On this page

• Message from the Minister
• Message from the Commissioner
• Plans to deliver on core responsibilities and internal services
  • Core responsibilities: tax and benefits
  • Internal services
• Planned spending and human resources
  • Spending
  • Funding
  • Future-oriented condensed statement of operations
  • Human resources
• Corporate information
• Supplementary information tables
• Federal tax expenditures
• Annex A: Strategic Planning Framework
• Annex B: Strategic Priorities for 2025–26 and their commitments
• Annex C: Program Inventory Indicators
• Annex D: Definitions

Message from the Minister

I have the privilege to present to you the Canada Revenue Agency’s (CRA) 2025–26 Departmental Plan (DP).

This report outlines the CRA’s priorities to continue to deliver to Canadians the benefits that they are entitled to, while ensuring our tax system’s integrity.

In the year to come, the CRA will continue to build on its successes in improving access to benefits, particularly for those that need it the most. In order to help people who do not file their taxes to receive the benefits to which they are entitled, the CRA will continue experimenting with automated filing methods such as SimpleFile by Phone, Digital and Paper. The Community Volunteer Income Tax Program (CVITP) will also provide modest income people that have a simple tax situation with help from volunteers to complete their tax returns through free tax clinics held by community organizations.

The CRA will continue to modernize its services, including by making online information easier to find and understand, so that Canadians may be more confident when participating in the tax and benefit system. At the same time, it will examine ways to integrate service delivery from a whole-of-government perspective, making it easier for people to access government programs. In particular, the CRA is developing ways to collaboratively offer services at events organized with other government departments. It is increasing the number of in-person and virtual clinics offered nationwide, as well as the number of outreach activities in partnership with other government departments.

The CRA is committed to ensuring the fairness of the tax system and addressing tax crime, and will continue to tackle the most serious cases of wilful non-compliance, including aggressive schemes designed to obtain unwarranted payments. To achieve this, the CRA targets high-risk groups for non-compliance, employing data analytics and business intelligence to identify aggressive tax planning, while its Criminal Investigations Program investigates tax evasion, money laundering and other tax crimes. The CRA is enhancing its use of technology, including machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI), to detect non-compliance and other suspicious activities allowing for early detection, prevention, and verification measures, and when appropriate, criminal investigations. The CRA leverages a strong international network through its work with the Joint Chiefs of Global Tax Enforcement (J5) to combat international tax crime, through information sharing, intelligence gathering and joint operations. Additionally, the CRA is increasing its efforts to prevent participation in the underground economy and to address non-compliance by identifying unreported transactions.

Fairness in the tax system means everyone pays their rightful share of tax. This is particularly important in the real estate sector. The Government of Canada (GC) is committed to making housing more attainable and affordable for Canadians. The CRA supports these efforts through strengthened controls and tax justice in the real estate sector. It will expand compliance activities of higher-risk real estate sectors such as certain construction sectors, developers and non-residents, seek industry input on mortgage fraud and income verification, and use data from private, municipal, provincial and territorial government sources to support compliance.

Charities play a key role in our society. To support charities and foster the trust of Canadians, the CRA will remain vigilant in identifying aggressive tax planning schemes involving charities, which can undermine the integrity of the charitable sector and the tax system. The CRA will complement its compliance activities with education and outreach to ensure that charities understand and comply with the regulatory framework.

A significant digital transformation aimed at enhancing efficiency and service delivery is already underway. Key initiatives include the prioritization of AI and improved client identity management, with AI solutions undergoing a stewardship process to ensure responsible implementation. Additionally, the CRA is employing Robotic Process Automation (RPA) to automate repetitive tasks, and equipping employees with essential digital skills and fostering a culture of digital awareness to support its transformative efforts.

Part of gaining Canadians’ trust in the tax system and promoting their voluntary participation is giving them confidence that their personal information will be fully protected. To this end, the CRA is modernizing its risk assessment systems and introducing cloud-based machine learning to become more agile and responsive to threats such as fraud, identity theft and tax schemes. As fraudsters’ tactics evolve, the CRA adapts and remains vigilant in its efforts to defend against them. This year, the CRA will continue to invest in the security measures necessary to identify and respond to fraud, while providing Canadians assurance of the highest level of protection for their sensitive information.

I invite you all to read the DP to learn more on the objectives of the CRA. This, of course, would not at all be possible without the dedication and resilience of the thousands of employees on whom Canadians rely every day to collect taxes, redistribute the wealth and assist the population. I look forward to working with all CRA employees and partners as we deliver on this important work.

The Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, P.C., M.P.
Minister of National Revenue

Message from the Commissioner

The 2025–26 DP outlines the CRA’s commitments to deliver a world-class tax and benefits administration for Canadians. This year, the DP identifies four priorities: to deliver high-quality services, ensure the fairness of the tax system, transform digitally, and nurture a high-performing and diverse workforce in a modern, flexible, inclusive, and accessible workplace. These priorities will help the CRA navigate a challenging operating environment, in which it must protect Canadians sensitive information, and the integrity of the tax and benefits system from more frequent and advanced security and fraud threats.

The CRA is committed to high quality service delivery. This has been a challenge in recent years as we have seen an increase in the volume and complexity of enquiries partly driven by the growth in the population of Canada. Furthermore, the CRA has undertaken a number of initiatives on behalf of the GC that are outside of our core mandate, which have impacted our ability to provide taxpayers with timely assistance. We know that many Canadians rely on our contact centres for assistance in fulfilling their tax obligations and to access the benefits that are designed to help them. That is why we’ve made improving our contact centre service an explicit objective in this plan. High quality service is about more than contact centres. That is why we’re continuing to look for ways to make it easier for Canadians to navigate the tax system. For example, we are increasing the automation of tax filing through initiatives like SimpleFile, for eligible Canadians. In 2025–26, we will continue to assist Canadians through the CVITP. In addition, our efforts to deliver high quality service will also extend to other ways of simplifying client interactions, such as making information easier to find and understand on our website.

The CRA strives to ensure the fairness of the tax and benefits system. It’s not only the right thing to do, but it fosters Canadians’ trust, which is foundational to our system that is predicated on voluntary compliance by the majority. An important way we can ensure the system is fair is by ensuring everyone pays their fair share. Despite the fact that the CRA has resolved more and more tax debt over the years, the total debt has continued to grow. This year, we’ve made an explicit objective to increase the rate of resolution of the tax debt. At the same time, we will continue to combat aggressive tax planning and tax evasion, and tackle non-compliance, including in emerging high-risk areas, such as the real estate sector and crypto-assets. The CRA will continue to take an education-first approach to its compliance activities. But, make no mistake: we will take all necessary measures to root out non-compliance, from the application of small sanctions for minor offences, all the way up to pursuing criminal investigations and legal action where warranted, including for those who promote or make use of fraudulent tax schemes.

The CRA will continue to look for new and innovative ways to transform digitally, with a particular focus on two areas in 2025–26. First, ensuring we deliver on our mandate during a time of fiscal restraint will require thinking differently about how we go about our business and, in particular, how technology can help us become an even more efficient and productive organization. Second, it is imperative for us to stay ahead of adversaries who are becoming increasingly sophisticated and persistent in their efforts to defraud the government. Public confidence in the CRA is fundamental to the integrity of the tax system. This is why we continue to strive to become a more secure and efficient organization and, to strengthen security, identity management and privacy safeguards, so that Canadians remain confident that the CRA is protecting their sensitive information. While no organization is immune to privacy breaches and fraud, we are committed to protecting sensitive data against evolving threats. And, when breaches do occur, we take action swiftly to protect taxpayers’ personal information, and to pursue bad actors. In 2025–26, we will continue to bolster the CRA’s posture in this critical space.

At the core of the CRA’s success is its people. We are investing in leadership, offering a modern hybrid work environment, and fostering a culture of equity, diversity, inclusion, and psychological health. Integrity is a core value that guides how we lead, interact with respect, strive for excellence, safeguard information, and make responsible decisions. This was recently recognized when the CRA was selected as one of Canada’s Top Employers for Young People in 2024.

This year is expected to be a challenging one, as the CRA navigates a period of increased demands and fiscal restraint. We will undoubtedly be faced with difficult choices in how we focus our spending on the priorities that matter most to Canadians. I am confident that we can meet this challenge, as the CRA and its employees have consistently demonstrated a capacity for agility and resilience.

