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Canada Revenue Agency Snapshot 2008-2009

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.

Notable results

Filing compliance for 2008-2009 was 92%, exceeding our 90% target.
Remittance compliance for 2008-2009 was 93%, exceeding our 90% target.
Rates of electronic filing and payments maintained their upward trend.
- More than 27 million T1 individual returns, of which almost 56% were filed electronically.
- Almost 2 million T2 corporate returns, of which over 23% were filed electronically.
- More than 7 million GST/HST returns, of which 22% were filed electronically.

Benefit and Credit Payments

In 2008-2009, the CRA administered 93 benefit programs and services on behalf of federal, provincial, and territorial governments:

More than $406 million in one-time payments (benefits and credits) to more than 3 million Canadians.
Almost 91 million ongoing payments (benefits and credits) totalling over $17 billion (excluding Quebec), broken down as follows:

Tax Administration – Revenues for 2008-2009

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 Alberta and Quebec).

The CRA collected almost $207 billion in source deductions.

Total cash received by the CRA of almost $366 billion, down 1.7% from last year.
Total revenues administered by the CRA of over $287 billion, down 1.8% from last year, broken down as follows:

Tax Administration - Revenues for 2008-2009

How we serve Canadians

Canada Revenue Agency www.cra.gc.ca

Individual income tax enquiries 1-800-959-8281

Charities Client Assistance 1-800-267-2384

Businesses and self-employed individuals 1-800-959-5525

Tax Information Phone Service (T.I.P.S.) 1-800-267-6999

Universal Child Care Benefit, Canada Child Tax Benefit 1-800-387-1193

GST/HST credit 1-800-959-1953

TTY (Teletypewriter) 1-800-665-0354

Telerefund 1-800-959-1956

Strengthening Service

The CRA has contact with more Canadians than any other government organization.


Volume of Interactions	Change	Amount
Public enquiries (phone calls, in person, mail-in)	10.1%	25.0 million
CRA Web site visits	*	79.0 million
My Account successful log-ins	17.0%	3.8 million
My Business Account successful log-ins	217.4%	351,500
CRA Outreach Events for Businesses	11.1%	1,200

* A more inclusive definition of CRA Web site visits was used in 2008-2009.

Our 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	2007-2008	2008-2009
General telephone enquiries – respond to calls in queue within two minutes (Target 80%)	83%	82%
Business telephone enquiries – respond to calls in queue within two minutes (Target 80%)	82%	87%
Problem Resolution Program – acknowledged within two working days (Target 100%)	95%	96%
Charities – respond to telephone enquiries in queue within 2 minutes (Target 80%)	86%	87%
Processing paper filed T1 individual income tax returns within 4-6 weeks (Target 100%)	4.1 weeks	4.0 weeks
Processing electronically filed T1 individual income tax returns (EFILE, NETFILE, TELEFILE) within 2 weeks (Target 100%)	1.7 weeks	1.6 weeks
Processing T2 corporate income tax returns within 60 days (Target 90%)	92%	91%
30-day initial contact letter for objections, disputes, and appeals (Target 85%)	84%	66%
Processing benefit applications and marital status change forms - Accuracy (Target 98%)	99%	97%
Responding to benefit and credit enquiries - Timeliness (Target 98%)	99%	98%

Our Service Strategy

In December 2008, we launched our comprehensive Service Strategy. This strategy is the result of extensive collaboration with internal stakeholders across the country, with the common objective of working in an integrated and horizontal fashion to develop and deliver our products and services.

CRA’s Efforts to Address Non-Compliance

Non-compliance is the failure, for whatever reason, to register as required under the law; file returns on time; report complete and accurate information to determine tax liability; and pay all amounts when due.

Compliance Communication Strategy

The goal of our compliance communication strategy is to strengthen public confidence in our actions against those who do not comply with Canada’s tax laws. Our efforts include targeting compliance messages, increasing and improving media coverage and enhancing public knowledge and awareness.

Collections Risk-Management Framework

We enhanced our collections risk-management framework with the development of our first tactical plan. A key component of the plan was the analysis of a cross-section of Canadian industries, which enabled us to better identify those sectors that present a higher degree of collections risk.


Compliance Activities	Change	In millions
Cash recovered through collections activities	34.6%	$16,000
Data matching and processing reviews, additional taxes assessed	2.3%	$910
International and Large Businesses	-8.8%	$5,240
Small and Medium sized Businesses	4.7%	$2,200
Non-filers and Non-registrants	-0.8%	$2,390
GST/HST and employer compliance	**	$2,540
Other audits - Special Enforcement Programs, etc	0.3%	$545

** The GST/HST was not included in 2007-2008.

Contraband Tobacco Settlement

In 2008-2009 the CRA concluded historic settlement agreements to resolve long-standing issues of contraband tobacco smuggling that took place in the early 1990’s. This action resulted in a $1.15 billion settlement, demonstrating that we are taking action to protect the integrity of the tax system.

Scientific Research and Experimental Development (SR&ED)

The SR&ED program is the largest single source of federal government support for industrial research and development. In 2008-2009, Canada’s SR&ED program provided about $4 billion in tax assistance to over 18,000 claimants.

Reinforcing Trust

Our ability to protect Canada’s revenue base is strongly influenced by public confidence in how we administer Canada’s tax laws. We strive to earn this trust by making fair, timely and impartial dispute resolution available to taxpayers and benefit recipients through an appeals process, voluntary disclosures, and taxpayer relief.

Taxpayer Relief Provisions

Taxpayer relief provisions give us some flexibility and permit us to be more responsive to circumstances where it would be unreasonable or unfair to penalize the taxpayer.


Activities	Change	Amount
Appeals disputes resolved	1.5%	66,637
Taxpayer Relief Provisions allowed in whole or in part	31.7%	38,964
Voluntary disclosures processed	35.6%	11,393
Voluntary disclosures – related assessments	53.9%	$575 million

Service Complaints

Our Service Complaints Process provides taxpayers with a formal resolution process for complaints about mistakes, undue delays, and other issues related to service.

Maintaining Effective Relationships

The CRA has established Business Number partnership agreements with 5 provinces, covering 51 provincial business programs.
The CRA collects First Nations Personal Income Tax on behalf of 12 First Nations governments; GST on behalf of 22 First Nations; and First Nations sales tax on behalf of 9 First Nations.

Harmonized Sales Tax Framework

Ontario and British Columbia will join the federal harmonized sales tax framework. This will come into effect on July 1, 2010. Welcoming two new provinces into the harmonization framework is a major development in the history of Canadian tax administration and an exciting development for the Agency.