From: AlanBaggett@volcanomail.com   
      
   Canada Revenue Agency takes steps toward providing reliable advice : CRA SOTW   
      
   by Laura Jones on May 4th, 2015 at 12:20 PM   
      
   To teach her students a valuable lesson, a friend of mine asks them to divide   
   $20. Students get to keep the money only if they can agree on how to share it.   
   The only rule is that they are not allowed to split it equally. As a result,   
   most don't get any    
   money.   
       
   Lesson? Fairness is a very powerful and important principle for most people.   
      
   As a result of last week's federal budget, dealing with the Canada Revenue   
   Agency just got fairer.   
   Lack of fairness is at the heart of many of the complaints we hear about tax   
   authorities. For example, it feels unfair to get a letter from the taxman   
   using language that makes you feel guilty of a crime you didn't commit. It   
   certainly doesn't seem fair    
   that the language in many tax bulletins is beyond confusing.   
      
   And the ultimate in unfairness is not being able to rely on the government's   
   own tax compliance advice.   
   Several years ago, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business made 145   
   "secret shopper" calls to the CRA and found that 20 percent of the time agency   
   staff gave incomplete or incorrect answers to standard questions from small   
   business owners. More    
   recently, it was reported that the CRA's own study found its agents provided   
   wrong advice even more often, 25 percent of the time.   
      
   Bad tax advice can be a big problem if you are audited. We know of businesses   
   who have been assessed tens of thousands of dollars for the "mistake" of   
   following bad government advice. The stress of these situations cannot be   
   overstated. We dealt with one    
   case where an owner was assessed $93,000 for following advice in a government   
   tax bulletin for her industry. She told us that paying the tax bill would cost   
   her house or her businesses. The obvious unfairness of cases like these led   
   CFIB to advocate for    
   changes to tax administration policies, both provincially and federally.   
      
   The B.C. government was an early leader in this area in 2005 when then-revenue   
   minister Rick Thorpe introduced a Taxpayer Fairness and Service Code that   
   committed to respect written tax advice--even if it was wrong. Previously,   
   government had only been    
   willing to provide interest and penalty relief in such situations. Thorpe   
   championed the Code passionately with the bureaucracy, and his commitment   
   greatly improved the relationship between small business and provincial   
   government. Beyond that, his    
   policy changes proved a model for Ottawa.   
      
   The CRA took its first step toward fairness when its agents stated identifying   
   themselves with caller ID numbers a few years ago. Then it agreed to respect   
   its own written information provided through CRA's MyBusiness Account, which   
   represented a huge    
   fairness breakthrough for small business taxpayers.   
      
   Last week's budget takes tax fairness to new levels. The CRA will now respect   
   written advice in tax bulletins, letters and information on its website.   
   Further, it will put its 100 most commonly used written communication pieces   
   in plain language. It will    
   help businesses better understand the CRA audit process, including rights and   
   recourse with respect to auditors. Finally, CRA plans to make permanent a new   
   program it was testing to visit businesses to help with compliance rather than   
   just to audit.   
      
   CRA currently has a strong minister, Kerry-Lynne Findlay, who places a high   
   premium on improving the agency's culture. She is from B.C. and knew what she   
   was doing when she appointed Thorpe to chair the CRA's Board of Management in   
   2013.   
      
   Both understand the lesson my friend taught her students: Relationships work   
   best when there is fairness. In this case, businesses pay their taxes and   
   government provides reliable, understandable advice.   
      
   Laura Jones is executive vice president of the Canadian Federation of   
   Independent Business. Follow her on Twitter @CFIBideas.    
      
      
      
   ----------------------------------------------------------   
   Miss a Tax Tale Miss a lot!   
   Visit the CRA SOTW Library at http://canada.revenue.agency.angelfire.com   
      
   ------------------------------------------------------------   
   Alan Baggett - http://www.taxcollectorsbible.com/ - Tax Collector's Bible   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)