Introduction

The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) administers tax, benefit, and other programs that contribute directly to the economic and social well-being of Canadians on behalf of the Government of Canada and provincial, territorial, and First Nations governments. In addition to administering tax and benefit programs, we administer harmonized sales tax for five provinces and support a wide variety of federal, provincial, and territorial programs, ranging from student loans to health care initiatives.

The CRA Summary of the Corporate Business Plan 2011-2012 to 2013-2014 highlights the key information contained in theCorporate Business Plan 2011-2012 to 2013-2014. It describes our priorities and initiatives and the results we expect to achieve over the next three years and identifies the resources needed to effectively and responsibly fulfil our mandate.

Our plans are aligned with the following operational and management priorities for the CRA; promoting compliance, meeting service needs , addressing non-compliance, administering benefits, and enabling core business operations.

Our environment

Our plan is revised annually, enabling us to respond to current environment and governmental priorities. However, we remain conscious of wider and persistent trends and issues that influence our ability to successfully fulfil our mandate over the medium to longer term.

Globalization

Across all sectors of government and the business world, there is a growing appreciation of the importance of Canada's role in the global economy and our economic and social future. The borderless nature of modern commerce allows companies to expand operations beyond their home country to establish global competitive advantage, which increases complexity for tax administrations. Tax administrations internationally are already responding to this new reality through increased collaboration, and bilateral and multilateral information exchange is receiving unprecedented attention and support.

Technology

Information technology (IT) has enabled the CRA to automate many business transactions. We believe that the future productivity gains in this respect lie in increased investment in secure, online services, which will enable us to meet service level expectations while we focus our knowledge workers on more complex queries.

Our organization relies on highly advanced IT systems and infrastructure to perform our service and compliance role. Over the years, we have managed our IT infrastructure by investing strategically to enable us to keep pace with our objectives for delivering affordable services and effective compliance activities. A critical success factor will be our ability to respond nimbly to emerging roles and opportunities, building on our IT investments so far, while still safeguarding the reputation of the CRA and government for security and reliability.

Changing nature of society

Some of our most persistent and difficult challenges revolve around a willingness by some to participate in cash transactions for immediate gain without an awareness, or concern for, the impact on Canadian society. We will continue to educate and influence Canadians, including those new to our country, to see responsible tax and benefit practices as key to Canada's success.

We recognize that competition for talent will be a major factor for the CRA over the next 5 to 10 years as baby boomers leave the workforce. The CRA's strategic direction will move to a growing reliance on knowledge workers, as our processing activities become increasingly automated and interactions are conducted more and more on a self-service basis. Immigration is already the major contributor to the growth in Canada's working age population, and this trend is generally expected to increase over time. We will continue to pursue and develop a workforce representative of the communities we serve.

Our corporate risk inventory

Our Corporate Risk Inventory (CRI), updated in 2010, identifies 14 risks that could negatively affect our ability to meet our business objectives. The CRI is the result of the CRA's second formal effort to understand and assess its key corporate risks. The business and operational risks identified in the CRI and described below are used by senior management to inform our strategic planning process.

Business risks

• Underground economy
• Aggressive tax planning
• Willful non-compliance
• Payment non-compliance

Operational risks

• Compliance with various legislation, regulations, and policies
• Organizational responsiveness and resilience
• Human resources capacity and capability
• Employee ethical conduct
• Information technology responsiveness
• Resource optimization
• Clients, stakeholders, taxpayers, and benefit recipients' expectations
• Knowledge management
• Protection of information
• Information technology sustainability