Message Testing for Proposed New Canadians Advertising Campaign

Prepared for the:
Public Affairs Branch
Canada Revenue Agency
FINAL REPORT
June 2008
POR# 352-07
Contract #46558-098173/001/CY

Prepared by:
Ipsos Reid Public Affairs

Le rapport complet en français sera fourni sur demande.

To request a full copy of this report, please contact Library and Archives Canada at:
613-996-5115 or 1-866-578-7777 or www.collectionscanada.ca

Media Enquiries:
Media Relations
Canada Revenue Agency
4th Floor 555 MacKenzie Avenue
Ottawa ON K1A 0L5
media.relations@cra-arc.gc.ca

Executive Summary

Introduction

The Public Affairs Branch and Compliance Programs Branch of the Canada Revenue Agency have identified communications to the public as a potential tool to promote greater compliance with Canada's tax laws. As part of a newly developed compliance communications strategy, a multi-year, multi-audience advertising campaign has been suggested, part of which was intended to be directed towards new Canadians. In order to explore potential messages and means of communicating among new Canadians, Ipsos Reid was commissioned to conduct qualitative research among three key audiences of new Canadians consisting of focus groups among Mandarin, Punjabi and Arab speaking immigrants to Canada.

Research Objectives among New Canadians

In a previous research project by Ipsos-Reid for the CRA, several participants among established Canadians recognized that "everyone" knows they have to pay taxes. These participants sensed that those who fail to comply with tax laws usually do so deliberately, not out of ignorance.

Regarding recent immigrants, past research by Ipsos-Reid on behalf of the Privy Council Office has found that New Canadians must make significant adjustments to their adopted country. Language, culture and a basic familiarity with income taxes may all pose significant barriers among immigrants to compliance with Canada's tax laws.

The CRA has in the past conducted internal research that suggested that new Canadians might not realize that they may have had to file a tax return, while others don't know how.

The objectives of this research were to determine how best to inform new Canadians that they must file a tax return to receive benefits to which they may be entitled, or if they have taxes to pay. Specifically, this research explored the following themes:

• How to increase awareness of the obligation to file and the availability of services to assist them in filing
• Explore barriers to filing tax returns for this community
• Explore most motivational messaging: duty, Canadian way of life, fear of penalty
• How to increase awareness of the potential benefits and tax credits available to them through filing
• Trusted info sources (influencers, community services)
• Preferred mass communications channels

Methodology

Ipsos Reid conducted a series of six focus groups among three distinct audiences of New Canadians, segmented by mother tongue: Mandarin Chinese (conducted in Toronto), Punjabi (conducted in Vancouver) and Arabic (conducted in Montreal). These groups were conducted between May 13 and May 15, 2008. Each group included between eight and 10 participants. Individual participants were paid a $125 incentive for their time.

Two groups were conducted among each language group. One group was conducted among recently settled immigrants (defined by their arrival to Canada within the past three years) and among more settled immigrants (defined by their arrival to Canada between four and 10 years ago). All groups were conducted in participants' mother tongue (Mandarin, Punjabi or Arabic), with the exception that the Arabic speaking participants expressed themselves in both French and Arabic during the sessions.

Recognizing that spoken Arabic differs significantly across the Arab world, the Arabic speaking participants were screened to include participants from several North African countries, including Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia, where a common vernacular form of Arabic is used. Immigrants from these countries, who tend to be equally fluent in both French and Arabic, form a significant source of Arab-speaking immigration to Montreal. According to Statistics Canada, in 2006 immigrants from Algeria and Morocco constituted the first and third most prevalent source countries of new permanent residents in Montreal.

A note about qualitative research: Qualitative research, unlike quantitative research, is not designed to provide a representative or statistically significant sample of the population under study. Rather, the results of qualitative research are intended to explore the ideas and language members by which members of a given target audience express themselves with respect to the study issues. The results of qualitative research should be considered as directional in nature.

Key Findings

This research asked three key audiences of new Canadians questions pertaining to the purpose they see in paying taxes, their awareness that they must file a tax return to receive benefits, the sources of information they have used to learn more about filing taxes, how they have filed their taxes in the past, how the government could best communicate to them about filing taxes and what advertising medium would best reach members of their community for advertising from the government on tax matters.

