From: AlanBaggett@volcanomail.com   
      
   'The delays are tremendous': Widespread backlogs hamper CRA streamlining,   
   frustrate taxpayers :CRA SOTW   
      
   Accountants and CRA officials said backlogs have occurred in the appeals,   
   assessment and auditing divisions of the agency   
      
   BY JESSE SNYDER   
      
   'The delays are tremendous': Widespread backlogs hamper CRA streamlining,   
   frustrate taxpayers   
      
   OTTAWA — The Canada Revenue Agency is seeing major delays in processing   
   claims amid a massive consolidation effort, with some taxpayer-requested   
   assessments taking longer than a year, according to accountants and CRA   
   employees who spoke on condition of    
   anonymity.   
      
   The CRA acknowledged in a written response it is “taking longer than   
   usual” to process taxpayer-requested assessments, due in part to an   
   “unusual increase” in the volume of requests. It said delays can also   
   arise from a lack of documents provided,   
    or if assessments encounter technical complications.   
      
   “We recognize that is an inconvenience to taxpayers,” the agency said.   
   “We have put in place a plan, which includes significant additional   
   resources, to return to processing these adjustment requests in normal   
   timeframes.”   
      
   The agency claims it is “on average” meeting its service standards. But   
   more than a dozen tax consultants and CRA employees said delays often take   
   longer than six months to process, with some assessments taking as long as 18   
   months. Taxpayer-   
   requested re-assessments for businesses are also seeing months-long delays in   
   some cases.   
      
   Processing times for so-called “statutory forms,” or the repayment of   
   funds back to the individual or business after assessments, have increased   
   from 10 days to 30 days over the past year, and taking as long as 60 days.   
      
   The time required to respond to claimants in the “problem resolution   
   program,” the office that handles more technically complex files, went from   
   five days to around 30 days, according to several sources.    
      
   The delays come amid a substantial restructuring of Canada’s tax agency   
   announced by Revenue Minister Diane Lebouthillier last November. At the time,   
   the ministry said it hopes to streamline CRA operations to cope with a   
   fast-paced shift from digital    
   to online filing.   
      
   Lebouthillier declined a phone interview, but said in a written statement that   
   the rising number of Canadians filing tax returns online instead of on paper   
   has “drastically changed the demands placed on the Agency.”   
      
   Since 2005, the number of Canadians filing online has nearly doubled from 12   
   million to over 23 million, according to the CRA.   
      
   The minister’s statement did not provide specific remedies for the delays,   
   but said the current reorganization of the CRA would “improve its   
   effectiveness.”   
      
   CRA’s holdups have caused considerable angst among businesses and Canadians   
   awaiting re-assessments, tax consultants say. Taxpayer-requested assessments   
   are filed in order to appeal or verify CRA decisions, often to dispute unfair   
   outcomes, processing    
   errors, or to apply for additional tax credits.   
      
   Jamie Golombek, the managing director of tax and estate planning at The   
   Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce in Toronto, said lengthy delays can cause   
   intense stress for taxpayers, who are charged interest on amounts owing over   
   the entire duration of    
   disputes.    
      
   “If you’re wrong and it takes you a year or a year and a half to settle,   
   they may be charging you at rates of five per cent, non-deductible,” he   
   said. “These are very high rates, it’s very punitive.”   
      
   Golombek, similar to other accountants who deal with the agency regularly, has   
   heard “numerous stories” about the CRA taking months to respond to claims.   
   Accountants and CRA officials said backlogs have occurred in several divisions   
   within the agency,   
    including the appeals, assessment and auditing divisions.   
      
   “The delays are tremendous,” said Kim Moody of Calgary-based Moodys   
   Gartner Tax Law LLP, which represents both private and corporate clients.   
   Several sources said delays at the CRA are generally expected, but that wait   
   times in recent years have been    
   especially long.     
      
   Funding for the CRA was pared back under the Harper government, which also   
   phased out face-to-face customer service centres in two stages in 2012 and   
   2013. The Liberals promised to boost funding in their 2016 budget, most of   
   which is earmarked for the    
   auditing and collections divisions in a bid to target high-income tax evaders.   
       
   Processing delays at CRA offices are a direct result of both a shortage of   
   employees and the revenue minister’s recent consolidation efforts, according   
   to Marc Brière, the president of the Union of Taxation Employees in Ottawa.   
      
   “There is a direct link between the changes last year and the delays we are   
   seeing today,” he said.    
      
   The offices responsible for taxpayer-requested assessments has been reduced   
   from nine offices to four, now located in Winnipeg, Man.; Sudbury, Ont.;   
   Jonquière, Que. and Summerside, Prince Edward Island.   
      
   One call centre in Toronto was shut down, while several other auditing and   
   collections centres were consolidated into three offices. Brière said 2,400   
   of his members, or 10 per cent, were impacted by the various moves.   
      
   The shuffling of offices effectively led to a scrambling of roles inside the   
   CRA, with many long-term employees taking on positions they had no prior   
   training for, and leaving large knowledge gaps behind, Brière said. People in   
   tax collections, for    
   example, might have taken roles in call centres while people in the auditing   
   division moved into collections, he said.   
      
   The mismatch between professional knowledge and personality types has created   
   angst among employees and, Brière said, explains in part the delays happening   
   in CRA tax centres.   
      
   “The machine has been shaken,” Brière, said.   
      
   “The training involved and the personality you might need to be a collection   
   officer might be totally different than in a call centre,” he said. “If   
   someone’s been doing that job for 20 years, it’s difficult to move along   
   to something new.    
   People are stressed out.”   
      
   The CRA did not say whether the delays were a direct result of staffing   
   shortfalls, but said it was in the process of significantly bulking up on   
   resources.   
      
      
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