From: AlanBaggett@volcanomail.com   
      
   Canada Revenue Agency does not require a death certificate to declare you   
   dead   :CRA SOTW   
      
    Hundreds of people are mistakenly declared dead every year, says federal   
   taxpayers' ombudsman   
       
   Yvonne Colbert • CBC News    
      
   What does it take for the Canada Revenue Agency to declare you dead?   
      
   Little more than a phone call from any number of people will do it, resulting   
   in benefits being immediately cut off and, in some cases, sending the living   
   "dead" into an abyss of bureaucracy that can take months to correct.   
      
   The CRA says the Income Tax Act does not require it to request a death   
   certificate to mark a taxpayer as deceased.   
      
   Instead, it will declare someone dead when it receives a phone call from   
   "other government departments, lawyers, executors, representatives,   
   beneficiaries or family members."   
      
   CRA is unique   
   Tax lawyer Rob Miedema told CBC News the CRA is unique in not requiring a   
   death certificate before declaring someone dead, noting it's a routine   
   requirement for businesses to insist on having the document before allowing   
   access or providing information    
   on a deceased person's account.   
      
   "That might be the phone company, that might be their landlord, even Facebook   
   actually requires a death certificate before they'll start dealing with a   
   family member in terms of memorializing or shutting down an account," Miedema   
   said.   
      
   Being brought back to life is not always easy.   
      
   Two people who were erroneously declared dead without a death certificate   
   question why one isn't needed, saying it would have prevented the mistakes and   
   not burdened them with added stress while dealing with the death of a loved   
   one.   
      
   'A confusing problem'   
   Reg Kane of Howie Centre, Cape Breton, said an error happened when he filed   
   income tax returns for both his late wife and himself. He isn't sure whether   
   he made the mistake or CRA, but both he and his wife were both declared dead.   
      
   He provided a death certificate for his late wife, but clearly didn't provide   
   his own.   
      
   "Please, if you declare somebody deceased make sure that person is really   
   deceased," Kane told CBC News.   
      
   Dartmouth resident Mildred Bull also was listed as dead after H&R Block   
   erroneously included the wrong information on her return. She, too, filed for   
   her late husband.   
      
   In both cases, Kane and Bull were required to spend a significant amount of   
   time trying to straighten out their situations.    
      
   "It's a confusing problem for people," Miedema said. "They don't understand   
   why they have to make so much contact to address a problem that was made   
   inside of a system that is not transparent to them."   
      
   Thousands declared dead   
   In 2014, federal taxpayers' ombudsman Paul Dubé investigated the issue of CRA   
   mistakenly declaring people dead.   
      
   His report titled "Alive and Well" found that between 2007 and 2013 CRA   
   accidentally declared 5,489 people dead when in reality they were alive.     
      
   The report said while those who call and report a death are supposed to   
   forward a copy of the death certificate, their investigation found "the CRA   
   does not have a followup procedure to ensure that the documents requested ...   
   are sent in and matched to    
   the account."   
      
   The CRA told CBC News it understands that the death of a family member or a   
   loved one is always a difficult time and the death certificate is not   
   required, "in order to decrease the burden on the taxpayers."   
      
   The 2014 report notes that once the CRA is notified of a death the deceased   
   designation "automatically stops all benefit payments" such as GST/HST, the   
   Canada Child Benefit and federal pension payments.   
      
   It says this prevents making an overpayment, which the government would then   
   have to recoup and "which could leave the family or executor to deal with   
   unnecessarily repaying a debt that could have been prevented."   
      
   If you owe money, death certificate required   
   Miedema notes the CRA requires a death certificate before it will stop   
   collections efforts against those who owe the federal government money.   
      
   The ombudsman's report also noted "once an account is found to have been coded   
   deceased in error, the CRA has an internal program target of 48 hours to   
   correct the information." That didn't happen in either the Kane or Bull case,   
   although Kane did    
   receive his pension money on Thursday.   
      
   In fact, both are uncertain whether they will receive their pension payments   
   next week.   
      
   The report made eight recommendations for improvements, but it did not   
   recommend a death certificate be required before a taxpayer is declared   
   deceased.   
      
   Number of CRA errors declining   
   The CRA said it has implemented each recommendation and when an error is   
   discovered, the CRA corrects the record within 48 hours and advises Service   
   Canada of the error so it can update its records accordingly.     
      
   It did not respond to a question about how often it meets its target of   
   restoring the "dead" to life in that time frame.   
      
   The 2014 report noted that despite the small percentage of error (0.23 per   
   cent), "being declared dead is stressful and can be very challenging for   
   taxpayers to fix once it occurs."   
      
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