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Canada Revenue Agency Snapshot - 2007-2008

Who we are

Our Mission

To administer tax, benefits and related programs and to ensure compliance on behalf of governments across Canada, thereby contributing to the ongoing economic and social well-being of Canadians.

Our Vision

The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) is the model for trusted tax and benefit administration, providing unparalleled service and value to its clients, and offering its employees outstanding career opportunities.

What we do at the CRA

Tax Administration - Revenues for 2007-08

Total cash received of $371.9 billion, up 9.6% from last year.
Total administered net revenues of $292.7 billion, up 6.4% from last year, broken down as follows:

The CRA administered personal income tax programs for all provinces and territories (except Quebec), and corporate income tax programs for all provinces and territories (except Ontario, Alberta and Quebec).

* See New Developments section

In 2007-08 the CRA processed:

More than 25.1 million T1 individual returns, of which 53.5% were filed electronically.
Almost 1.8 million T2 corporate returns, of which 19.9% were filed electronically.
More than 7.0 million GST/HST returns of which 17.7% were filed electronically.

Tax Administration - Activities

The CRA undertakes a number of activities to help ensure individuals and businesses meet their tax obligations.


Activities	2007-08	Variation from prev. fiscal year
Cash recovered through collections activities	$11.9 billion	+22.7%
Data matching and processing reviews, additional taxes assessed	$889.6 million	+50.5%
Dollar value of identified non-compliance:
International and Large Businesses	$5.7 billion	+16.3%
Small and Medium sized Businesses	$2.1 billion	-16.0%
Non-filers and Non-registrants	$2.4 billion	-0.2%
Employer/payroll^{[Footnote 1]}	$1.4 billion	N/A
Other audits - Special Enforcement Programs, etc	$544 million	-2.2%
Appeals disputes resolved	65,663	-5.9%
Taxpayer Relief Provisions allowed in whole or in part	29,583	-24.4%
Voluntary disclosures processed	8,400	+1.9%
Voluntary disclosures - related assessments	$373 million	-29.2%
Employer accounts (Business Information Returns processed)	1,591,833	+4.9%
Source deductions collected	$205.1 billion	+6.8%
Registered plans administered	32,000	+4.5%

^{[Footnote 1]} 2006-07 included GST/HST

Benefit and Credit Payments

In 2007-08, the CRA administered on behalf of federal, provincial, and territorial governments:

Almost $6.1 million in one-time payments (benefits and credits) to more than 38,000 Canadians.
More than 88.5 million ongoing payments (benefits and credits) totalling over $16.7 billion (excluding Quebec), broken down as follows:

Our Commitment to Service

Service standards represent our public commitment to the level of service that taxpayers and benefit recipients can reasonably expect to receive.


Results against Select Service Standards	Target	2007-08
Taxpayer and Business Assistance
General telephone enquiries - respond to calls in queue within two minutes	80%	83%
Business telephone enquiries - respond to calls in queue within two minutes	80%	82%
Problem Resolution Program - acknowledged within two working days	100%	95%
Charities - respond to telephone enquiries in queue within 2 minutes*	80%	86%
Assessment of Returns and Payment Processing
Processing paper filed T1 individual income tax returns within 4-6 weeks	100%	4.1 weeks
Processing electronically filed T1 individual income tax returns (EFILE, NETFILE, TELEFILE) within 2 weeks	100%	1.7 weeks
Processing T2 corporate income tax returns within 60 days *	90%	92%
Appeals
30-day initial contact letter for objections, disputes, and appeals	85%	84%
Benefit Programs
Processing benefit applications and marital status change forms - Accuracy	98%	99%
Responding to benefit and credit enquiries - Timeliness	98%	99%

* Standard and target revised

For more information about the CRA's results during 2007-08, please see our service standards within the 2007-2008 Canada Revenue Agency Annual Report to Parliament, available on our Web site.

Our Interactions with the Public

The CRA has contact with more Canadians than any other government organization. Providing Canadians with the information they need is key to promoting compliance.


Volume of Interactions	2007-08	Variation from prev. fiscal year
Public enquiries (phone calls, in person, mail-in)	22.7 million	+0.01%
CRA Web site visits	40 million	+11.1%

Charities

About 83,000 charities are registered with the CRA. We undertook the Small and Rural Charities Initiative to gain a better understanding of challenges faced by these organizations. A joint action plan to improve services can be found at: cra.gc.ca/charities.

In 2007-08 the CRA continued to make more services available electronically.

Over 14.7 million visits to tax content pages for individuals and businesses.
Successful log-ins to My Account have increased 26% compared to last year and enrolments have surpassed one million.
My Business Account, which gives business owners a secure and convenient way to access their information, registered over 117,000 successful CRA epass log-ins, as compared to 17,000 in year of 2006-07.

New Developments

In 2007-08 we started to administer most of Ontario's corporate taxes. Ontario businesses benefit from one set of rules, one audit, one appeal process, and one point of contact. More information is available at: cra.gc.ca/ctao.

The CRA is committed to Small Business

We have established Business Number partnership agreements with four provinces, covering 48 provincial business programs.
We are working with Service Ontario to develop a joint Business Number process for over 30 of the province's business programs.
We presented approximately 1,200 outreach events for businesses, involving close to 30,000 participants.
The CRA Action Task Force on Small Business Issues identified 61 initiatives where we committed to reduce the compliance burden.

Did you know?

The CRA makes the Teaching Taxes learning materials available nationally through our Web site. More information is available at: cra.gc.ca/educators.

The CRA introduced the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, a service complaints process, and Canada's first Taxpayers' Ombudsman. Visit cra.gc.ca/rights.

The CRA identified and corrected almost 218,000 individual returns, resulting in an average beneficial adjustment of $355 per return.

Canada Revenue Agency - Serving Canadians

As of March 31, 2008, the CRA serves 129 government clients. These include provincial, territorial, and First Nations governments, as well as federal departments and agencies, and Crown corporations.

The CRA collects First Nations Personal Income Tax on behalf of 12 Aboriginal governments; First Nations GST on behalf of 20 First Nations; and First Nations sales tax on behalf of 10 First Nations.

We deliver 64 programs and 144 tax credits on behalf of provincial and territorial clients.

Canada Revenue Agency - Serving Canadians

How you can contact us

Tax Information Phone Service (T.I.P.S.)

This automated phone service provides information to individuals and businesses

1-800-267-6999 www.cra.gc.ca/tips

TTY (Teletypewriter)

For those with hearing or speech impairments who have enquiries

1-800-665-0354

Individual Income Tax Enquiries

1-800-959-8281 www.cra.gc.ca/myaccount

Businesses and Self-Employed Individuals

1-800-959-5525 www.cra.gc.ca/mybusinessaccount