The Canada Revenue Agency is improving its customer service, but still struggles with providing timely responses and clear information, according to the organization鈥檚 service watchdog.
Federal Taxpayers鈥� Ombudsman Sherra Profit released her Tuesday, detailing the top complaints her office has received about the service provided by the CRA.
At the head of the list were issues with delays in processing tax returns. Profit said her office had heard more complaints about personal returns not being processed within the CRA鈥檚 published service standards than for any other issue.
Other major issues flagged by Profit include people feeling information CRA had given them about their returns was unclear, agents on the agency鈥檚 phone help line being difficult to get a hold of and providing contradictory information, and tax adjustment requests being responded to slower than expected.
In one case, Profit said, a taxpayer received a collection letter claiming they owed an incorrect amount. Multiple attempts to contact the CRA鈥檚 complaints officer went unreturned. Once Profit鈥檚 office got involved, the agency said it had not responded to the taxpayer 鈥渄ue to the high volume of complaints鈥� it was dealing with.
鈥淭he CRA needs to look at itself from the perspective of those it serves,鈥� Profit wrote.
Profit said the agency is making progress on improving its service and eliminating the 鈥渂arriers and silos鈥� that contribute to many of the issues raised in her report.
The Office of the Taxpayers鈥� Ombudsman referred 724 complaints to the CRA in 2017-18. According to the report, the agency took action on 93 per cent of the complaints it received.
