As you’re studying this, it’s day 57 or so of the
Canada Income Company’s
“100-Day Plan” to attempt to enhance its
name centres
.
The event of a plan was introduced by Minister
François Champagne
on Sept. 2, after
on X (previously generally known as Twitter) that it was obvious the CRA was not assembly acceptable service requirements for Canadians.
That assertion was hardly a revelation given the deeply entrenched points the CRA has had with its name centres. So long as I’ve been practising — 30-plus years — it’s been onerous to get by to talk to an agent. However that has lately turn out to be noticeably worse.
The CRA has been updating Canadians on its progress on the
100-day plan
by a
. A few of the enhancements are commendable, however to counsel the CRA’s systemic issues might be solved in 100 days is laughable. It is going to take far more time to make
vital and sustainable enhancements
.
The Taxpayers’ Ombudsman agreed in a
it launched late final week, which counseled the CRA for progress up to now, however mentioned that “with some processing delays far exceeding the CRA’s traditional service requirements, it’s unlikely that the CRA will scale back the backlog to a sustainable stage by the top of the 100-day interval.
An extended-term dedication and satisfactory assets might be vital. By lowering its processing delays, the CRA may scale back the variety of calls it receives and
scale back wait instances for taxpayers
.”
And now we all know why Champagne directed the CRA to provide you with a 100-day plan. Timing, as they are saying, is every part. Final week, the auditor normal launched its
on the findings about its CRA name centre efficiency audit. It’s apparent that he and CRA had obtained an advance copy of the report and wished to get forward of its findings and proposals. It’s very damning.
Some highlights:
- “Within the 2024–25 fiscal 12 months, the company obtained greater than 32 million calls. To deal with these inquiries, the company relied on a workforce of about 4,500 brokers as of March 31, 2025.”
- “In our 2017 audit of name centres, the (CRA’s) service customary was to have its brokers reply calls inside two minutes, 80 per cent of the time. Nonetheless, to attain this customary, the company blocked a excessive variety of calls. For the month of June 2025, the company indicated that solely 5 per cent of the calls have been answered inside quarter-hour.”
- “Between 2023–24 and 2024–25, the variety of contact centre brokers was decreased by 22 per cent. As of Might 31, 2025, there have been 3,530 brokers in contrast with 4,547 on March 31, 2025, and with 5,837 on March 31, 2024.”
- “In fall 2024, the company reintroduced name deflection, which redirected calls to the self-service choice … with out giving the caller the choice to talk to an agent. For … 2024–25 … roughly 8.6 million calls have been deflected.”
- “By our testing of non-account-specific or normal questions, we discovered that within the space of particular person taxes, solely 17 per cent of the solutions supplied have been correct.”
- “We additionally discovered that restricted time was devoted to bettering accuracy and completeness by high quality analysis suggestions and training. In 2024–25, the company reported over 130,000 hours spent on high quality evaluations which resulted in solely 2,200 hours of teaching, suggestions or coaching — underneath half-hour per agent yearly.”
Once more, it is a scathing report.
Level No. 5 has been getting probably the most consideration by media — solely 17 per cent of the solutions have been correct — and that’s regarding. Nonetheless, to be honest, Canadians have to first perceive that the CRA will not be within the enterprise of offering tax recommendation. It’s within the enterprise of administering our complicated taxation statutes.
Second, it’s a stretch to suppose that CRA name centre brokers are anticipated to know the solutions to earnings tax questions posed to them on the cellphone. The auditor normal’s report doesn’t disclose the questions that have been requested. Have been they easy questions? Troublesome?
Within the tax world, there will not be many easy questions and to place the CRA on this age of on the spot gratification to an ordinary of answering questions on the spot is debatable. Even seasoned tax professionals resembling myself cringe to reply questions on the spot. If you happen to’re a tax practitioner who’s comfy with that, properly, peace be with you.
However, the reply to bettering high quality solutions and repair is to coach brokers that significantly better. It’s stunning to me that brokers obtain solely half-hour of annual coaching (#level No. 6).
Tax is likely one of the most complicated topics identified to man. To have solely half-hour of annual coaching to manage such complexity is silly. That should enhance and it could possibly simply be achieved.
Mixed with higher coaching, probably the most substantive factor that may be achieved is for Canada to make an actual effort to simplify our total tax system. That’s simpler mentioned than achieved and would require a political dedication for total tax reform that’s lengthy overdue.
The
reply
to bettering CRA’s name centres is to not add to their already bloated headcount. Having mentioned that, the data disclosed in level No. 3 is regarding. Why would the CRA scale back the variety of name brokers when volumes have been growing and requirements reducing? Appears counterintuitive to me.
Clearly, there’s a proper variety of brokers who needs to be taking the calls and the CRA must get again to that match.
The CRA’s 100-day plan ought to embrace implementing callback queues and a scheduling system, setting onerous service requirements, increasing the devoted phone service for earnings tax professionals, guaranteeing unbiased oversight and, as highlighted above, coaching its group members higher.
The CRA should do higher. There are about 43 days left for the CRA to show it’s severe about bettering service to Canadians, not simply deflecting duty prefer it deflects calls.
Kim Moody, FCPA, FCA, TEP, is the founding father of Moodys Tax/Moodys Personal Shopper, a former chair of the Canadian Tax Basis, former chair of the Society of Property Practitioners (Canada) and has held many different management positions within the Canadian tax group. He might be reached at kgcm@kimgcmoody.com and his LinkedIn profile is https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimgcmoody.
_____________________________________________________________
If you happen to like this story, join the FP Investor E-newsletter.
_____________________________________________________________
