CRA gets some heat from abusing the Canadian Tax Payers

 Due to dealing with CRA on a daily basis, and further, being we are the ones who are approached by Canadians who have been mistreated, we naturally don’t see the ombudsman’s report as any kind of a surprise.

To be fair to CRA… no one ever comes to us about them being treated well, so we often forget that there are a lot of reasonable CRA staff out there.

We just get exposed to the darker side of CRA.

The folowing artice demonstrates the point. You do not get 5,000 complaint inquirieys becuase there is no abuse out there. On the contrary the abuse is real and Canadians across the land are surrering from CRA abuse.

To learn more about what to do in cases of CRA abuse, please go to www.taxauditsolutions.ca

Dan White

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Canada’s tax ombudsman investigated 532 complaints last year: Report

By Allison Cross, Canwest News ServiceDecember 17, 2009

OTTAWA — A report produced by Canada’s independent tax ombudsman has found some problems with the way the Canada Revenue Agency hands out tax benefits and treats its taxpayers.

The report says investigations by the ombudsman led to CRA apologizing to taxpayers; the government releasing seized bank accounts; changes in CRA procedure and the payment of benefits or refunds.

Eighty-four cases were carried over into the next fiscal year and 422 files were closed without an investigation.

“When you have large systems in place, sometimes general rules are universally applied (and) rules don’t lead to the desired result in every case,” said ombudsman J. Paul Dube, during a media teleconference Tuesday. “So that’s what we’re there to do. Intervene in those cases.”

The office of Canada’s independent taxpayers’ ombudsman received nearly 5,000 inquiries and investigated 532 individual complaints related to service provided by CRA over the last fiscal year, Dube said.

A resolved case included in the report involved a single mother living on minimum wage, who applied for an increase in her Canada Child Tax Benefit and other family allowance supplements, after she separated from her common-law husband. When CRA did not accept proof she provided of her new marital status and asked for a repayment of $4,200, the ombudsman intervened and CRA eventually issued her a payment of $1,500.

“Canadians are entitled to professional service and fair treatment, and . . . (access) to an independent and impartial ombudsman when they feel they have not received the service and treatment to which they are entitled,” Dube said.

The proper distribution of the Canada Child Tax Benefit, the right to clear, complete, accurate, and timely information, the right to fair treatment and the right to professional service are among the systemic problems identified in the report.

In February 2008, Dube was appointed to the position of Canada’s taxpayers’ ombudsman, the first of its kind in Canada, in order to keep tabs on the CRA and report his findings to Revenue Minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn.

The report has been introduced in Parliament and similar undertakings are to be produced annually.

Future reports will include more detailed examinations into systemic problems at CRA, and will propose possible solutions, the report says.

“Fair treatment and professional service are central to our government’s ability to sustain Canada’s prosperity,” said Blackburn in a news release. “The taxpayers’ ombudsman provides an added measure of assurance that the Canada Revenue Agency treats all taxpayers with fairness and respect, in accordance with the taxpayer bill of rights.”

The CRA processes approximately 24 million individual tax returns each year, in addition to 1.6 million corporate returns.

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