Executive Summary

The CRA’s mission is mirrored in its two tax strategic outcomes:

• Taxpayers meet their obligations and Canada’s revenue base is protected; and
• Eligible families and individuals receive timely and correct benefit payments.

This Annual Report to Parliament assesses the extent to which we achieved these outcomes during the 2007-2008 fiscal year. On balance, our results show that we met both our strategic outcomes.

As the principal tax administrator for the Government of Canada, our primary responsibility is to protect Canada’s revenue base. In 2007-2008, we collected almost $372 billion on behalf of the Government of Canada, the provinces (except Quebec), the territories, and certain First Nations governments.

Our Tax Services strategic outcome measures gauge taxpayers’ behaviour in meeting their tax obligations. In 2007-2008, the majority of Canadian individuals, businesses, and employers continued to meet their filing obligations. The percentage of taxable incorporated businesses that filed on time, however, continued its slight downward decline from 86.4% to 85.8%. We cannot provide filing compliance information on GST/HST returns at this time as comprehensive data from our GST/HST systems is not available.

Our remittance compliance measures reflect the degree to which taxpayers paid all taxes owed on or prior to their payment deadline. Remittance compliance by individuals continued to be high, while the number of employers who forwarded at-source deductions improved by over a percentage point from last year to 89.2%, reversing the slight downward trend of the past few years in this segment. Timely remittance compliance by corporations, however, continues to need improvement.

Macro-indicators related to reporting compliance indicate that, on the whole, income reported to the CRA tracks favourably against external and internal benchmarks, contributing to our assessment that the majority of taxpayers report complete and accurate information on their tax returns.

Our Tax Services strategic outcome measures, along with our overall positive performance against our expected results, lend support to our assessment that we promoted compliance with taxpayer obligations and that Canada’s revenue base was protected.

In addition to our role as tax administrator, we are the delivery agent for various income-based benefits, credits, and other services that contribute directly to the economic and social well-being of Canadians. In 2007-2008, we issued 99.99% of these payments on time. We also leveraged our infrastructure to administer additional benefits, one-time payment programs, and other services on behalf of provinces, territories, and other federal departments. The results we achieved in 2007-2008 allow us to conclude that we met our Benefit Programs strategic outcome – namely, that eligible families and individuals receive timely and correct benefit payments.

The CRA is empowered with a unique governance regime that designates distinct responsibilities and accountabilities to our Minister, Board of Management, and Commissioner. In 2007-2008, the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat’s (TBS) assessment of the CRA’s management performance (by means of their Management Accountability Framework) produced positive results. To complement the TBS framework and to support the Board in its oversight responsibilities, the Board of Management Oversight Framework was developed in 2007-2008 and the results were positive. The results of these two assessments provide Canadians with the assurance that management excellence is being achieved in the CRA.

Date modified:

2009-01-29