As Commissioner, I extend my gratitude to all CRA employees for their dedication and excellence in serving Canadians. Together, we will continue to deliver important results for Canadians.

Bob Hamilton
Commissioner of the Canada Revenue Agency

Plans to deliver on core responsibilities and internal services

Core responsibilities and internal services

• Core responsibilities: tax and benefits
• Internal services

Core responsibilities: tax and benefits

In this section

• Description of tax
• Description of benefits
• Quality of life impacts
• Indicators, results and targets
• Plans to achieve results
• Key risks
• Planned resources to achieve results
• Related government priorities
• Program inventory for tax and benefits

Description of tax

The CRA’s core responsibility for tax is to ensure that Canada’s self-assessment tax system is sustained by providing taxpayers with the support and information they need to understand and fulfill their tax obligations, and by taking compliance and enforcement action when necessary to uphold the integrity of the system, offering avenues for redress^{Footnote 1} whenever taxpayers may disagree with an assessment/decision.

Description of benefits

The CRA’s core responsibility for benefits is to ensure that Canadians obtain the support and information they need, to know what benefits they may be eligible to receive, that they receive their benefit payments in a timely manner, and have avenues of redress when they disagree with a decision on their benefit eligibility.

Quality of life impacts

As the administrator of tax, benefits and credits, the CRA contributes to the household income and financial well-being of individuals and families’ quality of life indicators. By ensuring better access to benefits and credits for vulnerable populations and Indigenous communities, the CRA helps address poverty and supports overall economic stability, impacting the poverty indicator.

Indicators, results and targets

The following tables show, for each departmental result related to tax and benefits, the indicators, the results from the three most recently reported fiscal years, the targets and target dates approved in 2025–26.

Table 1: Performance indicators, results and targets for tax

Table 1 provides a summary of the approved performance indicators, results from the three most recently reported fiscal years, and the targets to be achieved by March 31, 2026.

Expected results: Taxpayers comply with Canadian tax obligations, the right tax revenue is secured for Canadians, and Canadians have trust in the CRA.

Departmental Result Indicators	Target	2023–24 actual result	2022–23 actual result	2021–22 actual result
Percentage of individual tax returns filed on time	At least 90%	89%	89%	90.5%
Percentage of businesses registered for GST/HST	At least 90%	88%	89%	94.1%
Percentage of tax liabilities paid on time	At least 91%	92%	90.7%	89.9%
Percentage of Canadians who participate in the income tax systemFootnote 2	At least 93%	94%	93.3%	92.4%
Ratio of collectable tax debt to total net receipts (cash accounting)	At most 20%	25%Footnote 3	20.8%	18.9%
Percentage of external service standards targets that are met	At least 75%	55%Footnote 4	71%	74%
Service Satisfaction Index	At least 7.5	7.4	7.3	7.3
Public Perception Index: Trust	At least 7.0	6.6	6.6	6.8

Plans to achieve results

The CRA pursues the following 3 strategic priorities and 9 objectives supported by 20 commitments to fulfill its core responsibilities.

In this section

A. Deliver high quality services

Most Canadians will meet their tax obligations and receive the benefits and credits designed to assist them when they are given the right supports. That is why the CRA is always looking to provide high quality, secure services to Canadians, and helping people to have the information they need when they need it. In 2023–24, the CRA met its targeted result with 94% of Canadians participating in the tax and benefit system. This is a fundamentally important result that the CRA will seek to maintain.

In 2023–24, the CRA met 55% of its service standard targets. A growing population, many of whom have complex needs, has resulted in unprecedented demand for services and challenged the CRA’s ability to meet some of its performance targets. The CRA has also delivered many new programs for Canadians, which have added to the demand for service, and increased its security posture to protect taxpayers against bad actors. Despite these challenges, Canadians continually indicate satisfaction with the CRA’s service, which is reflected in the CRA’s Service Satisfaction Index (SSI) and the percentage of Canadians who are satisfied with their overall benefits experience. The 2023–24 SSI results indicate that Canadians’ level of satisfaction with the quality of CRA services remains high. However, the CRA recognizes that it has not met its timeliness service standard for telephone enquiries and is working on an improved target for 2025–26 that is more attainable. The SSI results are based on a blended average of three broad service dimensions, one of which includes timeliness:

• Process Quality – accessibility of services, timeliness of services
• Information Quality – accuracy of information, completeness of information
• Customer Service Quality – empathy and professionalism that the CRA representative exhibited

These are positive results that reflect the focus on people-first services. The CRA also acknowledges that it must continue to make progress to provide more timely access to its services.

New technologies present opportunities to improve service delivery through simplification and digitalization of client interactions. Whenever possible, the CRA provides Canadians with convenient options to use its online services to complete their tasks or find answers, helping them resolve issues independently without having to reach out for assistance. To help people find their answers more easily, the CRA is improving its web pages. These improvements are making it easier for Canadians to access self-service options such as My Account.

The CRA is also expanding services that help vulnerable populations, such as SimpleFile and the CVITP. The CRA is continuing with the implementation of its Indigenous Strategy 2024–2027 and Accessibility Plan 2023–2025, to address the unique experiences and needs of different populations.

Following its consultations with the Official Languages Minority Community (OLMC), the CRA will continue to implement Part VII of the new Official Languages Act by developing its first agency-wide Part VII action plan. It is with a better understanding of OLMC needs that the CRA will continue to apply an OLMC lens to its programs and services.

While the CRA has made progress on its service agenda, there is more work to be done. That is why, in 2024–25, the CRA continued to consult with individuals, businesses, and tax intermediaries to get feedback that will help shape the future of CRA programs and services.

A1. Improve contact centre service

The CRA is committed to providing world-class tax and benefit services to Canadians. As the CRA continues to introduce self-serve options, it is clear that Canadians gravitate towards the contact centre channel during major life events or when they face complex issues. In recent years, the CRA has experienced a rise in call volumes and an increasing complexity of enquiries which are not subsiding. The CRA now receives approximately 25 million calls per year. This has resulted in increased wait times, especially during the filing season.

In 2025–26, the CRA will focus on reducing call volumes by making enhancements and refinements to self-service options, technology, and analytics. Contact centres are part of a continuum of services, and improving Canadians’ access to the information they need involves helping them find answers without having to call. Reducing call volumes will be achieved by continuing to improve digital services to make it easier for taxpayers to find information and self-serve their accounts. Lowering call handle time will be achieved through operational efficiencies, as well as technological improvements to improve the caller experience. Improving call wait times remains a priority of the CRA. By providing self-service options, the CRA is able to offer a better caller experience by answering some callers quicker and avoiding callers having to wait on hold for hours. Additionally, advanced technological solutions will enhance business intelligence to allow the CRA to identify further service improvement opportunities.

To meet Canadians’ expectations for alternative digital options for contacting the CRA, a live online chat will be available through My Account. This new service will be in a secure digital environment where Canadians will have the option to chat with the CRA to ensure they continue to meet their tax obligations and receive the benefits and credits to which they are entitled. Through a live online chat, clients will be able to perform select functions currently available through the traditional telephone service.

Our commitments to Canadians in 2025–26:

1. Pilot a generative AI chatbot to provide quick access to relevant, up-to-date online information for Canadians.
2. Enable self-service options for My Account lockouts, allowing clients to unlock their online accounts without needing to call.

A2. Increase automation of tax filing and improve access to benefits

Benefit and credit payments help make life more affordable. In order to receive, or continue to receive benefit and credit payments, individuals must update their information with the CRA each year by filing their income tax and benefit return. Many modest income and vulnerable Canadians have the most to gain from the CRA’s benefits programs and credit payments, but are missing out because they are not filing their income tax and benefit returns. It is imperative that Canadians from these population groups have simplified and easy access to the benefits to which they are entitled.

CVITP clinics help eligible individuals file their tax returns, free of charge, to access benefits and other eligible credits. The CVITP works to reduce and prevent barriers for individuals to file a return, including the cost of engaging tax preparation assistance, limited financial and technological literacy, the perception that filing is complicated, and not wanting to make an error on a tax return. The CRA is working on ways to increase the number of organizations and volunteers that offer these clinics. A new toolkit containing posters, templates for public service announcements, web banners, social media graphics and prewritten messages is being developed. It will help community organizations recruit volunteers and promote free tax clinics to diverse groups, including newcomers, Indigenous populations, youth, and housing-insecure individuals, while expanding the CVITP network.

