CRA Aims to Boost Services for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses

Small- and medium-sized businesses will be getting more help from Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) over the next couple of years.

The tax agency recently unveiled plans to make its services for those businesses more helpful and easier to use. The new plan follows consultations started in October 2016 and follows separate consultations in 2012 and 2014. The agency met with businesses, accountants and CRA employees who regularly interact with businesses, and also accepted feedback online and discussed issues with business associations.

“The vast majority of Canadians do everything right.” — A CRA employee

The result is a program called Serving You Better. The CRA received more than 1,500 comments and suggestions. Here is a summary of the new initiative taken from the CRA website:

Making Tax Information Easier to Access, Understand and Use

Participants told the CRA they don’t like busy signals when they call and they do like services with a call-back option. Accountants want to ask complex questions on the phone. Businesses would like an auto-fill option and to be able to complete more tasks online.

The CRA said it will:

• Switch over to the Government’s telephone platform and complete feasibility studies for adding call-back and secure chat lines.

• Conduct a pilot for a service dedicated to letting tax preparers call experienced CRA staff members who can help with complex technical issues.

• Review the Pensionable Insurable Earnings Report (PIER) and other notices and letters for businesses. Let corporations see the assessed value of income tax returns and schedules as well as their CRA-verified dividend account balances in My Business Account.

• Expand the Liaison Officer Assistance Requests pilot program to allow businesses across Canada to request a Liaison Officer visit. Start an auto-fill option using commercial software.

• Study the possibility of setting up a volunteer tax program that would help the smallest new businesses understand the payroll, GST/HST and other tax obligations that come with starting a business.

“My clients and I are frustrated that we aren’t able to obtain remittance forms online.” — An accountant

Clarifying Information about Payment Options

Participants noted that payments don’t always go where they expect. Although there have been improvements, individuals said they still had concerns about these errors and the time it takes to resolve them.

The CRA said it will:

• Improve the way it explains how to fix misallocated payments when and where taxpayers want.
• Raise awareness about direct deposits into taxpayers’ bank accounts.
• Make payroll remittance vouchers easier to order online.
• Explain clearly how remittance vouchers are personalized to ensure payments go to the right accounts.

“Objections are a nightmare just to get assigned.” — From an accountant

 Improving Services Related to Audits, Collections and Appeals

Taxpayers and accountants were clear about how unhappy they are with the amount of time it takes to resolve any objections. They want better communications between their businesses and representatives and CRA auditors.

The CRA said it will:

• Improve the time it takes to resolve an objection (it developed a plan to improve timeliness and better inform Canadians of the expected and actual time frames for resolving an objection based on its complexity.
• Improve audit processes and communications through a post-audit survey and by monitoring the feedback it receives.
• Enhance the clearance certificate process by communicating earlier when you apply and by helping businesses identify situations when a certificate isn’t required.
• Ensure consistency by communicating collection procedures to audit branches and offering training for auditors.

The CRA notes that it has previous consultations on cutting red tape in 2012 and 2014. As a result, the tax agency says it already has:

1. Introduced the Liaison Officer initiative.

2. Engaged associations including the Canadian Payroll Association and the Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada (CPA Canada) to identify CRA guides and forms needing to be simplified and clarified.

3. Reduced the payroll remittance burden for the smallest new employers.

4. Allowed businesses to request a payment search using the My Business Account Enquiries Service and to submit cashed cheques as proof of payment using Submit Documents.

5. Included a My Audit tab in My Business Account that allows electronic communications between businesses and auditors.

6. Provided a streamlined Interactive Voice Response system that makes it easier for business callers to connect with an agent.

7. Introduced training to help auditors become more sensitive to the needs and realities of small and medium businesses.

8. Reviewed completely its notices and letters to make them clearer and easier to understand.

9. Reduced the need for callers to repeat information when a call is transferred from one agent to another.

10. Set up a way to connect callers to the right expert.

Top 10 Things You’ll Be Able to Do The CRA’s 2017-2019 Serving You Better action plan contains over 50 action items that the agency expects will improve services for small and medium businesses. According to the CRA, here are the top 10 things you’ll be able to do: 1. Receive a CRA security code by email 2. Call a new dedicated telephone service for tax preparers that helps with more complex technical issues 3. Request a Liaison Officer visit 4. Provide T4 information slips to your employees in electronic format (certain conditions apply) 5. Use T2 Auto-fill through commercial software 6. Create your own filing and balance confirmation letters online 7. View short “how-to” videos that explain the services on My Business Account 8. Experience telephone service improvements 9. Share feedback about your audit experience in a new post-audit survey 10. Have your objections resolved faster