Summary of the Corporate Business Plan 2015-2016 to 2017-2018

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Overview

The important role of the CRA

The important work performed by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) directly impacts the lives of most Canadians. Last year, the CRA dealt with approximately 31 million individual and corporate taxpayers, processed just over $451 billion in payments, and delivered almost $22 billion in benefits to approximately 12 million recipients. The tax revenues collected by the CRA support the important social programs and essential services delivered by federal, provincial, territorial, and aboriginal governments. Tax revenues build and sustain the national infrastructure needed to support Canada's continued economic prosperity. Most Canadians fulfill their tax obligations: over 92% of individuals file their returns and pay on time. This high level of compliance depends on the trust Canadians place in the integrity of the CRA, as well as the quality of the Agency's services and compliance programs.

This corporate business plan outlines the steps the CRA will be taking over the next three years to strengthen its approach to tax and benefit administration and sets out program commitments for 2015-2016. This plan remains focused on service, red tape reduction, compliance, integrity and security, and introduces two new strategic priorities—innovation and people—which are critical drivers of continuous improvement at the CRA.

Planning for success in a fast-changing environment

Increasingly rapid technological and social change creates new challenges and opportunities for the CRA and tax administrations internationally. Citizens' expectations of government services are evolving, based on their experience of innovative and fast-moving private-sector service models. E-enabled transactions of goods and services are increasing in speed, volume, and variety, with geographic and national boundaries no longer a major obstacle. Canadians are adapting rapidly to this new environment and creating new business models to take full advantage of new technologies and changing consumer behaviour. The CRA has an important role to play in reducing red tape which hinders Canada's competitiveness, while making sure individuals and businesses operating in this new environment remain in compliance with Canada's tax laws. The Agency's five strategic priorities—service, compliance, integrity and security, innovation, and people—will be key to its success.

CRA priorities

Service

The CRA is committed to continuous improvement in service to Canadians. The Agency recognizes multiple service channels are needed to respond to the wide range of service needs. For the growing number of Canadians who prefer to self-serve, the CRA aims to provide end-to-end, modern e-services meeting the highest standards of security while being easy to access and use. For those who need or prefer to contact one of the CRA's tax specialists, the Agency will continue to provide timely and accurate help with specific and complex questions. The CRA will design services to reduce red tape for Canadians and Canadian businesses, and work with others—like tax preparers, community organizations, and software developers—to maximize the effectiveness of all service options. The Agency remains committed to ongoing progress with increased e-filing, e-payment, and direct deposit options, and is uncompromising in maintaining the highest possible standards for integrity and security.

This year's plan outlines a number of major initiatives to improve service including:

• A new online mail service to let the CRA send email notifications to individuals who opt in for the service, prompting them to sign into My Account to read new correspondence. In 2015, individuals will be able to receive electronic notices of assessment. By 2017, 80% of CRA routine correspondence will be available electronically. Electronic correspondence will be designed to maximize clarity.
• A new mobile application planned for release in 2015, which will allow taxpayers to view basic personal tax information from their mobile device.
• Automatic population of tax preparation software with taxpayer information from the CRA—Tax Data Delivery—at the request of a taxpayer or an authorized representative, and with the highest degree of information security. This option will be available to tax preparers in 2015 and will be extended to individuals in 2016.
• New e-services, such as developing a new rulings e-service which will enable clients to send requests for rulings and interpretations and receive responses electronically by 2017.
• Upgrade of CRA call centre infrastructure to provide better caller experience and service.
• Recognizing the importance of clarity, the CRA is implementing a plain language action plan to make correspondence easier for businesses, individuals and benefit recipients to understand.

Compliance

Most Canadians comply with tax and benefit requirements, and more than 92% of taxpayers file and pay on time. The CRA's services are aimed at making voluntary compliance as easy as possible, including providing proactive support when it is most needed. However, there will always be those who by error or intent do not meet their obligations.

