Summary of the Corporate Business Plan 2013-2014 to 2015-2016

5 [if you disagree]

[total planned spending]

(thousands of dollars)

Forecast spending 2012-2013	Planned spending 2013-2014	Planned spending 2014-2015	Planned spending 2015-2016
179,149	178,625	173,148	169,228

[introduction]

Timely, impartial, and consistent redress and complaint mechanisms help to support our voluntary compliance system. High levels of voluntary compliance can only be sustained by maintaining the trust of those who are being asked to comply. This faith in our administration is built upon perceptions of fairness, impartiality, and integrity. These perceptions are validated by redress and complaint processes that allow taxpayers and benefit recipients to contest our decisions, voice their dissatisfaction with our services and, when warranted, seek relief.

[what we want to achieve]

To strengthen taxpayers' trust in our tax and benefit administration by providing timely, impartial, and consistent redress and compliance processes.

[strategic context]

In a recent survey, respondents were asked to rate the CRA on three specific aspects of service: respect toward taxpayers, fair treatment of taxpayers, and the ease of understanding of the information provided to taxpayers. The respectful treatment of taxpayers received the highest rating of the three aspects. On a scale of 1 to 10, 45% of Canadians rated the CRA at 8 or higher for its respectful treatment of taxpayers, while 41% gave the CRA similar high ratings for its fair treatment of taxpayers.

Treating taxpayers with respect and fairness is clearly a key element in maintaining the trust of Canadians in our tax administration and sustaining our voluntary compliance system. Our redress and complaint processes support the compliance continuum by positively influencing compliance attitudes and demonstrating that our decisions are fair and impartial. This enhances the integrity of our tax and benefits administration.

[our core activities]

Our recourse processes fall into three categories. We provide avenues for:

• lodging formal service complaints;
• providing taxpayer relief; and
• reviewing our decisions.

service complaints

If taxpayers cannot resolve an issue to their satisfaction through normal interaction with our employees, they can lodge a formal complaint through our Service Complaints program. This program has its origins in the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, which comprises of eight service rights, seven statutory rights, and five commitments to small businesses. The program offers taxpayers a formal process for resolving complaints about mistakes, undue delays, and other service-related issues. We conduct ongoing analyses of all formal service-related complaints. We use this information to identify trends and improve our service delivery and business processes by addressing the causes of these difficulties.

If taxpayers are not satisfied with how their complaints are resolved, they have the right to take their issues to the Office of the Taxpayers' Ombudsman.

In the planning period, we will:

• strengthen our business analytics capacity to better identify trends in service complaints.

taxpayer relief

Taxpayer relief provisions help taxpayers who are unable to meet their tax obligations because of circumstances beyond their control. These provisions allow the minister to offer relief to individual taxpayers in situations where the strict application of the law would be unreasonable or unfair.

These provisions allow for:

• cancelling or waiving penalties and interest;
• accepting late, amended, or revoked income tax election; and
• issuing refunds or adjustments beyond the normal three-year period (for individuals and testamentary trusts).

In the planning period, we will:

• work with our regional offices to reduce processing times for requests for taxpayer relief.

administrative review

The CRA has a statutory duty to provide an administrative review process that allows for the timely and impartial review of disagreements arising from our decisions. We deal with disputes that arise from assessments of income tax, excise tax, GST/HST, Canada Pension Plan (CPP) and Employment Insurance (EI), benefit programs, softwood lumber products export, air traveller security, and charities.

If a tax dispute cannot be resolved to the taxpayer's satisfaction through our formal administrative review processes, the taxpayer can also appeal to the Tax Court of Canada. The Department of Justice serves as our advocate in these cases and we work closely with it to make sure that our positions are defended and fully communicated to the Court.

By modernizing business practices and optimizing our delivery structure, we expect to see productivity gains that will allow us to more efficiently process these complex files. The CRA will continue to invest additional resources to mitigate the risks associated with the increasing inventory of objections.

Administrative disputes held pending the outcome of court decisions comprise a significant portion of the objections currently in our inventory. Managing these files proactively, to ensure the CRA is in a position to process them on a timely basis when the courts render their decisions and they move to an active status, remains an important objective. By centralizing skill sets and consolidating the processing of common or group objections, the CRA will be in a better position to resolve these disputes efficiently.

In the planning period, we will:

• reduce workable inventory levels of objections and timeframes for addressing unassigned inventory; and
• contain litigation costs by enhancing controls and analysis.

[conclusion]

Our ability to protect Canada's revenue base depends on maintaining the public's trust and confidence in how we enforce statutes and deliver programs. We will continue to build this trust by ensuring our staff have the capacity to provide timely, impartial, and consistent processes for administrative review and addressing complaints. We will also continue to provide timely relief to those taxpayers who are unable to meet their tax obligations because of circumstances. These processes are important because they positively influence compliance attitudes and enhance the integrity of our tax and benefits administration.

[our performance indicators – if you disagree]

We use the following indicators to assess whether we are achieving our core business outcome.

Our core business outcome – Canadians have access to impartial and timely review of contested decisions.

Activity	Performance indicator	Expected result (Footnote 1)
Redress	First contact letter for disputes within 30 days	85%
	Service complaints – acknowledged within 2 business days	80%
	Service complaints – resolved within 30 business days	80%
	Average age of Appeals workable inventory (in days) – income tax files	neutral or downward trend
	Appeals activities that met standards for consistency – income tax files	97%
	Appeals activities that met standards for transparency – income tax files	98%
	Taxpayer relief provisions – consistent application (per Quality Assurance Program)	95%

(Footnote 1) Sources: CRA service standards and 2011-2012 Annual Report to Parliament

Date modified:

2013-03-28