The CRA is ensuring lower income Canadians can quickly and easily file their tax returns. Additionally, the CRA currently offers a variety of services to help overcome challenges faced by Canadians, including lower-income individuals, in filing their tax returns, including:

• Auto-fill my return – a secure digital service that allows individuals and authorized representatives using certified software, to automatically fill in parts of an income tax and benefit return with information that the CRA has available at the time of the request.
• SimpleFile by Phone (formerly File my Return) – this invitation-based service is a free and secure automated telephone service designed to help individuals with a low or fixed income and a simple tax situation complete their tax return in as little as 10 minutes. It allows lower-income individuals to auto-file an income tax and benefit return by answering a series of short questions over the phone. There are no calculations to do or forms to fill out.

The CRA will expand its SimpleFile by Phone service in 2025 by inviting 2 million individuals, up from a total of 1.5 million invitations in 2024, to automatically complete and submit their tax returns over the phone. In July 2024, the CRA expanded its SimpleFile by phone, paper and digital options to all provinces and territories as part of a pilot, where over 500,000 invitation letters were sent to modest income and non-taxable individuals who had either never filed a tax return, or had a gap in their filing history. Based on the results of the summer 2024 pilot, as well as planned consultations with partners, community organizations, and tax professionals, the CRA will chart a path forward beyond 2025 that respects the needs of non-filing, lower-income Canadians to ensure more individuals have access to the benefits and credits designed to support them.

In further support of improving access to benefits, the CRA will continue to collaborate with other organizations and conduct research on the participation of hard-to-reach and vulnerable populations in the tax and benefit systems. The research will inform the CRA’s program areas outreach efforts, communication campaigns, and service improvement initiatives. This research also supports the GC’s commitments following the 2022 report of the Auditor General of Canada on Access to Benefits for Hard-to-Reach Populations.

Our commitments to Canadians in 2025–26:

3. Increase the number of Canadians eligible to use SimpleFile by Phone to 2 million in 2025.
4. Increase, by 5%, the number of individuals helped through the CVITP in comparison to the 2024 program year.
5. Continue to implement the CRA’s Indigenous Strategy 2024–2027, whose main goal is to improve outcomes for Indigenous Peoples when they interact with the CRA.

A3. Simplify client interactions

The CRA recognizes that in order to deliver high quality services, interactions with clients must be simple and accessible. By streamlining communication channels and leveraging available technologies, the CRA will ensure that clients can easily access the information and services they need.

The CRA continues to optimize its web presence and client experience by enabling individuals and businesses to easily access clear, timely, and accurate information about taxes, benefits, and credits on Canada.ca. This effort is important as Canadians expect to get clear and consistent answers whether visiting the web, reaching out to contact centres, accessing secure portals, or using online chats. Making information clear and easy to access improves client satisfaction and Canadians’ trust in the CRA. An optimized web presence also improves Canadians’ ability to find answers to general tax and benefit questions without having to rely on contact centres or other forms of assistance.

Our commitments to Canadians in 2025–26:

6. Enable individual and business clients to quickly and easily learn about their tax obligations and entitlements to benefits and credits by providing clear, well-developed online answers to general, non-account-specific questions on Canada.ca.
7. Ensure a seamless service experience for businesses seeking to claim the new clean economy investment tax credits (ITC) by implementing and administering the ITCs in partnership with Natural Resources Canada.

As the CRA looks beyond the 2025–26 fiscal year, it envisions continuing to provide high quality services with the following initiatives:

• Expand digital tools and technology to make services faster, easier, and more convenient for clients.
• Accelerate the use of AI to optimize web content, to make information easier to find and understand.

B. Ensure the fairness of the tax system

The CRA’s compliance activities uphold the integrity of the tax system and ensure that everyone pays the taxes they owe, to fund the public services on which Canadians rely. The CRA approaches its work with the underlying premise that most people, given the opportunity and the right services, will meet their tax obligations. Recognizing that the tax system is complex, and that voluntary compliance is more cost-effective than enforcement, the CRA is increasingly focused on helping clients comply by using an education-first approach. The CRA seeks to address non-compliance as early as possible with the appropriate level of intervention. As a responsible administrator, the CRA also strives to identify and actively enforce compliance in cases where taxpayers, through neglect, avoidance, evasion, or fraud, do not meet these obligations, ensuring that all clients are paying their fair share.

B1. Increase the rate of resolution of the tax debt

Tax debt represents unpaid taxes that individuals or businesses owe to the government. Ensuring that tax debts are collected helps maintain the fairness of the tax system. When everyone pays what they owe, it helps fund essential public services and infrastructure, promoting equity and trust in the system.

Despite debt resolution totals that have surpassed what was planned, the tax debt has continued to grow. Economic factors out of the control of the CRA, such as the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, rising interest rates, inflation, and growth of private sector debt, has meant that certain businesses and individuals face difficulties in paying. The pandemic also resulted in the cessation of collection activities with respect to the tax debt. This led to additional aging of tax debts at the same time as the new debt was being established for resolution. The CRA strives to increase the rate of resolution of the tax debt in response to this growth.

The CRA must effectively manage inventories and resolve debts to ensure that the tax burden is distributed fairly, preventing some taxpayers from unfairly benefiting at the expense of others. The CRA assists clients in meeting their tax obligations by negotiating mutually acceptable payment arrangements based on an individual’s or business’s capacity to pay. It will also take appropriate, progressive, and timely measures in situations where taxpayers have the ability to pay but choose to be non-compliant. This approach will support the overall integrity and sustainability of the tax system.

Our commitment to Canadians in 2025–26:

8. Resolve approximately $1.2 billion in outstanding tax debt, as a result of Budget 2021 investments, supporting a tax system that promotes fairness.

B2. Combat aggressive tax planning and tax evasion

The CRA focuses its compliance activities on groups at the highest risk of non-compliance. These efforts address tax avoidance in the wealthy population, as well as by promoters and advisors that facilitate unacceptable arrangements seeking to avoid taxes otherwise payable. The CRA will continue to improve the use of data, technology and business intelligence to more accurately and efficiently identify high-risk taxpayers.

Using data analytics and advanced risk assessment, the CRA can better identify and address high-risk aggressive tax planning. The CRA continues to sharpen its focus in these areas by expanding its program capabilities and having experienced auditors lead compliance activities on these more complex files. Work in these areas will help ensure that the correct taxes are paid to support government services and economic growth, benefiting Canadians.

The CRA’s Criminal Investigations Program investigates significant cases of tax evasion, tax fraud and other serious violations of the tax laws, and, where appropriate, refers cases to the Public Prosecution Service of Canada (PPSC) for possible criminal prosecution. The CRA is improving its management of case information and modernizing disclosure tools, to strengthen the cases it refers to the PPSC for possible criminal prosecution. Publicized convictions of tax crimes demonstrate to Canadians that falsifying records and claims, willfully not reporting income, or inflating expenses can lead to criminal charges, prosecution, court-imposed fines, jail time, and a criminal record.

The CRA will also undertake activities to address non-compliance posing serious risks to charitable assets and beneficiaries to protect the integrity of the charitable sector and the tax system. Aggressive tax planning schemes that involve charities are for the explicit purpose of decreasing the overall tax burden of the donors, instead of benefiting charitable recipients. Promoting or facilitating any kind of tax planning is not a charitable purpose for which a registered charity can be established. As these arrangements pose a significant risk to the integrity of the charitable sector, we have a responsibility to take action to identify, deter, and address them.

As part of its efforts to help people comply, during 2025–26, the CRA will launch education focused “Back on Track” assisted compliance examinations, which will provide eligible employers with an opportunity to self-correct and comply with their tax obligations. The first iteration of “Back on Track” will focus on new small employers who have not previously had a trust accounts examination. This approach was designed with the knowledge that voluntary compliance is more cost-effective than enforcement, and helping employers self-correct early in their existence is easier than doing so after bad habits have been established.

In April 2016, the GC committed to estimating the federal tax gap to provide information on tax non-compliance. The next overall tax gap report will focus on trend analysis for tax years 2014 to 2022, how the tax gap changed during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the impact of the CRA’s compliance and collection activities in putting downward pressure on the tax gap. The upcoming report will also include two newly developed tax gap components, the excise gap related to cannabis and payroll payment gap. Additionally, the CRA will continue providing international leadership as the Chair of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) community of interest on the tax gap, where tax administrations around the world collaborate on research and share best practices on estimating and reducing the tax gap.

