Program Activities

Appeals

Trends and Challenges

In recent years, the CRA has significantly increased its audit of tax avoidance arrangements, particularly gifting shelters, and there has been a corresponding increase in the volume of objections from taxpayers to the resulting reassessments. There has been growth in the number of commodity tax disputes that require resolution. A new workload related to the administration of objections and appeals associated with the Corporate Tax Administration for Ontario initiative is also on the horizon.

Our Focus

Increased work volumes: We will take steps to minimize the impact of high work volumes on the availability of a timely, efficient, and effective dispute resolution process, which is central to safeguarding taxpayers’ trust and confidence in Canada’s tax regime.

Strengthen service delivery: Over the planning period, we will review our processes to improve productivity and develop strategies to deal with increasing workloads, while keeping in mind the need to provide a correct decision in all cases. We will support and enhance existing services while also seeking opportunities to add to our online appeals services to meet taxpayer demand.

In response to the challenges and opportunities in our operating environment, our focus over the planning period is to:

Human Resources Challenges

Appeals officers are historically recruited from the CRA audit staff. Maintaining our program delivery capacity depends on our ability to deal with the staffing realities which include our ability to attract and retain staff in certain areas of the country and enhancing the career paths of appeals officers. We are developing effective and flexible strategies to recruit and employ available resources to deal with current and projected workloads.

Date modified:

2009-04-03