This Month’s Poll

It is a lot worst.  It was better 15 years ago.
The newer time to finish on issued returns nevrr provides a date and when you call the agent can not tell you the reason

By GERALD campbell on June 17, 2026

Since the implementation of this new system, obtaining authorization for clients has become significantly more difficult and time-consuming. Authorizations often take several days to be approved, creating delays in providing tax and benefit services to taxpayers who require assistance.

In addition, many clients do not have access to the information required to complete the authorization process, particularly the amount reported on Line 15000 of their tax returns. Depending on the client, the CRA may request the Line 15000 amount from the 2018, 2023, or 2024 tax return. Many taxpayers do not retain copies of their older tax returns and therefore cannot provide this information.

When contacting the CRA for assistance, representatives advise that the Line 15000 amount is mandatory and are unable to provide alternative solutions. As a result, taxpayers who legitimately require representation are often unable to authorize their tax preparer or representative in a timely manner.

These delays create unnecessary hardships for taxpayers and tax professionals alike, particularly when dealing with urgent tax matters, benefits, adjustments, and compliance issues.

I respectfully request that the CRA review this authorization process and consider alternative verification methods for taxpayers who do not have access to their previous tax return information.

By Elizabeth Moreno Vargas on June 11, 2026

CRA says they are doing great.  Ha!  A certain politicain gets booed by everyone and states “they love me”.  Just because you say, does not make it so.  Clients have been trying for months to get their “My Account reinstated with no luck.  After bouncing around, they get cut off and have to start again. My calls have gone unanswered or the person I do get to speak to knows way less than I do or I can’t understand them.  When I ask them to speak more slowly, telling them I am elderly, they hang up on me.

By Pat Gamborg on June 10, 2026

Not at All.  wait times were at least 45minutes to an hour, and often times cut off.  During peak hours we were still receiving all agents are busy, please call back and when you did get to an agent, they lacked the knowledge to be able to help, and often would transfer to a second or even third level of support.  PreAssessment reviews are not being completed in a timely manner, holding up significant refunds without the taxpayer knowing what is being reviewed, and then told when calling in that we can’t call again for until the request is 16weeks in the queue.  I have used our MP to resolve issues successfully in days that I couldn’t get done for the client.  MPs should be inundated with taxpayer requests, maybe then it can be appropriately legislated to fix the problems at CRA.

By Cathy on June 10, 2026

No way it has improved, it’s downright pathetic, not even worth a phone call. 
I had a collection agent quietly, sort of beg me to ask my client for a payment in the next few days, as it was going to be 41 days until the “expected” completion date of the reassessment we had been waiting on for 6 months already to be completed, which would wipe out the debt owing!  The gall of these people, she knew it was a ridiculous ask, and promptly hung up when I began yelling, though NOT cursing…:)

By Karen Zeiger on June 10, 2026

I am sorry - but that is false.  The website has been awful, the phone lines were 2-3 hour waits.  Tried the new Efile service and they called once and hung up on me as soon as I answered.  Dropped calls were insane - then when we did get through there were at least 2-3 transfers for someone that could answer the call.  We now start a list to call CRA and when we do get through we go through the list of queries from our office and hope to resolve them on the first try.  Sad when that is the state of this - and don’t even get me started on understanding those that you do get.

By Carla G on June 04, 2026

Absolutely not! Service delivery & responsiveness has continued to decline, to a level of extremely high concern for Canadian taxpayers.

Calls disconnected frequently, seemingly due to the agent not being interested in the query & more likely due to lack of training/experience, to even begin to understand how to answer.  It appears they choose the calls that interest them. Or simply hang up… General inquiries line has turned into no different, than any large corporate call center. You’re very lucky if you get a helpful agent. We hear this same complaint from clients.

Service complaint responses used to be within 30 days & effective up until the late fall, now we are lucky to even receive a response.

Objections are filed more than ever, at a rate of 4-5 a week on average (coming from a few a year before). The largest reason being due to absolutely baffling CRA errors & wrongful adjustments, denying eligible credits/deductions on filing. The reviewing agents seemingly cannot interpret the complexity of the Canadian Income Tax Act. But alas, objections are now taking close to a year to resolve, while taxpayers sit with their money trapped in CRA jail wrongfully. I assume due to the volume they are receiving & can only imagine based on the volume we are submitting in our office alone.

When we submit adjustments to CRA, no matter what method we use, be it online CRA rep change my return, via mail T1adj or Refile, the odds that one or more lines from the request are missed, is roughly 25% of our adjustment requests. Which means spending time creating & sending in another adjustment request to complete the request… sometimes it takes several attempts.  The reason we have been given for this is, different departments deal with different lines. Sorry what? A single adjustment, will see the hands of multiple departments? The term “too many cooks” comes to mind.

These issues have caused a trickle effect to the clients as a result, with preparation rates increasing over the years, to simply cover CRA administrative time, that we should never be spending this much time on. Fixing CRA errors has become a full time, year round role for our office.  Will they compensate us for our rapidly increasing time spent, fixing their mistakes?

It’s time for CRA to be held accountable as they are putting taxpayers in difficult financial situations regularly, leaving them at their mercy. 
Preparers in the T1 industry are burnt out navigating the increase of admin costs, from dealing with CRA’s inability to do its job accurately. Clients/taxpayers are the ones paying the ultimate price with rising costs to seek help navigating these issues, along with the stress it puts on them. Something needs to be done.

By Amanda Zais on June 03, 2026

still wait for answer when phoneing !

By Rob on June 03, 2026

Most of my clients say they will not even attempt to contact the CRA because the service is so bad.  Many say they do not get the help they are asking for or the information is so confusing they ask me to contact the CRA on their behalf so I can tehn, in turn, explain what is happening to their file.
I myself have had large variations on services.  Sometimes they answer quickly and are very helpful and sometimes less so.  On the other hand, I do know how to frame the questions to get better results.  But it is the service to the taxpayers that definitely needs mprovement.

By Robert Litschel on June 03, 2026

Answering the phone is one thing, resolve issues is another. Better on the first but…... I am on that CRA queue for call back. I was purposely disconnected yesterday over a very simple issue, the agent took 20 minutes to be able to hang up on both my client and myself. Went back into the queue and the next agent took 3 minutes. So a 1/2 hour spent on 3 minutes worth of work.

By Diane Colton on June 03, 2026

You can manufacture stats to provide the answers you want. Service level has decreased. 6 months plus for simple T1 adjustments! How can that be an improvement

By Robert on June 03, 2026