CRA call centre staff blocking calls, giving taxpayers incorrect information: AG

Mowich

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Dec 25, 2005
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OTTAWA – Canada’s tax collectors often aren’t picking up the phone, and when they do, Canadians are being given incorrect information, a new federal audit reveals.

The examination by Canada’s Auditor General Michael Ferguson into whether the Canada Revenue Agency’s nine call centres were providing Canadian taxpayers with timely access to accurate information, found that call centre agents only answered the phone about one-third of the time.

When the callers do get through to the call centre, the audit found that agents are giving Canadians incorrect information nearly 30 per cent of the time.

The auditor's office found this by calling into the call centres between March 2016 and March 2017 and asked the call agents general tax questions.

In a press conference, Ferguson said he finds the number of Canadians getting bad information from the tax agency "very concerning" because people rely on the CRA to give them the right answer.

He estimates that based on this bad advice there is a real potential for Canadians to have made errors while filing their taxes.

Prior to the auditor general's examination, the CRA said it was meeting its targets for access and timeliness. The auditor general found that this was because the CRA had been overstating its success by not accounting for millions of blocked calls.

The auditor general discovered that the CRA blocked about 29 million calls, more than half of its 53.5 million total call volume, because the call centres could not handle the volume of calls.

These blocked callers were given a busy signal or message to go to the website or call back later.

“Each caller made an average of three or four call attempts per week. Even after several attempts, some callers did not always reach an agent or the automated self-service system,” Ferguson said in the Fall 2017 report tabled in Parliament on Tuesday.

The CRA reported that about 90 per cent of callers are able to be connected to the automated self-service system or a call centre agent. However when the blocked calls are factored in, the Agency’s overall success rate dropped to 36 per cent.

The auditor general concluded that the CRA needs to step up its call centre service. The auditor general said this is important because calling in for help is the main way for Canadians to get help with specific questions, or is the only way for those without internet access or who are not comfortable or able to use a computer.

“The Agency made a commitment under the Taxpayer Bill of Rights to give taxpayers accurate information,” Ferguson said. “If taxpayers cannot get timely access to accurate information, they may file incorrect returns, miss filing deadlines, pay too little or too much tax (and later be subject to reassessment), or miss out on benefits they are eligible to receive.”

The CRA has responded to the findings saying it will be updating its call centre technology.

The government is expected to respond to the AG’s findings later Tuesday.

CRA call centre staff blocking calls, giving taxpayers incorrect information: AG | CTV News

This inept liberal government couldn't run a lemonade stand properly. BTW, if taxpayers do receive incorrect info from the CRA - THEY are held responsible for improper filing.
 

Curious Cdn

Hall of Fame Member
Feb 22, 2015
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The CRA benefits greatly if taxpayers are confused, unsure of what they owe and what they keep. Our tax system is sufficiently complex that most of us pay too much without some sort of professional assistance at interpreting the archaine tax laws de jour. I think that it's intentional to keep us confused and off balance as our governments, particularly the Feds. Benefit from billions legally owed to Canadians but never claimed.

Yes, it it a conspiracy theory. The CRA conspires against you and me to harvest as much as they can, from us. Honest, straightforward dealings with the public would reduce the take.
 

Durry

House Member
May 18, 2010
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Many of those answering the calls from CRA are immigrants, who might be educated, but in their traditional culture it is very common and natural for them to lie when they don't know the correct answer.
 

Curious Cdn

Hall of Fame Member
Feb 22, 2015
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Many of those answering the calls from CRA are immigrants, who might be educated, but in their traditional culture it is very common and natural for them to lie when they don't know the correct answer.

No lying scumbag pur Laine Canadians working the phones at the CRA, then?
 

Danbones

Hall of Fame Member
Sep 23, 2015
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only the staff the friendly tax law firms lent the CRA under the table to help with the call load...
:)
 

Vbeacher

Electoral Member
Sep 9, 2013
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Some years ago there were English people in Taxpayer Services, and French people. They operated out of different buildings. When you called the number, you pushed 1 for English, 2 for French, and the call was directed to the proper queue. These jobs pay well and it's not hard to find people willing to do them and be trained and who will stick around.

Then came... the idea. The idea was that all people who have contact with the public should be bilingual. Most of the French clerks were already bilingual, the rest, and almost all the Anglos, were let go. CRA now insisted that any applicants be thoroughly bilingual in order to apply. It became harder to get staff, but not impossible.

Then came... the idea.

You know, there were too many public service workers in Ottawa (a place on the border of Quebec with lots of bilingual citizens). Those jobs should be shared with the rest of the country. Why not have them in Surrey? There's lots of bilingual people there! How about Calgary, Hamilton and Halifax? They could use some of those jobs! And let's not leave out those centres of bilingualism like Chicoutami and Trois Riviere and Jonquiere and Shawinigan! They need jobs too!

It became a tad harder to find thoroughly bilingual people in a lot of those places so, well, standards had to be compromised a tad. Not bilingualism standards, of course! But knowledge and ability. That part. That wasn't considered quite so important.
 

