It’s hard to think of yourself as a Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) customer when its sole purpose is to take money from your pocket on behalf of the federal and most provincial governments.
For the close to 400,000 taxpayers who were audited or had their operations reviewed by CRA last year, it’s probably even more difficult to think that way.
Nevertheless, that is what CRA calls you – a customer – and it has instituted a new complaints process to prove it. When you access CRA’s new “services complaints” website at www.cra-arc.gc.ca/agency/crasc/menu-e.html, probably because you are pretty frustrated at that point, you even get a cheery greeting: “Welcome to the complaints web pages.”
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You will probably be in no mood to appreciate the tone of the welcome because you cannot access the web-based service unless you have exhausted all other CRA avenues of problem resolution. CRA suggests that before using the formalized complaints process, you should try to resolve the matter with the CRA employee with whom you have been dealing. If that doesn’t work, talk to his supervisor. CRA doesn’t tell you how long you should try to work at the problem at this level but invariably those are the same people that frustrated you in the first place.
The website says that after exhausting the normal complaint channels, you have the right to make a formal complaint about mistakes, undue delays, poor or misleading information or staff behaviour. You cannot do this by phone or letter. You can lodge a complaint only by using a special RC193 Services-Related Complaint form that is available on the CRA website.
CRA is quick to point out that disagreeing with an assessment of a tax return does not constitute a service-related matter and cannot be questioned through its service complaints process. The agency does say, however, that you have the right to file a formal objection about a dispute over your tax assessment through regular channels.
Once you have filed the RC193 form, you will be contacted to confirm its receipt and be given a file number with which to track your complaint. A complaints officer will be assigned to the file, and this person will keep you informed of the status and outcome of your complaint.
If you are not satisfied with the outcome, you may escalate your services-related complaint to the new taxpayers’ ombudsman, whose office is charged with providing a final impartial and independent review.
Among the benefits CRA claims will come from the new procedures will be enhanced handling of service-related complaints and the ability to track and gather information about complaints and analyze complaint trends.
Because most private sector businesses have been tracking customer satisfaction data for years, it is amazing to think that only now is CRA starting to track the frequency and nature of complaints about its procedures and personnel.
Larry Roche is a tax analyst with farm taxation and planning specialists Farm Business Consultants Inc. He can be contacted at fbc@fbc.ca or call 800-860-7011.
