The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) is scrambling to fix a computer glitch that is preventing people from filing online tax returns.
The agency on Tuesday said it has identified the problem, but taxpayers hoping to get early refunds could be out of luck this year as the glitch will likely keep the filing system out of service for a few more days.
The problem shut down the agency's online system sometime Sunday night or Monday morning.
Online filing services like Efile, Netfile and My Account have been shut down until the glitch is fixed. CRA commissioner Michel Dorais said the agency's databases, however, are intact, and there is no indication that the glitch was caused by a computer virus, hacking or any type of intrusion.
"The security of taxpayer information remains paramount as we strive to understand and correct this situation. Until we can announce a business recovery date, the Agency will provide daily updates to the media on the steps we are taking," said Dorais in Ottawa.
Daily updates will be posted on the .
CRA spokesperson Jacqueline Couture said after performing maintenance operations over the weekend, the agency found that the trouble stemmed from an "infrastructure issue" related to the agency's 75 databases.
"It was as if the table of contents for these different databases in our system were disconnected," Couture told 麻豆影视net in an interview from Ottawa.
"So what happens is, normally you would make a change in one database, and those changes would be made throughout the database where you're making that change. But because of the disconnect, it might be making a change in one area, but then in another database it would put that information into a different field."
The CRA said business tax systems are not directly affected by the glitch.
Data kept safe
Couture said IT workers have already repaired some of the affected databases, however, "We're still saying that it would take probably a few days because once we've corrected a file, we want to test it again so that a similar problem will not occur."
Couture stressed that no data was compromised in the glitch. "It was an internal issue," she said, adding that the CRA suspended Efile services strictly as a "precaution."
"Even though we suspended the program you can still go in and check information, you just cannot make updates or changes, or file your tax returns through the Internet," she told Newsnet
H&R Block Canada says it will store clients' returns and transmit them in a batch once the Efile service is back up and running.
"The big thing is that you don't want to wait to file," Cleo Hamel, a senior tax analyst with H&R Block, told CTV.ca on Wednesday from Calgary.
"From a client perspective it's not delaying them anything, they can come in, they can have their tax prepared but they won't be able to (immediately) have a confirmation from the CRA."
While the deadline for filing personal income tax returns is April 30, Hamel said her company is already backlogged because of the problem.
"When you consider that 95 per cent of our tax returns are e-filed it means that all of those tax returns are going to sit waiting to be processed by the CRA," she said.
But Hamel added that the backlog would probably not result in the revenue agency extending the deadline.
"We've seen them put off the deadline before, but it was for ice storms, it was for floods," Hamel told 麻豆影视net.
"One thing to consider is that it's still the first part of March, and depending on how soon (the CRA) can get their systems back up and running, I'm comfortable saying we'll be able to meet the deadline for April 30," she said.
"We may have to work a few extra hours to get all of these returns e-filed on time, but I don't think it's going to impact the deadline being extended."
H&R Block handles about 1.8 million tax returns annually.
Most people who expect a refund fill out their returns in March while those who owe money usually don't file until late April, said Hamel.
Tax facts (courtesy of the CRA):
- 1.4 million Canadians have already filed their tax returns as of last week.
- 60 per cent of Canadians file their taxes online.
- 12.5 million tax returns were filed online last year out of the 25 million returns that were filed.
With files from The Canadian Press
