Why Tax Pros Are Worth Their Salt – Part II

A follow-up on excellence at CRA. MFA, DFA-Tax Services Specialist, Alan Rowell, reporting.

On July 3, 2013 I reported a situation that had materialized with Canada Revenue Agency and a taxpayer regarding a reassessment of their 2011 personal tax return. To recap, CRA removed the taxpayers’ T4 slip from their return as filed; including all deductions withheld from payroll, and reassessed the gross payroll as other income.

The reasoning behind this was that the employee's employer had not submitted year-end T4 summaries and reconciliations to CRA. 

The original article went on to outline the various steps that could be taken in order to correct this error from the taxpayers’ and tax professional’s point of view. Included in the list of options was a Systematic Service Complaint to be filed with the Ombudsman’s office which is designed to correct procedural errors within CRA.

On July 30, 2013, I received a telephone call from the Manager, Slip Matching Services at the Shawinigan Tax Centre. The purpose of the call was:

• To apologize for the reassessment being processed. Procedure was not followed in the matching program department and the CRA employee should have contacted the representative and/or client prior to any re-assessment.
• To inform me that the reassessment would be immediately reversed and to let my client know that they would be processing it immediately.
• That I could cancel the T400A, Notice of Objection that had been filed on behalf of the client. Needless to say, the Objection will not be cancelled until such time that the assessment has been corrected in order to protect the taxpayer's right of appeal.

As certified and designated tax professionals we are often baffled and stymied by various actions of CRA. It’s reassuring to know that CRA will step up and acknowledge an error as well as take immediate steps to remedy a situation...service excellence at its finest. Too many times we forget that CRA is made up of regular people, employees doing a job, and like us, make mistakes and have procedural breakdowns. It’s reassuring that such a large department which touches millions, can react in such a timely and exemplary fashion. 

It’s a happy ending to what could have been a long and difficult struggle to right a wrong.

Alan Rowell will be presenting the latest in Audit Defence trends and news at the Knowledge Bureau’s May Bootcamp workshop. Take advantage of our "Back to School" special for KBR readers: Enrol in all three bootcamps—Corporate Tax and Year-End Planning, Personal Tax, and Audit Defence and Compliance—for $995 by September 3. Use PromoCode: KBRSPECIAL