Serving You Better: Track how the CRA is helping small and medium businesses

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In the fall of 2016, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) received feedback from small and medium businesses and accountants that will help make our programs and services more helpful and easier to use.

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1. We will modernize and raise awareness of the CRA’s digital services

What we will do	Status
Make signing up for the CRA’s online services faster. With telephone authorization, you will be able to phone the CRA to get a security code sent to you instantly by email.
Create a series of short videos that shows businesses how to use the individual features of My Business Account.
Create a mobile app for businesses to help manage interactions with the CRA.
Let you give your employees T4 information slips in electronic format so long as your business meets certain conditions set by the CRA.
Sign up new businesses for My Business Account and Online mail when they register for CRA program accounts such as GST/HST and payroll.
Give presentations and hold webinars about our digital services for new CRA employees.

2. We will make tax information easier to access, understand, and use

What we will do	Status
Transition from our aging telephone infrastructure to the Government of Canada telephony platform and complete feasibility studies for adding call-back and secure chat line features.
Conduct a pilot for a new dedicated telephone service. This pilot project will let income tax return preparers call experienced CRA staff who can help with more complex technical issues.
Review the Pensionable insurable earnings report (PIER) and other notices and letters for businesses.
Expand the Liaison Officer Assistance Requests pilot program to allow businesses across Canada to request a Liaison Officer visit.
Clarify the Employment Insurance contribution rules for family members in our payroll guides.
Let corporations view the assessed value of T2 Corporation Income Tax returns and schedules and their CRA-verified capital dividend account balance in My Business Account.
Let business representatives file requests for authorization with commercial software.
Implement T2 Auto-fill through commercial software.
Let business owners and representatives create their own filing and balance confirmation letters online.
Conduct a feasibility study for a volunteer tax program that would help the smallest new businesses understand the payroll, GST/HST and other tax obligations that come with starting a business.
Continue to improve the clarity, language and layout of our notices and letters to make them easier to understand.

3. We will clarify information about payment options

What we will do	Status
Improve the information available in My Business Account to explain to users how to fix misallocated payments where and when they want to.
Raise awareness for direct deposit, which allows the CRA to deposit money directly to your bank account.
Make the remittance voucher order form more prominent in My Business Account to help you order remittance vouchers online.
Add text on the Order remittance voucher page in My Business Account that explains how magnetic ink is used and why vouchers cannot be printed using regular home or office printers.
Give a clear explanation of how remittance vouchers are personalized to ensure payments go to the right accounts.

4. We will improve services related to the audit, collections, and appeals processes

What we will do	Status
Improve the time it takes to resolve an objection. In the fall of 2016, we developed a comprehensive action plan to improve timeliness and better inform Canadians of the expected and actual timeframes to for resolving an objection based on complexity level.
Improve audit processes and communications with businesses and their representatives. We will learn your views by launching a post-audit survey for small businesses and monitoring the feedback we hear.
Enhance the clearance certificate process by communicating earlier when you apply, and by providing information that helps identify situations when you may not require a clearance certificate.
Ensure national consistency by communicating collection procedures to audit branches and offering training for auditors.