The CRA continues to enhance its compliance work to address issues in the non-resident taxpayer population through enhanced data analysis, centralized workload development, and management of more complex issues. This includes expansion to support other domestic workloads such as real estate, underground economy, tracing source of funds and uncovering non-resident audit issues within the high-net-worth population. This work enhances the fairness of Canada’s tax administration by ensuring that non-resident taxpayers are compliant and serves as a deterrent for those who may be tempted to circumvent their tax obligations in the future.

Our commitments to Canadians in 2025–26:

9. Continue to deliver compliance activities focused on addressing tax avoidance within the wealthy population, and non-compliance supported by promoters and advisors through audits and improvements to business intelligence and tools.
10. Combat aggressive tax planning by designing tools and methodologies that enhance audit activities of economic entities^{Footnote 9} and non-residents.
11. Publish the CRA’s tax gap report, which covers up to 2022, delivering on the GC’s commitment to estimate and publish Canada’s federal tax gap on an ongoing basis.
12. Engage with partners to focus on creating a reporting system that prioritizes responsible enforcement, and develop a communication and education plan which will support taxpayers in meeting specific reporting obligations.

B3. Continue to tackle non-compliance in the most serious cases and implement strategies to address non-compliance in emerging high-risk areas

Addressing non-compliance and building strategies for emerging high-risk areas are crucial steps in ensuring the fairness of the tax system. By focusing on the worst cases of tax evasion and fraud, the CRA can deter future violations and maintain public trust in the tax system. Proactively identifying and targeting new high-risk areas helps the CRA adapt to evolving economic landscapes and emerging threats. This approach promotes compliance and helps ensure that everyone pays their fair share.

Combating aggressive goods and services tax/harmonized sales tax (GST/HST) schemes, such as carousel schemes, continues to be a priority for the CRA. The ongoing enhancements to risk assessments systems are allowing the CRA to expand business intelligence and data analytic tools to identify suspicious behaviour and patterns more effectively. The use of data visualization and adaptive risk algorithms to trace transactions and detect interrelated suppliers are an effective tool the CRA is using to close suspicious accounts and disrupt schemes and unwarranted GST/HST refunds early in their lifecycle. The implementation of early intervention measures is a priority. To ensure the CRA’s strategy is responsive to this global challenge, it is collaborating with internal and external partners through its vast international network to identify approaches that prevent these organized schemes from persisting in Canada.

The emergence of the market for crypto-assets has created unique challenges for tax administrations to maintain visibility on tax-relevant activities. As the number of taxpayers involved with crypto-assets grows, there continues to be a need for additional information, including international reporting frameworks and access to data to systemically identify taxpayers. Recognizing the importance of addressing global tax compliance risks with respect to crypto-assets, the OECD’s Committee on Fiscal Affairs and Working Party No. 10 have developed the Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF) to ensure the collection and automatic exchange of information on specified crypto-asset transactions. Both the CRA and the Department of Finance (FIN) identified the CARF as a suitable reporting mechanism that respects and follows international best practices recommended by the OECD to address the tax compliance issues in the sector. It is recognized that the adoption of the CARF will help the CRA uphold the integrity of the tax system and support its mandate to combat tax avoidance and ensure that all Canadians pay their fair share of taxes.

On November 10, 2023, FIN released an international joint statement committing Canada to domestically implementing the CARF. The proposed timeline targets 2027 as the first-year domestic returns are filed and exchanges of information commence for information pertaining to the 2026 calendar year. Budget 2024 reaffirmed Canada’s commitment to domestically implement the CARF through the allocation of funding and upcoming amendments to the Income Tax Act.

The CRA’s 2022+ Underground Economy strategy to identify, prevent and address underground economy (UE) activities ensures that the most appropriate intervention is applied based on the level of risk, without causing unnecessary burden on taxpayers. The CRA continues to refine its understanding of the UE by collaborating with various jurisdictions on the exchange of research, information sharing and identifying opportunities for collaborative, multijurisdictional UE work. Identification occurs through effective and efficient data research and analysis, including ensuring adequate types of data are collected. Prevention of non-compliance occurs through early outreach and ongoing visibility to raise awareness of the risks of non-compliance. Addressing UE activities occurs through collaborative and tailored approaches ranging from assisted compliance, audits, and criminal investigations.

Our commitments to Canadians in 2025–26:

13. Apply new analytical tools using technology, machine learning, and AI to recover $250 million in unwarranted GST/HST refund and rebate claims.
14. Plan the domestic implementation of the CARF, including identifying appropriate information technology (IT) infrastructure modifications and conducting project planning.

As the CRA looks beyond the 2025–26 fiscal year, it envisions continuing to ensure the fairness of the tax system with the following initiatives:

• Modernize risk assessment systems to better detect and prevent the payout of unwarranted and fraudulent GST/HST refunds and rebates.
• Maximize data-driven decision-making to continuously improve the efficacy of audit selection.
• Improve the quality and timeliness of referrals to the PPSC by modernizing systems and processes relating to evidence management and disclosure.
• Advance the CRA’s work to identify and evaluate opportunities that electronic invoicing (e-invoicing) can provide to improve GST/HST compliance through business-to-business transactions.
• Prepare for the implementation of the CARF to better use data for tax compliance in the crypto-asset sector.
• Reimagine the collections and compliance journey, to digitalize processes by default and utilize new technologies, to respond to the evolving operating environment.

C. Transform digitally

The CRA is continuing to evolve into a more modern organization that provides efficient, secure and accessible services that are valued by both its employees and Canadians. Leveraging digital transformation, the CRA aims to advance its vision of being a world-class tax and benefit administration that is trusted, fair and helpful by putting people first.

In 2025–26, becoming more efficient and effective is critical as the CRA responds to a tight fiscal environment and rising service expectations from Canadians. In response, the CRA is implementing scalable solutions to deliver its services while being mindful of the development of its workforce and processes to maximize the benefits of the digital era. Whether it’s making it easier for individuals to access information digitally, apply for benefits, or meet tax obligations, the CRA is committed to providing solutions that fit seamlessly into the lives of Canadians.

Emerging technologies present the CRA with new opportunities to improve business operations. To meet the digital expectations of Canadians, the CRA is prioritizing work around AI and improving client identity management practices in line with the GC’s direction. The CRA is ensuring AI solutions developed and used to strengthen its operations and improve services for taxpayers undergo its AI Stewardship Process. These developments will help the CRA effectively integrate new technologies to improve its operations, enhance security, respect privacy, and support the expansion of digital services.

The CRA’s commitment to balancing service, privacy, and security consists of the adoption of both technological and people-focused solutions that will improve the protection of its systems, processes and data from evolving threats and vulnerabilities. The CRA regularly assesses risks to manage potential events by using advanced technology, well-informed personnel, and proactive monitoring.

The CRA’s Digital Framework 2023–2028 sets out specific actions to support digital advancements and will guide how people, processes and technology will be transformed. The digital framework is a five-year foundational document applicable throughout the CRA, where:

• People are equipped and empowered to successfully adapt to the new ways of working and thinking.
• Processes are reimagined, modernized and shared across all relevant programs.
• Technology is designed and adapted through modern, agile, secure and user-centred approaches.

The digital framework guides digital transformation at the CRA. Although each program within the CRA has different digital aspirations and will reach digital maturity at its own pace, the CRA acknowledges that change must be applied and adopted at all levels and in all areas of the organization to be effective. As the CRA pursues its digital transformation, it will continue to prioritize service excellence. The outcome of the CRA’s commitment to digital transformation will allow for better resource allocation and decision-making, which will ensure that the CRA operates more effectively and responsively.

C1. Become a more secure and efficient organization

The CRA is evolving to keep pace with the changing needs and expectations of its clients. Digital transformation is paramount in achieving this goal. The CRA is leveraging digital tools and technology to enable automation of routine tasks, enhance data management, and improve communication channels. To maximize the potential of digital transformation, the CRA is ensuring that its employees are equipped with the latest technological advancements and best practices. The CRA is supporting its employees in developing the digital skills needed to be more efficient and meet its current and future clients’ needs. This starts with conducting a digital culture needs assessment and a digital learning needs analysis to identify areas for improvement and promoting awareness of the digital standards at the CRA.

