CRA Ombudsman Plays an Important Role

Unhappy with your dealings with a CRA Auditor? The Taxpayers' Ombudsman can help when the relationship is fraught with communications issues between the taxpayer and the auditor.

The Taxpayers’ Ombudsman and his dedicated and impartial office is available to all Canadians who have a service-related complaint regarding the CRA. The Taxpayers’ Ombudsman, currently Mr. J. Paul Dubé, is in his second term in the office, which was only created in 2008. His job is to look into complaints impartially and report directly to the Minister of National Revenue. However, the Ombudsman is not your first resort when a grievance with the CRA arises.

Begin by attempting to resolve the issue with the CRA. A professional tax advisor can help and provide guidance on whether a Notice of Objection should be filed and that’s important because the Ombudsman can only review service-related matters and will not be able to independently adjudicate substantive legal or procedural matters.

The service complaint process is made easy by an online reporting form. In order to make a service complaint against the CRA online, see this link: http://www.oto-boc.gc.ca/prvcyntc-eng.html. The office will confirm receipt of your complaint and you can always call to speak to the examining officer to receive updates on its status.

Upon reviewing your complaint, the Taxpayers’ Ombudsman may require the CRA to:

• Give further reasons for a decision;
• Correct a misunderstanding, omission, or oversight;
• Offer an apology;
• Change a policy or procedure;
• Make changes to systems or applications;
• Review its service standards; or
• Consider further staff training.

Therefore, individual complaints might assist more than just the aggrieved individual; the CRA considers the behaviour of their employees and the effect of their policies generally when receiving reports from the Ombudsman’s office.

This relatively new office serves a very important function. However, it’s important that the path to appeals is not upset by missed dates or procedures. For these reasons, it’s best to turn to a professional certified in the audit defence process.