For Canadians with a modest income and simple tax situation, the CRA is increasing its support for the Community Volunteer Income Tax Program (CVITP), ensuring that more people can meet face-to-face with trained volunteers and have their taxes done for them for free. The CRA continues to operate its Northern Service Centres, so territorial residents have access to the help they need.

Adopting modern technologies across service channels

We want to give Canadians the same service experience they receive through other organizations. To do this, we're doing things like expanding our chatbot service to provide real-time assistance, as well as quick and accurate information. Going forward, we will also start experiments aimed at providing services through virtual assistants such as Amazon's Alexa, Apple's Siri, and Google Home.

We're also testing and improving our online service channels; we're updating webpages to be easier to navigate and understand, and establishing a single sign-in for My Account, My Business Account and Represent a Client, so that users with accounts in more than one portal can accomplish tasks more efficiently. Within the portals, we're adding features Canadians have asked for: new "Proceed to Pay" buttons, and the ability to create a PIN so that an individual can be quickly identified the next time they call the CRA's individual tax enquiries lines.

Better than sliced bread. I love how easy it is to do everything we used to do by mail or going to a tax office. […] Taxes are a pain, but online access makes it easy and quick. CRA client

Providing information proactively

One of the most common questions Canadians have for us is, "where is my file and how long will it take to complete?" This tax season, to help Canadians answer this question, we're launching an online tool that lets people check targeted CRA processing times to determine when they should expect a response from various programs. In spring 2021, we will go even further and provide Canadians with a tool within our portals, such as My Account, that will provide more details and precise timelines for someone's specific file. My Account will also gain a feature that informs individuals of uncashed cheques we've issued them so Canadians can find out if they're missing out on payments we owe them. This builds on the work we're already doing to proactively reach out to Canadians who aren't claiming the benefits and credits to which they are eligible, to ensure that they are aware and have access to what is rightfully theirs.

We're also looking to provide estimated wait times on the phone so that callers can decide whether it makes sense to wait to speak with a senior representative with more technical experience, and working on providing a call back service, so that Canadians can provide a phone number to have the next available agent call them back. These new features will give Canadians immediate information which they can use to improve their experience when calling the CRA.

Called CRA for questions as young, first-time [filer]. Was able to get helpful answers to my questions and make it easier to complete my return.CRA client

Related topics

Community Volunteer Income Tax Program (CVITP)
CRA Login Services (My Account, My Business Account, Represent a Client)