Appeals

The CCRA's Appeals business line administers one of the Government of Canada's largest dispute resolution services. We aim to provide clients with a fair dispute resolution process that respects Canadians' fundamental right to redress in their dealings with the federal government.

We review clients' contested decisions in Income Tax, GST/HST, Excise Tax, CPP, and EI cases 1 . Clients who are not satisfied with the results of our review may appeal to the courts. As of March 31, 2004, almost $7.58 billion in income taxes, GST/HST, and excise taxes were in dispute, an amount that is consistent with past years. Some 64,000 individuals and businesses exercised their fundamental right to redress.

In addition, we are responsible for co-ordinating the CCRA's Fairness Initiative, which includes the application of legislative provisions for forgiving interest and penalties for clients unable to comply with tax laws due to circumstances beyond their control. We also administer the Voluntary Disclosures Program (VDP), which allows clients to correct past errors or omissions and report their tax without penalty.

To enhance fairness, we work with the Department of Justice to help identify legislative amendments and recommend these changes to the Department of Finance.

To enhance the impartiality of the appeals process, both the CCRA and our clients rely on the courts and the independence of the judiciary as the ultimate arbiters of disputes that cannot be successfully resolved through the CCRA's administrative redress process.

1 As of December 12, 2003, the review of contested decisions in trade administration and customs enforcement actions became the responsibility of the CBSA. Figures shown for this year and last year exclude customs and trade administration cases.

Date modified:

2004-10-28