The CRA recognizes non-compliance can arise from genuine error or a lack of understanding, while in other circumstances it is deliberate, and in some extreme cases even criminal. The Agency aims to quickly detect and correct errors, and to address more serious, deliberate non-compliance with timely and targeted action. The CRA will increasingly use advanced compliance tools and concepts to get the best results with the least burden on taxpayers.

This year's plan demonstrates the CRA's ongoing commitment to combat the underground economy, aggressive tax planning, and tax avoidance. The CRA's strong stance on non-compliance helps to ensure a level competitive playing field for individuals and businesses, and safeguards the integrity of Canada's tax system.

This year's plan outlines a number of major initiatives to strengthen compliance such as:

• The CRA will continue to implement measures contained in the Federal government's 2013 Economic Action Plan including stronger tools to enforce offshore compliance and tackle international tax evasion and aggressive tax planning.
• A three-year underground economy (UE) strategy, which focuses on working with industry partners, taking concrete action in sectors where the UE is most prevalent, and reducing the social acceptability of participating in the UE.
• Continued piloting of the CRA's new Liaison Officer Initiative, which provides in-person support to small businesses at key points in their establishment and growth.
• A three-year strategic investment to strengthen the compliance enforcement capacity of the Non-Filer, Trust Examination, and GST Delinquent Filer programs.
• Ongoing transformation of the CRA's Criminal Investigations Program to strengthen its ability to leverage the skills of its investigators, work with other law enforcement agencies, and aggressively pursue criminal investigations.
• Implementation of the Registration of Tax Preparers Program for 2016-2017, following extensive national consultation.
• Expanded data analytics to predict when taxpayers may need early intervention, such as reminders, to help them comply.
• Expanding the Community Volunteer Income Tax Program by promoting the program to groups that could benefit, improving the volunteer registration process, and increasing support and training for community organizations and volunteers.

Integrity and security

Canadians count on the CRA to protect their information and to carry out its duties with the highest level of integrity and security. Trust is the foundation of Canada's voluntary and self-reporting tax and benefit system. The Agency enhances this trust by incorporating integrity and security considerations into every aspect of business strategy and decision-making. The CRA's employees are expected to demonstrate the Agency values of professionalism, integrity, respect, and co-operation in everything they do. It is the duty of every CRA employee to protect the privacy and confidentiality of taxpayer and benefit recipient information.

The CRA's systems are designed to safeguard the information the Agency receives from Canadians and Canadian businesses. Through active vigilance, the Agency aims to quickly detect any breaches of integrity and security, and take swift and firm action.

This year's plan outlines a number of initiatives to strengthen integrity and security including:

• An anonymous employee reporting line to enable employees to report suspected internal fraud and misuse.
• The Agency-wide Privacy Impact Assessment Plan to enhance the CRA's ability to identify and address privacy impacts each and every time the CRA launches a new program or activity.
• Initiatives to improve system identity and access management, including the new capacity to proactively detect unauthorized employee access to taxpayer information through audit trails.
• An updated agency security plan and information technology security strategy to address emerging threats and ensure the security of information holdings.
• Immediate, concrete actions to enhance the protection of personal information and privacy at the Agency. The CRA is enhancing the protection of personal information held by the Agency through the continued implementation and monitoring of its Privacy Action Plan developed in fiscal year 2013-2014.
• An independent third party assessment of the CRA's Access to Information and Privacy control framework.
• Revised Access to Information Program operational processes to strengthen the protection of taxpayer information, including increased quality assurance activities, heightened protection for data transfers, enhanced protocols for identification of private information, and the provision of additional privacy and security training for its staff.

Innovation

The Agency's willingness to try new ideas, adapt to new technology, and seek continuous improvement are fundamental to the Agency's ability and commitment to continuously improve service for Canadians, reduce red tape, and increase efficiency.

The CRA encourages innovative thinking from all employees and is open to new approaches to improve programs and optimize the use of available resources. The Agency is committed to learning from others and working in partnership to leverage innovative approaches from other organizations and sectors. Existing partnerships with software developers, community associations, and international tax administrations provide a successful model and foundation for working with others.