Durry

House Member
May 18, 2010
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Yes, and don't forget that the Libs are trying to find work for all those refugees they are letting in to the country.
 

gerryh

Time Out
Nov 21, 2004
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Didn't take long for 2 of our resident racists/bigots to make this about immigrants.
 

Angstrom

Hall of Fame Member
May 8, 2011
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Some years ago there were English people in Taxpayer Services, and French people. They operated out of different buildings. When you called the number, you pushed 1 for English, 2 for French, and the call was directed to the proper queue. These jobs pay well and it's not hard to find people willing to do them and be trained and who will stick around.

Then came... the idea. The idea was that all people who have contact with the public should be bilingual. Most of the French clerks were already bilingual, the rest, and almost all the Anglos, were let go. CRA now insisted that any applicants be thoroughly bilingual in order to apply. It became harder to get staff, but not impossible.

Then came... the idea.

You know, there were too many public service workers in Ottawa (a place on the border of Quebec with lots of bilingual citizens). Those jobs should be shared with the rest of the country. Why not have them in Surrey? There's lots of bilingual people there! How about Calgary, Hamilton and Halifax? They could use some of those jobs! And let's not leave out those centres of bilingualism like Chicoutami and Trois Riviere and Jonquiere and Shawinigan! They need jobs too!

It became a tad harder to find thoroughly bilingual people in a lot of those places so, well, standards had to be compromised a tad. Not bilingualism standards, of course! But knowledge and ability. That part. That wasn't considered quite so important.
Because its 2017
 

tay

Hall of Fame Member
May 20, 2012
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And yet they won't go after the big scammers even when they get handed the info via the Panama and Paradise papers.....
 

Danbones

Hall of Fame Member
Sep 23, 2015
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Well "crooked" is the key word. "Finance", yes that should be there too...
;)
"SElf adMinisters"...There FTFY
 

Jinentonix

Hall of Fame Member
Sep 6, 2015
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It's not just the call centers, it's the morons at the processing centers as well. Every year since 2010 my wife and I have joint filed on a single return. Every year since 2010 I get a notice saying they can't calculate our credits or refund because I didn't report my wife's income. Every year I had to call the district office and find out what the f*cking problem is. And every year I was told they kept f*cking up at the processing center.
This year, they changed to call centers and of course I had the same problem as I've had every other year. Only this year, I ended with a snotty, unhelpful moron. She kept insisting, rather snottily I might add, that I had to double file and that the information was on the CRA website. I explained to her that there was nothing on the website that implicitly or explicitly stated that someone in our position had to double file and that nobody else since 2010, including Diane Labouthier, had stated I was filing incorrectly. The b*tch still continued to insist that the information was on the CRA website. And this was supposedly a supervisor. And the sad part is, she had no idea who the f*ck Diane Labouthier is. It's her boss by the way.

I finally got a hold of someone with a brain who explained to me what the actual problem was. The problem is the on-line and hard copy versions of the tax forms haven't caught up to the computer and software technology they are using. All of the other boxes where you report amounts on your tax return have a little black box with a number inside it next to it. This is what the computer uses to keep track of reported amounts. Unfortunately, the box where you report your spouse's income doesn't have one of those little black boxes with a number in it so the computer doesn't recognize there's a value input there.

The lady I spoke to the second time did put in a ticket for me to correct the error but it's now Nov. 22 and I'm STILL waiting for my refund and credits.
 

TenPenny

Hall of Fame Member
Jun 9, 2004
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It's not just the call centers, it's the morons at the processing centers as well. Every year since 2010 my wife and I have joint filed on a single return. Every year since 2010 I get a notice saying they can't calculate our credits or refund because I didn't report my wife's income. Every year I had to call the district office and find out what the f*cking problem is. And every year I was told they kept f*cking up at the processing center.
.



I think I can show you your problem. You can't joint file on a single return in Canada.


So maybe you should find a mirror.




"Unlike in countries such as the United States, spouses in Canada cannot file a single joint income tax return. Each spouse must file a separate return. Your tax preparation software may include an option to prepare a ‘coupled’� return. By using this method, the software maximizes the benefits for the couple as a whole while still generating two separate returns."
 

petros

The Central Scrutinizer
Nov 21, 2008
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"Unlike in countries such as the United States, spouses in Canada cannot file a single joint income tax return. Each spouse must file a separate return. Your tax preparation software may include an option to prepare a ‘coupled’� return. By using this method, the software maximizes the benefits for the couple as a whole while still generating two separate returns."

We found that method with software is a pain in the ass and do it separately.
 

Twin_Moose

Hall of Fame Member
Apr 17, 2017
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And yet they won't go after the big scammers even when they get handed the info via the Panama and Paradise papers.....

How many of the scammers are generating profits outside of the country? The profits generated within our country have already been taxed by taking it out of the country is fine. It's the profits that are being made by this money that is taxable within our country and if they bring it back the secondary profit tax free that is the illegal part.

IMHO