Tips when Dealing With CRA Part 1

As I’ve just finished a full series on the Family Trust I was debating on what would be my next topic to blog on. After some thinking I came to the conclusion that one of the biggest issues many people face is dealing with CRA, the Canada Revenue Agency. Formerly they were called CCRA, Canada Customs and Revenue Agency and before that they were simply called Revenue Canada. The CRA is an agency that administers tax law for Canada, which means in essence they are a big part of implementing the tax legislation put forth by parliament. This is of course not their only function as they also administer other areas of benefits and tax programs to the public and they also currently work with international trade regulation. It’s interesting that this is what they are to do, but the majority of the public sees them as being a collection agency. The appearance of CRA does not seem to say anything different when they are harassing millions of Canadians for money even when they may not owe it!

The first thing you must realize when dealing with CRA is that they do not make the final decisions in regards to how tax legislation applies. Above the CRA is the Tax Court of Canada, The Federal Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of Canada. So, in essence, the CRA is at the bottom of the totem pole when determining the law. The real issue is that many people do not know they can appeal further than CRA, nor do they know that they have specific rights as a taxpayer. You, as a taxpayer, have many rights that could be disregarded by CRA. Part of the problem is that it is not a requirement for CRA agents to know the tax payer bill of rights, and on top of that, many of CRA’s positions are transient as many employees either leave the CRA or move departments. I’ve asked numerous CRA agents if they know about the Tax Payer Bill of Rights and you would be surprised to find that many don’t know about it, and if they do, they haven’t had a chance to read it! You need to know your rights to ensure they are being upheld, here is the link to the Tax Payer Bill of Rights: http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/E/pub/tg/rc4417/rc4417-09b.pdf

Now that you know your rights ensure you are never walked over by the CRA. If your rights are broken then you should contact your member of parliament, contact the Tax Payer’s Ombudsman and appeal any decisions you don’t agree with. There are good people that work at the CRA, however as a whole the CRA needs to collect as much from the taxpayers as possible as Canada is in a major deficit. Where do you think they get the loans from? Obviously not the United States as they are Trillions in debt! The fact is that the Bank of Canada is able to print amounts of funds based on a number of factors, including the basis of how much tax us Canadians can pay! …and we wonder why all the reassessments and audits are so rampant. In my next series of blogs, I will go into a number of tips in helping you deal with CRA.