Innovative organizations are able to move quickly and turn good ideas into successful solutions, while acknowledging failure sometimes happens. The Agency will create an environment where new ideas are welcomed, tested, and implemented.

This year's plan outlines a number of ways the CRA is supporting innovation including:

• Launching in 2015, the Accelerated Business Solutions Lab will support Agency and government priorities by using innovative approaches—including advanced data analytics and behavioural economics—to undertake projects with a whole-of-Agency scope and strategic importance.
• Launching e‐delivery of T1 notices of assessment in 2015, with the goal of making 80% of correspondence available online within two years.
• Easier registration and simplified access to key information in My Account while maintaining high levels of security for sensitive personal information.
• Launching a mobile app enabling individual taxpayers to view an abbreviated notice of assessment, RRSP deduction limit, and tax-free savings account contribution room in 2015.
• Ongoing collaboration with commercial tax software developers to introduce new features to respond to citizens' service needs, for example expanding the Tax Data Delivery service to individuals using NETFILE-certified software products by February 2016.
• Further advancing multi-year projects to build and renew the CRA's business intelligence platform. This will include the procurement of new technology to improve the CRA's ability to run complex queries and leverage Agency information holdings to perform advanced data analysis.
• Adopting new and innovative analytics approaches in support of the CRA's compliance programs to detect and correct simple errors more quickly, thus enabling the CRA to direct enforcement resources to the highest-risk accounts.
• Continuous development and expansion of online information and increased use of social media tools like RSS feeds and Twitter, to better serve taxpayers who use these forms of communication.
• Ongoing engagement with employees through the award-winning Destination 2020 interactive consultation tool.
• An e-interactions strategy, to be introduced in 2015, which will set the tone and unify the Agency's drive to provide a full suite of digital services. The strategy will rely on innovation as an enabler to achieving success in the ongoing transition to digital service delivery.

People

The CRA's workforce, based in many communities from coast to coast, is representative of the diverse Canadian population it serves. Employees are empowered to seek continual improvement in how the Agency serves taxpayers, and are encouraged to be innovative by an organizational culture committed to learning.

The Agency manages its skilled workforce with recruitment, development, and succession planning strategies designed to provide the diverse expertise, leadership, and experience necessary to deliver its strategic priorities.

Recognized as a top employer, and as a top employer of young people, the CRA will be looking for knowledge workers from emerging disciplines, like data scientists and behavioural economists, to complement the traditional workforce of technical tax specialists and enable the Agency to keep pace with the ever-evolving environment. The Agency equips employees with the modern tools and technology they need to work efficiently, and encourages teamwork and collaboration. The CRA strives for a workplace where employees understand how their work makes a difference and feel involved in decisions affecting their work.

The commitment employees show in serving Canadians from the Agency's offices from coast to coast carries over into their personal contributions to the communities in which they live. For example, CRA employees have donated more than $3.7 million to local charities through the Government of Canada Workplace Charitable Campaign in each of the past two years.

This year's plan outlines a number of ways the CRA supports and invests in the development of its people including:

• Expanding the use of social media tools in the workplace to enhance collaboration, and improve engagement and "line-of-sight" with CRA priorities, and showcase the work and achievements of Agency employees across the country.
• Updating competencies, performance management, and staffing processes in line with feedback from employees.
• Modernization of human resource service delivery to facilitate effective and efficient people management decisions.
• A comprehensive strategy to recruit technical tax experts at all career stages.

The structure of this year's plan

This overview describes the strategic priorities which form the foundation of the Agency's tax and benefits administration: service, compliance, integrity and security, innovation and people. The following chapters describe specific activities and initiatives the Agency is undertaking to strengthen the foundation of our tax administration and improve service delivery.
Each chapter is dedicated to one aspect of the CRA's primary program activities and provides information about the program and its sub-components, including planning highlights and performance measures.

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Date modified:

2015-04-01