The CRA is leveraging automation where it is most effective in its activities. For example, it has continued to automate workloads by using RPA applications. RPA is a technology application to automate repetitive and routine tasks that work across many types of software in the organization to replicate an employee’s usual workflow, following set processes. The CRA estimates that it saved approximately 228,000 hours since its RPA work began. In 2025–26, it will continue to track approximately 20 workloads through the RPA development process, to continue to achieve greater internal efficiencies. As the CRA becomes leaner in its processes, it will continue to identify, invest, and implement its strategy to leverage automation to build on its systems.

In today’s security landscape, effective data security requires more than just sophisticated technology. Despite advancements, a portion of data breaches are caused by human error, emphasizing that vigilant, well-trained personnel are also crucial in safeguarding the CRA’s information. A key focus for 2025–26 is on solutions that streamline user validation and minimize the risks of data loss from human error. These efforts will strengthen the CRA’s security and privacy safeguards to ensure the client experience is secure and that information is safe from unauthorized access.

Our commitments to Canadians in 2025–26:

15. Focus on the stability and continuity of IT and people-focused solutions to maintain the protection of CRA systems, processes and data from evolving threats and vulnerabilities.
16. Develop a general-purpose generative AI tool for internal CRA use to improve operational efficiencies in a manner aligned with principles for responsible use and providing business value.

C2. Advance more ways for clients to interact digitally

The CRA becoming a modern, digital administration will make it easier for Canadians to access information, apply for benefits, and meet tax obligations digitally. A key part of simplifying client interactions and improving client experience is advancing platforms for digital interactions and keeping pace with technological changes. This will improve clients’ ability to access CRA services digitally from beginning to end.

The CRA is continuing to develop options to interact and communicate with taxpayers digitally. This will provide new, digital ways for taxpayers and third parties to interact with the CRA.

While traditional service methods will remain in place, the CRA will pursue more ways to apply technology and digital avenues to the full range of its services, allowing clients to self-serve, where appropriate.

Our commitments to Canadians in 2025–26:

17. Improve the client experience when applying for taxpayer relief by launching an accessible, digital tool to educate taxpayers on whether applying for taxpayer relief is the right course of action and what documentation is needed to support their request.
18. Complement the CRA portal services by offering secure ways to digitally exchange solicited information with taxpayers, businesses, and third parties who do not have access to the portal or a portal account.

C3. Strengthen security, identity management and privacy safeguards

As one of the largest holders of information in the GC, the protection of personal and taxpayer information is crucial to upholding the public’s trust. The CRA takes this very seriously and focuses on the importance of service, integrity, privacy, and fostering a strong security culture. In an increasingly sophisticated and evolving cyber threat and external risk landscape, the CRA works to strike the balance between improving the protection of CRA systems and assets while maintaining a high level of service that is secure.

Identity management, or building confidence that a person is who they claim to be, is crucial to the security and privacy of the data the CRA holds, the efficacy of its service offerings, and its ability to leverage evolving technologies. For that confidence to extend across the CRA, identity management must be a core function. The CRA is developing a new identity strategy that will offer recommendations to help rationalize the CRA’s identity management practices. The strategy will recognize that the identity landscape is rapidly changing with new technologies and projects promising major challenges and opportunities, for which the CRA must ready itself.

At the heart of every client interaction with the CRA, there is a person seeking to give or receive information or a service. The CRA must confidently identify that person before it can proceed with the request. The CRA must also be prepared to respond to cases of identity theft and suspicious account activity. In recent years, the need for Identity Protection Services (IPS) has increased to restore the accounts of individuals and businesses whose personal information was compromised because of suspected identity theft. The CRA’s IPS will continue innovating to ensure that communication with taxpayers is as seamless as possible, leveraging technologies available to do so, including exploring the provision of digital services for non-residents.

As the International Public Sector Fraud Forum acknowledges, there is always going to be fraud. It is a fact that some individuals will look to make gains where there is an opportunity, and organizations need robust processes in place to prevent, detect and respond to fraud and corruption. Adopting international best practices, the CRA is working to proactively protect its technology, information, and processes. This includes identifying, mitigating, and monitoring fraud risks and threats, and taking action to contain them should they materialize.

In 2025–26, the CRA will focus on strengthening its multifaceted security environment to combat external and internal fraud. The CRA will enhance its multi-factor authentication systems and continue to proactively monitor accounts for unusual activity. The CRA’s efforts are informed by lessons from recent years, such as the risk of fraud in attestation-based pandemic benefits and rising cybercrime. The CRA is addressing these challenges through system and process updates, as well as additional employee training. Collaboration with financial institutions, as well as other agencies such as the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, and law enforcement, help trace and recover proceeds of fraud, while stricter penalties for fraudulent tax claims will further deter misconduct. In addition, the CRA continues to be transparent about its anti-fraud initiatives, using high-profile enforcement actions to foster public trust. By adopting a proactive and adaptive approach, the CRA aims to safeguard its systems against emerging threats and improve its performance in fraud detection and prevention, ultimately reinforcing the integrity of Canada’s tax system.

The CRA will also continue to actively promote the highest ethical standards with its employees. In an important step towards transparency and continuous improvement, the CRA’s first Annual Report on employee misconduct and wrongdoing (2023–24) highlights the CRA’s ongoing commitment to managing misconduct and wrongdoing. The report presents the mechanisms in place at the CRA to foster employee awareness, and includes key definitions of misconduct and wrongdoing, the consequences associated with these actions and identifies the reporting mechanisms available to employees. It also provides aggregated data on misconduct, wrongdoing incidents, and the corrective measures implemented during the 2023–24 fiscal year. Future iterations will expand CRA-wide analysis to identify gaps and inform further action.

Our commitments to Canadians in 2025–26:

19. Enhance contact centre agent confidentiality tools, guiding agents through the authentication process to safely and efficiently identify callers.
20. Implement improvements to the IPS’ tools and processes used to address potential unauthorized use of taxpayer information by a third party.

As the CRA looks beyond the 2025–26 fiscal year, it envisions continuing to transform digitally with the following initiatives:

• Develop IT solutions to ingest data to help link accounts to complete economic entity audits and improve audit operations.
• Provide more accessible, efficient, and user-friendly digital services to Canadians by providing a seamless transition from automated (chatbot) to human-assisted digital interactions (online chat), ensuring that clients’ needs are met efficiently and effectively for both general and account-specific enquiries.
• Exploring options to allow Canadians to use verifiable credentials to access the CRA’s services in a secure manner.
• Develop a service that will allow clients to attach documents to forms completed on Canada.ca, and that ensures those attachments are safe for use by the CRA.

Key risks

The CRA continually monitors its internal and external environments for events that could affect whether it achieves its strategic priorities and objectives related to its core responsibilities of tax and benefits.

Preventing and detecting suspicious activity and fraud remains an area of focus for the CRA. To this end, the use of multi-factor authentication has become an important component of a robust identity and access management framework for fraud mitigation. Additionally, the CRA continues to invest in its Identity and Access Management initiative, which provides a better understanding of the fraud landscape.

Planned resources to achieve results^{Footnote 10}

Table 3: Planned resources to achieve results for tax

Table 3 provides a summary of the planned spending and full-time equivalents required to achieve results.

Resource	Planned
Spending	$4,469,497,448
Full-time equivalents	40,599

Complete financial and human resources information for the CRA’s program inventory is available on GC InfoBase.

Table 4: Planned resources to achieve results for benefits

Table 4 provides a summary of the planned spending and full-time equivalents required to achieve results.

Resource	Planned
SpendingFootnote 11	$4,858,170,167
Full-time equivalents	2,156

Complete financial and human resources information for the CRA’s program inventory is available on GC InfoBase.

Related government priorities

Gender-based Analysis Plus

The CRA is dedicated to administering its programs equitably, aligned with the GC’s commitments to Gender-based Analysis Plus (GBA Plus). Using an intersectional lens such as GBA Plus ensures the CRA’s work considers the diverse needs of, and impacts on, different groups of Canadians. To help guide it going forward, the CRA has developed a three-year Action Plan aimed at strengthening GBA Plus capacity across the CRA and enhancing the rigour and quality of its GBA Plus assessments.

