OTTAWA, ON, June 20, 2025 /CNW/ - Canada's Taxpayers' Ombudsperson, Mr. François Boileau, has released his annual report, Clearing the Path, which was tabled today in the House of Commons. The report provides an overview of the activities of the Office of the Taxpayers' Ombudsperson (OTO) between April 1, 2024, and March 31, 2025.
The report details how the OTO influenced service improvements at the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) by reviewing service issues and complaints. It also includes two recommendations to the Minister of Finance and National Revenue and the Chair of the CRA's Board of Management to improve the CRA's service to Canadians.
During the last fiscal year, the OTO released two systemic examination reports: Unintended Consequences, about the CRA's administration of the 2023 bare trust filing requirements, and Timing Is Everything, about issues that may be causing delays in Canada child benefit (CCB) payments for temporary residents. Between these two reports, we made 16 recommendations, and the CRA accepted 13 of them.
As this is the final year of Mr. Boileau's five-year mandate, the annual report also includes a chapter about his views on improving the CRA's services for vulnerable and hard–to-reach populations. This chapter analyzes the CRA's efforts to make sure these populations get the benefits and credits they are entitled to. It looks at the CRA's existing programs, including the Community Volunteer Income Tax Program, the Income Tax Assistance – Volunteer Program (in Quebec) and SimpleFile, and discusses how they could be improved to better meet Canadians' needs.
2024–2025 report highlights:
Recommendations
The Taxpayers' Ombudsperson recommends:
- (…) that the CRA perform a comprehensive review of its content on Canada.ca, including its web page architecture and content, to remove redundant information and to make sure the information it provides is relevant, clear, concise and easy to find. It should complete this review by spring 2026 and start implementing changes by fall 2026.
- (…) that the CRA provide a permanently funded grant program for organizations participating in the Community Volunteer Income Tax Program and the Income Tax Assistance – Volunteer Program to support their free tax clinics for eligible taxpayers and help them offset their operating costs.
Trends in complaints
- Contact centres: The top trend relates to issues with the information provided by contact centre agents. Many taxpayers who were able to reach the CRA's contact centres claimed that agents provided them with incomplete, inaccurate, or unclear information, while others were unable to even reach an agent because the wait times were too long or they could not get into the queue.
- Income tax and benefit return processing and adjustments: Many complainants claimed that there were delays in processing returns beyond the CRA's published service standard; however, it is important to note that the CRA's service standard applies to returns received on or before filing due dates. As well, the standard excludes returns filed for deceased, bankruptcy, international and non-resident individuals as well as emigrants. It also does not apply in situations where returns are filed for multiple tax years or when the CRA has to contact the taxpayers for more information.
- Collection action: These complaints claimed the CRA did not consider the taxpayer's personal circumstances when taking collection action, and in some cases the taxpayer claimed that the collection action put them in financial hardship.
- CCB: Many complainants said that the CRA's review of their eligibility for the CCB put a burden on them. The CRA told them that the information they provided was not sufficient, even if they provided most of what was requested. They claimed that the CRA did not clearly inform them why what they provided was not sufficient and why additional documents were required.
- The CRA's Service Feedback Program: These complainants said that the CRA's Service Feedback Program did not respond to their complaint within its published service standard.
Background information
The Office of the Taxpayers' Ombudsperson works independently from the CRA. Canadians can submit complaints to the Office if they feel they are not receiving the appropriate service from the CRA. Our main objective is to improve the service the CRA provides to taxpayers and benefit recipients by reviewing individual service complaints and service issues that affect more than one person or a segment of the population.
The Taxpayers' Ombudsperson assists, advises and informs the Minister of Finance and National Revenue about matters relating to services provided by the CRA. The Ombudsperson ensures, in particular, that the CRA respects eight of the service rights outlined in the Taxpayer Bill of Rights.
Quote
"I am especially proud of the work we have done to improve the CRA's services for the most vulnerable. The dual nature of the CRA's work is not well known, aside from its role as tax collector. The second, lesser-known role is to administer benefit and credit programs that can be crucially important to a large segment of the Canadian population. However, when the most vulnerable do not file, they will not receive what they're entitled to, which has a profound effect on not only them, but also our society as a whole."
Mr. François Boileau, Taxpayers' Ombudsperson
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SOURCE Office of the Taxpayers' Ombudsperson
Contacts: Media Relations, Office of the Taxpayers' Ombudsperson / Government of Canada, [email protected]
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