget recommendations, CFIB has another long list of requests, including ensuring tax bulletins are written in plain language and are respected even if incorrect; equalizing the interest differential between money owed by CRA and money owed by taxpayers; updating rules to reflect the realities of the modern labour market (e.g., self-employed); and introducing a simplified method for calculating homebased business expenses.
Let’s hope on budget day, the relationship between small business and the CRA continues to improve.