2009-2010 to 2011-2012 Summary of the Corporate Business Plan - Achieving Our Strategic Outcomes

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Achieving Our Strategic Outcomes

Strategic Outcomes


The CRA’s mandate sets out two strategic outcomes that clearly explain our contribution to Canadian society. These outcomes govern the priorities we pursue and the investments we make to support those priorities.
Tax Services
  • Taxpayers meet their obligations and Canada’s revenue base is protected.
    Benefit Programs
  • Eligible families and individuals receive timely and correct benefit payments.
    The Summary of the Corporate Business Plan 2009-2010 to 2011-2012 outlines the strategies that will allow us to achieve these outcomes.

Tax Services

Canada’s tax system is based on self-assessment and voluntary compliance. Our approach in administering Canada’s tax laws relies on our capacity to effectively identify and address compliance risks to protect Canada’s revenue base.

In response to ongoing challenges and opportunities, we have identified the following three areas of focus to guide our efforts over the planning period – tax integrity, strengthening service, and business sustainability.

Tax Integrity

Tax integrity is about making it more difficult to be non-compliant by actively and consistently addressing instances of non-compliance. In an increasingly open and competitive global market, combating harmful tax practices has become more difficult. We must ensure that honest taxpayers do not end up paying for dishonest practices by shouldering a greater share of the tax burden. Our ability to maintain effective communication and information-sharing practices with federal and international stakeholders allows us to quickly respond to emerging compliance threats.

Our Objective
Our Approach
Outcome
Make it harder to be non-compliant
  • Undergo a second compliance review process to address risks to Canada’s revenue base
  • Implement our Compliance Communications Strategy to encourage compliance and deter acts of non-compliance
  • Co-operate with other tax administrations and international organizations to exchange information on cross-border financial transactions
  • Work closely with other federal government departments, provinces, and territories to improve data and information-sharing arrangements
  • Maintain a strong international presence to advance protocols and practices to identify and respond to compliance threats, and to assist the work of tax administrations around the world
Influence non-compliant taxpayers to meet their obligations under Canada’s tax laws and deter those contemplating non-compliance

Strengthening Service

We are committed to providing timely and accessible information products and services to assist taxpayers and benefit recipients to comply with their obligations and receive their rightful share of entitlements. Our ability to identify and fully comprehend the service needs of taxpayer segments allows us to develop the most cost-effective solutions.

Our Objective
Our Approach
Outcome
Make it easier to comply
  • Expand and enhance the suite of self-service options so that more people can interact with us in a secure environment for more transactions
  • Maintain the accessibility and effectiveness of our telephone service
  • Tailor our communication and outreach activities to better meet the needs of specific taxpayer groups (seniors, new Canadians, youth, etc.)
Maintain and strengthen current and future compliance

Business Sustainability

Taxpayers have come to expect a modern and progressive tax administration – one that is continually evolving its programs and services to meet their changing needs. We must ensure that all facets of our organization are appropriately aligned to achieve our mission. Most importantly, we must maintain a sound physical information technology infrastructure to sustain the delivery of our mission-critical programs and services.

Our Objective
Our Approach
Outcome
Achieve excellence in program delivery
  • Strengthen our information technology responsiveness and capability
  • Invest in employee development
  • Further strengthen the protection of taxpayer information
The long-term sustainability of our tax administration

We take the following into consideration when assessing our results against our Tax Services strategic outcome:

Our Indicators
Micro Indicators
Trend in changes in personal income reported to the CRA compared with changes to personal income estimated by Statistics Canada
Trend in changes in net GST/HST collected compared with changes in retail sales and personal expenditures
Trend in changes in corporate income tax reported to the CRA compared with changes in corporate profits before tax estimated by Statistics Canada
Trend in changes in net income of unincorporated businesses reported to the CRA compared with changes in net income of unincorporated businesses per Statistics Canada National Accounts estimates
Compliance Measures
Registration compliance - Proportion of Canadian businesses that have registered as required by law to collect the GST/HST
Filing compliance - Proportion of the Canadian population who file their returns on time
Reporting compliance - Degree to which taxpayers report complete and accurate information
Remittance compliance - Proportion of taxpayers who owed taxes and paid the full amount on time

Benefit Programs

Income security is essential to the economic and social well-being of Canadians. By providing benefits, credits, and other related services, the CRA supports the efforts of governments to assist families and individuals. We support the achievement of our strategic outcome by helping to ensure that benefit recipients have access to timely and accurate information services.

In response to ongoing challenges and opportunities, we have identified the following three areas of focus to guide our efforts over the planning period – strengthening service, benefits validation, and maintaining effective relationships.

Strengthening Service

We recognize that benefits are issued to a wide range of individuals. Every segment of the population must have access to our programs for us to achieve our target of individuals getting all of the benefits and credits that they are entitled to receive.

Our Objective
Our Approach
Outcome
Eligible Canadians access the benefits and credits to which they are entitled and benefit recipients receive timely and correct payments
  • Focus on handling enquiries and communicating timely and accurate benefits program information to facilitate application and registration
All eligible individuals apply for benefits and credits and payments are issued on time and calculated correctly
  • Enhance our electronic service offerings to allow benefit recipients to access their account information on-line and have the flexibility to submit information, make payments, or simply check on the status of their benefit or credit payments.

Benefits Validation

Through our validation efforts we provide information to recipients and create a credible enforcement presence to act as a deterrent to non-compliance. By confirming account data, our reviews find not only recipients who may be overpaid, but also those who have been underpaid. In each case we make all the necessary corrections.

Our Objective
Our Approach
Outcome
Benefit recipients meet program obligations
  • Inform recipients about their rights and obligations
Payments are based on accurate information
  • Confirm account data to ensure payments are based on accurate information
  • Ensure benefit recipients meet program obligations

Maintaining Effective Relationships

The CRA administers benefit and credit programs on behalf of other government clients. The CRA is chosen by provinces, territories, and other federal departments to access our platform to deliver programs or provide services that respond to their own priorities or requirements.

Our flexibility as an agency and the adaptability of our systems enable us to leverage our delivery infrastructure to administer a range of ongoing and one-time programs on behalf of provinces, territories, and other federal departments.

Our Objective
Our Approach
Outcome
Deliver new benefit programs and related services where feasible
  • Work with our government clients to simplify administration, eliminate duplication, and lessen the overall compliance burden, where feasible
Increased number of programs and services delivered
  • Work with several jurisdictions to develop an automated benefit application process that will allow parents to apply for child benefits by ticking a box on the child’s birth certificate application

We assess our results against our Benefit Programs strategic outcome through the following indicators:

Our Indicators
Establishing eligibility for benefits
Percentage of potential recipients who receive the Canada Child Tax Benefit (CCTB) (reported after each census)
Correct benefit payments
Percentage of CCTB recipients who provide complete and accurate information and receive the proper entitlement
CCTB overpayment debt as a percentage of payments issued
Timely benefit payments
Percentage of payments received by benefit recipients on time

Strategic Planning and Reporting Framework

The CRA has in place a process and systems for the selection, development, and ongoing use of performance measures to guide its decision-making. We use qualitative and quantitative indicators to determine the results we achieve.



The illustration on the right demonstrates the hierarchy of measures that we use. We consider that we are meeting our mandate when we are achieving our strategic outcomes. On the next page, we begin the discussion of our strategies and key areas of focus for each program activity over the planning period.



Date modified:
2009-04-03