Paying taxes was identified by research participants as the most important obligation that immigrants to Canada have to the country. The results of the research found that new Canadians, not unlike the general population, identify government services, such as health care and education, among the key benefits to paying taxes. Several also point to government services that specifically benefit immigrants, such as English language courses, as a benefit made possible by tax dollars. The availability of public meeting places, such as community centres and libraries, are also mentioned as key benefits following from the tax dollars the government receives. Often, however, participants say they do not really know where their tax dollars go – and recommend strongly that the government do more to communicate how it spends the money.

There is not a high degree of active awareness that filing taxes – whether taxes are owing or not – is a requisite step to receive certain benefits from government, such as Child Tax Credits. When told about this, most participants said it made perfect sense, that they "knew" it intuitively since they would not expect someone could receive a cash benefit from the government without filing taxes. It is nevertheless worth noting that receiving the sort of cash benefits that filing taxes allow individuals to receive are not the sort of benefits immediately associated with paying taxes, which tend toward health care, education and community infrastructure, as mentioned above.

New Canadians look to their community first for information about filing taxes, starting with family and friends of whom they ask basic questions and often receive referrals to third parties such as accountants and tax preparation services. This research also heard – repeatedly – about the importance of local gathering places as important resources. These include community centres, libraries and sometimes (for the Punjabi and Arabic participants) temples and mosques. Trust in the information they receive is equated with the trust they have for the members of their community from whom they seek the information. In terms of actually filing their taxes, most participants, particularly the newer immigrants, in the Punjabi and Mandarin groups said they had a third party do this for them; Arabic immigrants who arrived to Canada proficient in French were more apt to have done taxes themselves and were more apt to say they did so using the Internet or commercial tax preparation software.

Information from the Government of Canada and the CRA specifically is often seen as inaccessible. Information, whether in print or online, is often said to be full of technical language and hard to understand. Most participants in the research said they have their taxes prepared for them by a third party, so they often bring their questions to those individuals. More information in immigrants' mother tongue is encouraged by participants; several suggest providing telephone information hotlines with operators who speak their language.

Participants were asked what the message of advertising from the Government of Canada to members of their community about the importance of filing taxes should be. On this basis, participants volunteered suggestions that the advertising should be positive in nature, for example that it should speak to the benefits that people in their community realize from the taxes they pay. Several suggested that knowing more about how tax money was spent would encourage more people to comply with the law. Others suggested advertising the fact that some people may qualify for a tax refund as a potentially motivating message.

The CRA enjoys a fairly high level of recognition among respondents. Attitudes towards the CRA ranged from quite positive (particularly among the Punjabi participants) to mixed (among the Mandarin participants) to fairly negative (among the Arabic participants). Some recognized the important role that the CRA fills in collecting the revenue that allows the government to provide services. Some appreciated receiving information from the CRA making them aware of benefits they could receive. Negative views of the CRA dwelled on the perception that the Agency is not prompt to return money, though it is prompt when it is owed money. Others complained that the CRA was inefficient, hard to deal with and hard to obtain personal assistance from without resorting to the telephone information line. The telephone information line itself is commonly seen as difficult to access and with operators who are difficult to understand, once one is reached.

When three specific messages were tested, participants most often said the message that filing taxes enables the filer to qualify for cash benefits from the government would work best in their community. The message that filing taxes is an important community responsibility was well received, but not seen as very motivating in that it seemed to lack a specific focus on what filing taxes or not may mean to the individual. The message that penalties are in store for those who do not file their taxes was least popular, both due to its negativity as well as the fact that few felt people in their community knowingly violated tax laws.

As for the media recommended for an advertising campaign, participants suggested several community specific print and broadcast outlets to reach their community. Just as often they mentioned very local places, in particular community centres and libraries, as places where advertising would be likely to reach members of their community. These places are also where many immigrants go when they have questions about their dealings with government. Others suggested advertising in banks and near ATM machines that are located in their community.

Date modified:

2008-12-16