Digital Red Tape Diaries accurately reflect CFIB member concerns

In January, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business ( CFIB) held its third annual Red Tape Awareness Week to publicize the negative impact that red tape has on business owners across Canada.

As part of this week, we published a Canada Revenue Agency Report Card, with 2011 survey results of over 10,000 independent business owners across the country, including a breakout of 465 tax practitioners— tax accountants and lawyers — most likely to be dealing with the CRA.

The results suggest that CRA has some work to do to improve its service to small business. For example, 57 per cent of respondents feel intimidated when dealing with CRA. Thirty- two per cent of tax practitioners share this sentiment. Fifty- nine per cent of tax practitioners and 54 per cent of the more general population of business owners feel that CRA treats them like they have done something wrong.

Not surprisingly, most business owners don’t want to talk about their problems with CRA or any other regulatory agencies. Yet, we know that it is these stories that help people who don’t run businesses understand how destructive red tape can be.

This year, to complement the research that we released during Red Tape Awareness Week, we did a series of short videos with business owners to help show the stress and frustration that red tape can cause. Our Red Tape Digital Diaries have been the subject of three recent columns by Vancouver Sun reporter David Baines.

Baines takes issue with the videos, which feature business owners talking about their experiences with the CRA. For example, he doesn’t like that one of the stories was seven years old. Of course Baines is entitled to his opinion, but that the story is old does not make it irrelevant or untrue, as the recent survey results above show.

CFIB never pretended the story was new. Go to: http:// youtu. be/ 77BGTCCPIK8. In fact, we asked the business owner to do the video precisely because it was old enough that he would not feel at risk of CRA retribution. Can you imagine asking a business owner with a current CRA dispute to talk publicly about it on video?

More troubling: letters and tweets suggest that Baines left some Vancouver Sun readers with the impression that CFIB made false statements in the video stories. This is not the case. While CFIB inadvertently made an incorrect statement about the content of one of the video stories in a covering email it sent to The Vancouver Sun, the videos themselves are accurate.

The fact that the business owner was assessed over $ 100,000 and suffered serious stress while he argued his case with CRA is not in question. That CRA can and does cause significant stress to business owners is as true today as it was seven years ago.

CFIB compliments CRA on its work when it is warranted and has a good working relationship with Agency management. In January, we gave an honourable mention “Golden Scissors” award for the work done under former minister Blackburn to require CRA agents to provide ID numbers when businesses phone in with questions. This is important as business owners rely on advice from CRA and its agents sometimes make mistakes for which there should be a way to hold them accountable.

CFIB prides itself on careful research that reflects the concerns of our hardworking members, who take personal financial risks to create the jobs and pay the taxes that contribute so much to our communities. Our videos accurately reflect the feelings that many members have when dealing with the CRA and other regulatory agencies. We stand by them.