29 January 1990 Ruling 90M01143 F - 24th CIAT General Assembly

Please note that the following document, although believed to be correct at the time of issue, may not represent the current position of the CRA.
Prenez note que ce document, bien qu'exact au moment émis, peut ne pas représenter la position actuelle de l'ARC.

24TH CIAT GENERAL ASSEMBLY

We have your memorandum of January 22, 1990 with the attached outline for the paper for topic 2,3.  "Progress achieved in compliance with the administration of tax laws with respect to improving taxpayer acceptance of taxes."

The background material which we sent to your directorate for the preparation of the paper indicates that it should not exceed 20 double-spaced pages, which would by roughly ten ordinary pages. Bearing that in mind we believe that you would have to be selective in the items explored, as listed in your outline.

In preparing the paper you might address the problems of compliance and describe the achievements and thus bring in some of the methods used in achievement.  This might exclude some aspects noted, although experimentation should not be excluded.

The area of taxpayer education certainly permits an exploration of our activities, and we hope achievements.  The attached paper was presented to the CIAT Technical Conference in Paris in October, 1989 and may assist you in focusing on the Teaching Taxes Program in the taxpayer education area as well as some other aspects.

While we are not bound to the development of the topic as stated on the attached page 10, nevertheless there is the need to address to some degree the other aspects noted on that page.  The balance between the administration and taxpayer's rights should be addressed with particular reference to the Department's Declaration of Taxpayer's Rights.

The improvement of our treasury/taxpayer relationships through communications with professional associations gives you scope to look at the relations with the Tax Executives Institute (TEI) The Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants (CICA), The Canadian Bar Association (CBA), The Canadian Bankers Association and notably The Canadian Tax Foundation (CTF), at whose annual meeting we play a prominent part and have a continuing relationship through the year.  On February 1 we are having our annual meeting with the Canadian Bankers Association.

The appeal process can be touched upon as suggested but perhaps it might be addressed in conjunction with the balance between the powers of administration and the taxpayer's rights, because it is a significant balancing factor since the right of appeal leads the taxpayer to another forum for adjudication.

We are sending your outline to Mr. Gravelle with some additional comment reflecting the gist of what we have said, above.  In view of the time factor we need to proceed with the preparation of the paper.

We are sending your outline to Mr. Gravelle with some additional comment reflecting the fist of what we said, above.  In view of the time factor we need to proceed with the preparation of the paper.

We will advise you of Mr. Gravelle's comments.

C. SavageA/DirectorProvincial and International Relations Division

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