Dale Jackson

Personal Finance Columnist, Payback Time

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Less than a month after failing an audit from none other than Canada’s auditor general, the Canada Revenue Agency is feeling the heat from the Office of the Taxpayers’ Ombudsman.

Ombudsman Sherra Profit tabled her 2017-2018 annual report in Parliament this week, pointing out many familiar CRA shortcomings relating to fairness, promptness and consistency.

The report, based on taxpayer feedback, found new complaints increased 29 per cent over the previous fiscal year. The CRA scored points by resolving 40 per cent more issues than the previous year.

The most common complaints were:

• Delays in processing individual income tax and benefit returns
• Lack of clarity in the information received from the CRA concerning T1 tax returns
• Delays in processing for T1 adjustment requests
• Lack of consistent information when dealing with agents at the individual tax enquiries telephone line

Any action to address the Ombudsman’s report is now in the hands of Parliament, much like the Auditor General’s report.

For the rest of us, the 2018 tax filing deadline remains at April 30, 2019.