GBA Plus supports the development and delivery of high quality, responsive and inclusive programs and services across the CRA. For example, recent studies to assess the level of participation in the tax system of six vulnerable groups of Canadians are being used to support and inform outreach activities and communications products related to benefit take up, going forward. This will help ensure that more vulnerable Canadians receive the benefits and credits designed to assist them.

While the CRA has fully embraced digital transformation, it remains cognizant that the digital evolution impacts diverse groups of Canadians differently. This is why the CRA continues to work to ensure that its automation is free of unconscious bias. For example, the CRA’s Directive on AI requires that GBA Plus be integrated into the development and monitoring processes associated with AI projects to ensure that biases, and unintentional negative impacts on different groups of individuals, do not result from initiatives related to AI projects.

The CRA also continues to align with the strategic direction and policies of the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (TBS) on Access to Information and Privacy (ATIP), which incorporates GBA Plus philosophies. For example, GBA Plus was used to assess the ATIPXpress^{Footnote 12} project to ensure the CRA is compliant with the TBS strategic direction going forward.

GBA Plus is also being applied to the development and implementation of comprehensive communication strategies and products related to the CRA’s digital service offerings. Following a comprehensive GBA Plus review of the CRA’s Chat Services Project, certain groups were identified as unable to fully benefit from digital services. To address this, the CRA continues to maintain non-digital service channels, including phone support, paper correspondence and filing, and the CVITP, to help ensure the needs of all Canadians are met. As well, detailed research into accessibility requirements for persons with disabilities has been conducted, and these findings will inform the implementation of accessibility features in the Chat Services Project going forward.

United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

The CRA is dedicated to supporting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity by ensuring fair tax compliance and providing benefits and credits to taxpayers, thus contributing to their economic and social well-being. Since its first strategy in 1997, the CRA has continually delivered on its sustainable development commitments and has met, and surpassed, many of its performance indicators. It is also on track to meet its longer-term goals, such as transforming its vehicle fleet to zero-emission vehicles.

The CRA’s commitments in the 2023 to 2027 Departmental Sustainable Development Strategy include a balanced view of the environmental, social and economic dimensions of sustainable development, and align with the 2022 to 2026 Federal Sustainable Development Strategy, in accordance with the Federal Sustainable Development Act.

The CRA supports the following SDGs:

• No Poverty (SDG 1): Reduce poverty in Canada in all its forms.
• Reduced Inequalities (SDG 10): Advance reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples and take action to reduce inequality.
• Responsible Consumption and Production (SDG 12): Reduce waste and transition to zero-emission vehicles.
• Climate Action (SDG 13): Take action on climate change and its impacts.

The CRA aims to adapt to climate change, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, procure responsibly, and promote sustainable practices, aligning with federal goals for net-zero emissions by 2050, while addressing social and economic challenges.

More information on the CRA’s contributions to Canada’s Federal Implementation Plan on the 2030 Agenda and the Federal Sustainable Development Strategy can be found in its Departmental Sustainable Development Strategy and the Departmental Sustainable Development Strategy Performance Reports.

Innovation

The CRA continues to support and promote innovation across the organization. This includes initiatives such as:

• Fostering an innovative mindset among CRA employees.
• Increasing capacity for innovation and experimentation.
• Providing structural support for these initiatives.

Working and thinking in innovative ways is supported in the program areas, internal services, and corporate functions within the CRA. For example, the CRA is pursuing a digital transformation that supports the use of emerging technologies, such as AI, to accelerate and redefine processes and find efficiencies. Innovation helps the CRA reimagine the work it does and how it does it.

The CRA is focused on finding innovative ways to achieve efficiency gains and service improvements. Some important initiatives related to this are:

• RPA is being adopted across the CRA and is transforming the efficiency of public services. By deploying virtual workers to handle repetitive and administrative tasks, RPAs enhance employee satisfaction, improve productivity, accuracy, and compliance, while reducing operational risks. Since 2019, the growing number of RPAs have created numerous efficiencies and savings. RPAs have saved thousands of hours in labour and millions in costs, freeing up resources for more impactful work and supporting better service delivery to Canadian citizens.
• Charlie the Chatbot is live and remains in production after launching as a pilot in March 2020. The project maintains the chatbot on 12 of the CRA’s Canada.ca web pages, where it provides information on a variety of topics, including income tax and benefits, and limited program information. From its inception to September 30, 2024, Charlie has answered 13.8 million questions during 5.1 million conversations. The next iteration of the chatbot is currently being developed and is on track to be deployed in January 2025.
• Using a generative AI-powered chatbot, the CRA will pilot a public-facing chatbot capable of handling non-account-specific enquiries, delivering accurate and timely information to clients, sourced from CRA’s Canada.ca web pages, reducing pressure on contact centres.
• The Genni initiative is an internal CRA generative AI tool aimed to provide employees with access to secure generative AI to explore and determine its value in improving operational efficiency, while ensuring the appropriate oversight and safeguards are in place.
• The Quantum 2.0 solution will use cloud-based infrastructure, abnormal pattern analysis, and AI to improve the CRA’s capacity to recognize and prevent fraudulent payments, refunds, and rebates.

These innovative approaches underscore the CRA’s commitment to leveraging advanced technology for a more efficient and responsive public service.

Program inventory for tax and benefits

The program inventory identifies all of the CRA’s programs that contribute to its core responsibilities and results.

The following CRA programs support the core responsibility for tax:

• Tax services and processing – The CRA helps businesses and individuals to comply with Canada’s tax laws by processing their information and payments, and providing related services.
• Returns compliance – The CRA ensures that individuals, businesses, and trusts are compliant with their withholding, remitting, reporting, and filing obligations.
• Collections – The CRA collects tax and non-tax debts on behalf of the federal, provincial, and territorial governments, as well as for other government departments and agencies.
• Reporting compliance – The CRA protects the integrity of Canada’s self-assessment tax system through education and proactive efforts that are aimed at promoting compliance.
• Objections and appeals – The CRA offers an impartial review process for taxpayers who wish to file a formal dispute.
• Taxpayer relief – The CRA administers the process under which relief of penalties and interest may be granted to taxpayers under certain circumstances.
• Service feedback – The CRA offers clients a process to provide feedback, including complaints, suggestions and compliments, and resolve problems about the service, quality, or timeliness of the CRA work.
• Charities – The CRA supports and protects the integrity of Canada’s charitable sector through the regulation of registered charities, Canadian amateur athletic associations, national arts services organizations, journalism organizations, and other qualified donees.
• Registered plans – The CRA is responsible for registering and monitoring deferred income and savings plans.
• Policy, rulings, and interpretations – The CRA offers taxpayers, registrants, and tax intermediaries binding rulings and non-binding interpretations of the acts the CRA administers.

The following CRA program supports the core responsibility for benefits:

• Benefits – The CRA ensures that Canadians obtain the support and information they need to know what benefits they may be eligible to receive, that they receive their benefit payments in a timely manner, and have avenues of redress when they disagree with a decision on their benefit eligibility.

Supporting information on planned expenditures, human resources, and results related to CRA’s program inventory is available on GC Infobase.

Internal services

• In this section
  • Description
  • Plans to achieve results
  • Key risks
  • Planned resources to achieve results
  • CRA staffing principles
  • Planning for contracts awarded to Indigenous businesses

Description

Internal services are the services that are provided within a department so it can meet its corporate obligations and deliver its programs. There are 11 categories of internal services:

• management and oversight services;
• communications services;
• legal services;
• human resources management services;
• financial management services;
• security services;
• information management services;
• IT services;
• real property management services;
• materiel management services;
• acquisition management services.

Plans to achieve results

The CRA pursues the following strategic priority and 4 objectives supported by 7 commitments to fulfill its internal services responsibilities.

• In this section
  • D. Nurture a high-performing and diverse workforce in a modern, flexible, inclusive, and accessible workplace
    • D1. People-centric: Empower people leadership
    • D2. Resilient and modern: Equip and enable the workforce
    • D3. Digital and data-driven: Drive stewardship through data
    • D4. Culture: Align organizational culture

Planned resources to achieve results^{Footnote 10}

Table 5: Planned resources to achieve results for internal services

Table 5 provides a summary of the planned spending and full-time equivalents required to achieve results.

Resource	Planned
Spending	$1,042,224,045
Full-time equivalents	8,011

Complete financial and human resources information for the CRA’s program inventory is available on GC InfoBase.

