June Poll Results: Tax Pros Not Happy with CRA

The question was simple: “According to CRA, Canadians experience improved service delivery and responsiveness from the CRA this tax season. Do you agree?” The answer almost unanimously no: 92% of Knowledge Bureau Report readers disagreed and they had plenty to say about it, too:

First Words to Gerald Campbell: It is a lot worst. It was better 15 years ago.

Susan Mackie - Digitization Failures. CRA has not improved the service, or calls. None of my clients want to wait on hold for hours. When they do talk to someone, the people working the phones at CRA are working from home most of them, and you hear dogs barking, children crying, and you do not get the help you have called about.

No one knows why you change the Authorization of a client, as 50% of my clients are unable to obtain their information, due to the fact they don’t have access to a computer, or the information to set up the new system for “My CRA Account” and before the change all they had to do was sign a document and authorized businesses could assist them in very little time, and they would have their inquiry complete.

Elizabeth Morena Vargas: Authorization Nightmares. 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.

Pat Gamborg: Agism at CRA? CRA says they are doing great. Ha! A certain politician 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.

Cathy: Long Wait Times, Lack of Knowledge. Wait times were at least 45 minutes 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. Pre-assessment 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 until the request is 16 weeks 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.

Karen Zeiger: Collections When No Money is Owing. 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…:)

Carla G: Awful Website, Un-Understandable Agents, and Dropped Calls. 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.

Robert Litschel: Service so Bad It’s Avoided. 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 then, 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 improvement.

Diane Colton: Training Inconsistent. 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.

Robert: 6 Months for a T1 Adjustment! 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.

Last word goes to Amanda Zais: Accountability Missing, Objections Languish: Absolutely not! Service delivery & responsiveness has continued to decline, to a level of extremely high concern for Canadian taxpayers. 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?

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. 

Thanks for weighing in. Here’s the July Poll Question – please give us your opinion:

"Is the new Canada Groceries and Essential Benefit the right solution to help Canadians with inflation?"