Overwhelmed: CRA Service Issues Cloud a Difficult T1 Season

Beth Graddon

Tax season is far from over.  As of May 3, only 25.5 million tax returns had been received by CRA with over 30 million expected in total, including those from new filers who received the taxable CERB and CRB payments. So far it has been an overwhelmingly difficult tax season, according to professionals who answered our April poll: “In your view, has CRA’s service level to professional tax advisors improved this year?”. It was conclusive:  97% said no. Here were the challenges faced:

“Our receptionist spent 8 hours on the phone today and talked to 3 people. Most of the 8 hours was spent listening to some great classical music. Each transfer was a 2 hour wait.” – Laura

“Totally unacceptable and now I have zero trust for their reporting. Very troubling. And I don't agree that they should do automatic tax filing when they are so incompetent.” - Cindy Nagassar

“I'm finding every time I call it's a 4 to 8 hour wait on hold. Sometimes I’m able to put in a call back number but usually I either stay on hold for 1/2 hour then hang up and try another time or I tell my clients about the wait and we decide if we really need the information from them.” – Neil Evans

“What service?  Trying to find accurate info from CRA has definitely set me back.  I've often - and this has gotten worse -  had a gripe with their left hand not knowing what their right hand is doing, like filing T1ADJs for a couple whose returns were both affected by a late change. They re-assessed one of them only, incorrectly.  No word on the other, which would have evened out their combined tax result. Takes more time to appease worried clients, and all waits have been at least 2 hours.”  – Maureen Carse

“I don't think you can use the words "improve" and "CRA" in the same sentence.  My experience has been increasingly worse service as the tax season has gone on.  And it wasn't stellar to begin with.”  – Robert A Litshel

“The wait times are unacceptable. The most troubling is INACCURATE reporting on official Tslips, scary. And inaccuracies on the telephone TFSA room, and installments reported.”

“It’s time to provide two ways to enter into the call centre setup. One for people calling for themselves and family. Their questions may be suitable for the first level of tax agent answering the phone.  The second should be for the tax specialist or anyone with rep a client set up to reach a more knowledgeable tax agent. We already know most of what the first level tax agent knows, and we are calling about something above that. Splitting up the work load this way may help speed up both CRA’s responses as well as our ability to handle our clients in a more professional manner. “– Clare

“I have never found the service with CRA very good. Most times you get different answers for the same questions. I would like the tax deadlines extended to at Least June 30, forever. So many of my clients do not receive their T- slips until late in April, or worse, after their returns have been filed. I have been trying to go online for all my clients this year to see if they are missing anything and more often than not, they are not even posted yet to the client’s profile.  This creates undo concern for the taxpayer and more for work for the tax filers than is needed. CRA still charges for penalties and interest, which does not seem fair when slips are not sent on time or lost in mail or never sent at all. “– Alice Manderson

CRA's telephone and web services are a complete farce. Wait times are a minimum of 2 hours or longer. We often can’t understand the call back later messages or when speaking to agents. There’s lack of knowledge when trying to get them to find an answer to a simple question. The website is complicated, and I find it faster to use a google search rather than search on the CRA website. The service is a joke and has not improved at all other than including the client information on Represent a Client. Much work needs to be done on their end.” – Tony

Knowledge Bureau Report will keep you posted on any new enhancements to CRA service standards that may result from the federal budget. Thank you to everyone who weighed in with their feedback.

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