CRA staffing principles related to a successful staffing program

Adaptability

• Staffing is flexible and responsive to the changing circumstances and to the unique or special needs of the organization.

Efficiency

• Staffing is planned and carried out taking into consideration time and cost, and it is linked to business requirements.

Fairness

• Staffing is equitable, just and objective.

Productiveness

• Staffing results in the required number of competent people being appointed to conduct the CRA’s business.

Transparency

• Communications about staffing are open, honest, respectful, timely, and easy to understand.

CRA staffing principles related to an effective workforce

Competence

• The workforce possesses the attributes required for effective job performance.

Non-partisanship

• The workforce and staffing decisions must be free from political and bureaucratic influence.

Representativeness

• The composition of our workforce reflects the labour market availability of employment equity designated groups.

Planning for contracts awarded to Indigenous businesses

GC departments and agencies are required to meet a target of awarding at least 5% of the total value of contracts to Indigenous businesses each year. This commitment is to be fully implemented by the end of 2024–25.

In line with this GC commitment, the CRA is dedicated to strengthening its economic relationships with Indigenous businesses and communities by increasing procurement opportunities for First Nations, Inuit and Métis businesses. This supports reconciliation efforts and promotes fair, open, and transparent procurement practices, resulting in a supplier base that is more diverse, inclusive, and representative of the Canadian population.

To increase opportunities for Indigenous businesses and continue to meet the minimum 5% GC target, the CRA will implement the following measures:

• Strengthening policy foundation: Having finalized and published its updated policy direction relating to corporate social responsibility in procurement and asset management in 2024–25, the CRA will expand related policy instruments to provide clear procedural direction on Indigenous procurement processes. Additionally, the CRA will introduce a provision within its Contracts Directive to allow for an increase to the directed contracts threshold (that is, when a contract is directed to a particular supplier) when procuring goods and services from Indigenous businesses.
• Prioritizing outreach and engagement: The CRA will continue to pursue opportunities for outreach and engagement with Indigenous business organizations in order to build trust and create relationships in support of the participation of Indigenous businesses in CRA procurements. Through engagement and consultation initiatives, the CRA will also gather valuable insights and feedback from Indigenous businesses as well as National Indigenous Organizations, allowing us to adapt and evolve our procurement approach.
• Increasing employee awareness: The CRA will continue to foster awareness of Indigenous procurement opportunities through targeted presentations and strategic communications. These awareness activities will aim to educate procurement staff as well as internal procurement clients on the importance of supporting Indigenous businesses and aligning with the GC’s priorities on economic reconciliation.
• Enhancing Indigenous procurement opportunities: The CRA will continue to proactively direct procurement for specific commodities, including IT end-user device purchases, to Indigenous technology resellers. Additionally, the CRA will continue to conduct targeted market research and will leverage the use of request-for-information processes to better understand Indigenous business capacity and capability.

Table 6: Percentage of contracts planned and awarded to Indigenous businesses

Table 6 presents the current, actual results with forecasted and planned results for the total percentage of contracts the CRA awarded or plans to award to Indigenous businesses.

5% reporting field	2023–24 actual result	2024–25 forecasted result	2025–26 planned result
Total percentage of contracts with Indigenous businesses	12.87%	5.8%	5.8%

Note: The 2023–24 fiscal year was an exceptional year with a higher-than-normal need for certain goods procured from Indigenous businesses.

Planned spending and human resources

This section provides an overview of the CRA’s planned spending and human resources for the next three fiscal years and compares planned spending for 2025–26 with actual spending from previous years.

• In this section
  • Spending
  • Funding
  • Future-oriented condensed statement of operations
  • Human resources

Spending

This section presents an overview of the CRA’s planned expenditures from 2022–23 to 2027–28.

Funding

This section provides an overview of the department’s voted and statutory funding for its core responsibilities and for internal services. For further information on funding authorities, consult the GC budgets and expenditures.

Future-oriented condensed statement of operations

The future-oriented condensed statement of operations provides an overview of the CRA’s operations for 2024–25 to 2025–26.

Human resources

This section presents an overview of the department’s actual and planned human resources from 2022–23 to 2027–28.

Corporate information

Organizational profile

Appropriate minister:

The Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, P.C., M.P.

Chair, Board of Management:

Suzanne Gouin

Institutional head:

Bob Hamilton

Ministerial portfolio:

National Revenue

Enabling instrument(s):

Canada Revenue Agency Act

Year of commencement:

1999

Organizational contact information

Mailing address:

Connaught building
555 Mackenzie Avenue
Ottawa ON K1A 0L5

Telephone:

613-957-3688

Fax:

613-952-1547

Website(s):

Canada Revenue Agency

Supplementary information tables

The following supplementary information tables are available on CRA’s Departmental web page:

• Details on transfer payment programs
• Gender-based analysis plus

Federal tax expenditures

The CRA’s DP does not include information on tax expenditures.

The tax system can be used to achieve public policy objectives through the application of special measures such as low tax rates, exemptions, deductions, deferrals and credits. The Department of Finance Canada publishes cost estimates and projections for these measures each year in the Report on Federal Tax Expenditures.

This report also provides detailed background information on tax expenditures, including descriptions, objectives, historical information and references to related federal spending programs, as well as evaluations and GBA Plus of tax expenditures.

Annex A: Strategic Planning Framework

The CRA’s Strategic Planning Framework links the strategic priorities and guiding principles to its mission, vision, values, and ultimate outcomes. It directs the CRA’s planning in both the short and medium term, with this plan, and also helps set the long-term direction for the organization.

The Strategic Planning Framework enables the CRA to remain committed to focusing on its short-term objectives while strategically envisioning a sustainable future. It supports medium term planning by establishing targeted strategic priorities that enable the CRA to become a more effective organization by enhancing compliance, streamlining processes, and improving service delivery to taxpayers. The guiding principles link with the priorities to facilitate a collaborative approach to planning that ensures a cohesive strategy to effectively administering benefits, and ultimately fostering a fair and efficient tax system.

The CRA continues to draw inspiration from the OECD (TA 3.0): Digital Transformation of Tax Administration, to chart a course towards a future where the CRA meets people where they are by embedding tax and benefit administration into systems they are already using, and makes tax and benefits just happen by minimizing the need for interactions.

Advancing towards this aspirational future, the CRA will continue to create a consistent and better digital experience for clients and employees through the lens of people, processes and technology to increasingly embed tax and benefit administration into the systems Canadians use every day. This will allow Canadians to access benefits designed to assist them and make it easier to comply with tax obligations and harder not to.

Strategic Planning Framework

Mission

Administer tax, benefits, and related programs, and ensure compliance on behalf of governments across Canada, thereby contributing to the ongoing economic and social well-being of Canadians.

Vision

A world-class tax and benefits administration that is trusted, fair, and helpful by putting people first.

Values

• Integrity
• Professionalism
• Respect
• Collaboration

Ultimate Outcomes

• Taxpayers comply with Canadian tax obligations
• The right tax revenue is secured for Canadians
• Canadians receive their rightful benefits
• Canadians have trust in the CRA

Strategic priorities

• Deliver high quality services
• Ensure the fairness of the tax system
• Transform digitally
• Nurture a high-performing and diverse workforce in a modern, flexible, inclusive and accessible workplace

Guiding principles

• Apply a user-centric approach to the design and delivery of programs and services
• Enhance enterprise-wide and data-driven approaches to planning, decision-making, and performance measurement
• Drive effectiveness through collaboration and partnerships

Annex B: Strategic Priorities for 2025–26 and their commitments

A. Deliver high quality services

A1. Improve contact centre service

1. Pilot a generative AI chatbot to provide quick access to relevant, up-to-date online information for Canadians.
2. Enable self-service options for My Account lockouts, allowing clients to unlock their online accounts without needing to call.

A2. Increase automation of tax filing and improve access to benefits

3. Increase the number of Canadians eligible to use SimpleFile by Phone to 2 million in 2025.
4. Increase, by 5%, the number of individuals helped through the CVITP in comparison to the 2024 program year.
5. Continue to implement the CRA’s Indigenous Strategy 2024–2027, whose main goal is to improve outcomes for Indigenous Peoples when they interact with the CRA.

A3. Simplify client interactions

6. Enable individual and business clients to quickly and easily learn about their tax obligations and entitlements to benefits and credits by providing clear, well-developed online answers to general, non-account-specific questions on Canada.ca.
7. Ensure a seamless service experience for businesses seeking to claim the new clean economy investment tax credits (ITC) by implementing and administering the ITCs in partnership with Natural Resources Canada.

