Bad advice from CRA could be costly to Manitobans

CTV’s Jeff Keele examines how errors from Canada Revenue Agency workers is having an impact on taxpayers.

Navigating Canada’s tax system can be daunting for the average Manitoban, and even for staff at the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA).

Karen Hogan, the auditor general of Canada, released a scathing report Tuesday about service levels at the CRA.

Over a four-month period, her office placed 167 calls to the CRA asking questions. They found responses to business tax or general benefits questions were right just 54 per cent of the time. Responses to general individual tax questions were only correct 17 per cent of the time.

“Canadians have to voluntarily fill out their tax returns, I think they should expect to reach CRA and get accurate information,” Hogan said.

Morgan Marshall is with Community Financial Counselling Services, an organization that helps low-income individuals with their taxes.

“That was pretty astonishing in how low it was, pretty disappointing to hear,” Marshall said.

Marshall noted filing taxes correctly helps people get the benefits they’re entitled to receive.

“Tax filing is the doorway to benefits,” she said.

Marshall said getting the wrong tax information and then making a mistake on your form could cost you in more ways than one.

“It can just take a lot of mental bandwidth to deal with and then there could also be repercussions to that if you get something paid out to you that you weren’t actually eligible for,” Marshall said.

Hogan also found most callers to the CRA waited an average of 31 minutes.

Gary Esslinger, with the Union of Taxation Employees, said staffing levels are an issue.

“The agency has laid off so many employees, so many staff, especially in call centres, and they’re like inundated,” Esslinger said.

It’s unclear if more people will be hired as the minister responsible, Wayne Long, said the federal government is working on fixing the service problems.

“I’m not prepared to say we’re going to cut, I’m not prepared to say we’re going to add,” Long said.

“We’re looking at it. We’re going to make service better.”