Time’s Up: CRA’s 100 Day Mandate for Improvement

After years of frustration on the part of tax professionals and taxpayers alike, the Finance Minister ordered the Canada Revenue Agency to clean up its act in 100 days. Specifically, the improvement plan was to run from September 2 through December 11. Finance Minister and Minister of National Revenue, Francoise-Phillippe Champagne instructed CRA to fix “unacceptable wait times and service delays.” Time’s up this week and CRA has released an update on progress. What gets measured, gets done. Let’s see what CRA’s metrics show. 

Expand your career by honing your bookkeeping skills and understand the development of a complete set of books for a variety of business types. Enrol in Advanced Bookkeeping for Multiple Businesses – an excellent training solution for your staff.

Reserve your spot now for the September Retirement and Estate Planning Bootcamp. This must-attend event will provide you with the best tools to preserve, grow, and transition wealth tax-efficiently for your clients and to the next generation.

Currently the Income Tax Act (the Act) ensures disclosure of taxpayer information by Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) officials is specifically prohibited unless in relation to a criminal investigation or in emergency circumstances.

A recent decision of the British Columbia Supreme Court has held that the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) owes taxpayers a duty of care; this new finding means that taxpayers can now sue the CRA for negligence. 

Discovery: the process of requesting and receiving relevant documents from the other side is one of the most important stages of any litigation. When the other party is the Minister of National Revenue (the Minister) the discovery stage can seem like a David vs. Goliath type struggle.

Lots of great material has been released lately about global and Canadian wealth trends. Three works come to mind as must-reads...