B. Ensure the fairness of the tax system

B1. Increase the rate of resolution of the tax debt

8. Resolve approximately $1.2 billion in outstanding tax debt, as a result of Budget 2021 investments, supporting a tax system that promotes fairness.

B2. Combat aggressive tax planning and tax evasion

9. Continue to deliver compliance activities focused on addressing tax avoidance within the wealthy population, and non-compliance supported by promoters and advisors through audits and improvements to business intelligence and tools.
10. Combat aggressive tax planning by designing tools and methodologies that enhance audit activities of economic entities^{Footnote 9} and non-residents.
11. Publish the CRA’s tax gap report, which covers up to 2022, delivering on the GC’s commitment to estimate and publish Canada’s federal tax gap on an ongoing basis.
12. Engage with partners to focus on creating a reporting system that prioritizes responsible enforcement, and develop a communication and education plan which will support taxpayers in meeting specific reporting obligations.

B3. Continue to tackle non-compliance in the most serious cases and implement strategies to address non-compliance in emerging high-risk areas

13. Apply new analytical tools using technology, machine learning, and AI to recover $250 million in unwarranted GST/HST refund and rebate claims.
14. Plan the domestic implementation of the CARF, including identifying appropriate information technology (IT) infrastructure modifications and conducting project planning.

C. Transform digitally

C1. Become a more secure and efficient organization

15. Focus on the stability and continuity of IT and people-focused solutions to maintain the protection of CRA systems, processes and data from evolving threats and vulnerabilities.
16. Develop a general-purpose generative AI tool for internal CRA use to improve operational efficiencies in a manner aligned with principles for responsible use and providing business value.

C2. Advance more ways for clients to interact digitally

17. Improve the client experience when applying for taxpayer relief by launching an accessible, digital tool to educate taxpayers on whether applying for taxpayer relief is the right course of action and what documentation is needed to support their request.
18. Complement the CRA portal services by offering secure ways to digitally exchange solicited information with taxpayers, businesses, and third parties who do not have access to the portal or a portal account.

C3. Strengthen security, identity management and privacy safeguards

19. Enhance contact centre agent confidentiality tools, guiding agents through the authentication process to safely and efficiently identify callers.
20. Implement improvements to the IPS’ tools and processes used to address potential unauthorized use of taxpayer information by a third party.

D. Nurture a high-performing and diverse workforce in a modern, flexible, inclusive, and accessible workplace

D1. People-centric: Empower people leadership

21. Implement a national Leadership and Management Development Approach.
22. Develop and implement the approach to strategically expand character leadership below the executive level.

D2. Resilient and modern: Equip and enable the workforce

23. Define, create and implement a Hybrid Framework for the CRA with clear guiding principles and objectives.

D3. Digital and data-driven: Drive stewardship through data

24. Establish a modern foundation for the management of human resources data.

D4. Culture: Align organizational culture

25. Review the CRA’s Code of Integrity and Professional Conduct, the Directive on Conflict of Interest, and the CRA Integrity Framework to drive alignment with core values.
26. Implement the Well-being and Psychological Health and Safety Approach by developing and implementing tools and products to both identify and manage workplace risks related to the well-being of individuals, teams and the organization.
27. Increase the representation of Indigenous peoples within the executive group and non-executive groups.

Annex C: Program Inventory Indicators

Annex D: Definitions

List of terms

appropriation (crédit)

Any authority of Parliament to pay money out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund.

budgetary expenditures (dépenses budgétaires)

Operating and capital expenditures; transfer payments to other levels of government, organizations or individuals; and payments to Crown corporations.

core responsibility (responsabilité essentielle)

An enduring function or role performed by a department. The intentions of the department with respect to a core responsibility are reflected in one or more related departmental results that the department seeks to contribute to or influence.

Departmental Plan (plan ministériel)

A report on the plans and expected performance of an appropriated department over a 3 year period. Departmental Plans are usually tabled in Parliament each spring.

departmental result (résultat ministériel)

A consequence or outcome that a department seeks to achieve. A departmental result is often outside departments’ immediate control, but it should be influenced by program-level outcomes.

departmental result indicator (indicateur de résultat ministériel)

A quantitative measure of progress on a departmental result.

departmental results framework (cadre ministériel des résultats)

A framework that consists of the department’s core responsibilities, departmental results and departmental result indicators.

Departmental Results Report (rapport sur les résultats ministériels)

A report on a department’s actual accomplishments against the plans, priorities and expected results set out in the corresponding Departmental Plan.

full-time equivalent (équivalent temps plein)

A measure of the extent to which an employee represents a full person year charge against a departmental budget. For a particular position, the full-time equivalent figure is the ratio of number of hours the person actually works divided by the standard number of hours set out in the person’s collective agreement.

gender-based analysis plus (GBA Plus) (analyse comparative entre les sexes plus [ACS Plus])

Is an analytical tool used to support the development of responsive and inclusive policies, programs, and other initiatives. GBA Plus is a process for understanding who is impacted by the issue or opportunity being addressed by the initiative; identifying how the initiative could be tailored to meet diverse needs of the people most impacted; and anticipating and mitigating any barriers to accessing or benefitting from the initiative. GBA Plus is an intersectional analysis that goes beyond biological (sex) and socio-cultural (gender) differences to consider other factors, such as age, disability, education, ethnicity, economic status, geography (including rurality), language, race, religion, and sexual orientation.

Using GBA Plus involves taking a gender- and diversity-sensitive approach to our work. Considering all intersecting identity factors as part of GBA Plus, not only sex and gender, is a Government of Canada commitment.

government priorities (priorités gouvernementales)

For the purpose of the 2025-26 Departmental Plan, government priorities are the high-level themes outlining the government’s agenda in the most recent Speech from the Throne.

horizontal initiative (initiative horizontale)

An initiative where two or more federal organizations are given funding to pursue a shared outcome, often linked to a government priority.

Indigenous business (entreprise autochtones)

For the purpose of the Directive on the Management of Procurement Appendix E: Mandatory Procedures for Contracts Awarded to Indigenous Businesses and the Government of Canada’s commitment that a mandatory minimum target of 5% of the total value of contracts is awarded to Indigenous businesses, an organization that meets the definition and requirements as defined by the Indigenous Business Directory.

non‑budgetary expenditures (dépenses non budgétaires)

Net outlays and receipts related to loans, investments and advances, which change the composition of the financial assets of the Government of Canada.

performance (rendement)

What an organization did with its resources to achieve its results, how well those results compare to what the organization intended to achieve, and how well lessons learned have been identified.

performance indicator (indicateur de rendement)

A qualitative or quantitative means of measuring an output or outcome, with the intention of gauging the performance of an department, program, policy or initiative respecting expected results.

plan (plan)

The articulation of strategic choices, which provides information on how an organization intends to achieve its priorities and associated results. Generally, a plan will explain the logic behind the strategies chosen and tend to focus on actions that lead to the expected result.

planned spending (dépenses prévues)

For Departmental Plans and Departmental Results Reports, planned spending refers to those amounts presented in Main Estimates.

A department is expected to be aware of the authorities that it has sought and received. The determination of planned spending is a departmental responsibility, and departments must be able to defend the expenditure and accrual numbers presented in their Departmental Plans and Departmental Results Reports.

program (programme)

Individual or groups of services, activities or combinations thereof that are managed together within the department and focus on a specific set of outputs, outcomes or service levels.

program inventory (répertoire des programmes)

Identifies all the department’s programs and describes how resources are organized to contribute to the department’s core responsibilities and results.

result (résultat)

A consequence attributed, in part, to an department, policy, program or initiative. Results are not within the control of a single department, policy, program or initiative; instead they are within the area of the department’s influence.

statutory expenditures (dépenses législatives)

Expenditures that Parliament has approved through legislation other than appropriation acts. The legislation sets out the purpose of the expenditures and the terms and conditions under which they may be made.

target (cible)

A measurable performance or success level that an organization, program or initiative plans to achieve within a specified time period. Targets can be either quantitative or qualitative.

voted expenditures (dépenses votées)

Expenditures that Parliament approves annually through an appropriation act. The vote wording becomes the governing conditions under which these expenditures may be made.