Service from Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) contact centres continues to disappoint taxpayers — assuming taxpayers get through to the centres in the first place.
The latest annual report from the Office of the Taxpayers’ Ombudsperson finds that the top trend in complaints about the CRA’s services related to information provided by contact centre agents.
“Many taxpayers who were able to reach the CRA’s contact centres claimed that agents provided them with incomplete, inaccurate or unclear information, while others were unable to even reach an agent because the wait times were too long or they could not get into the queue,” said a release on Friday from the Office of the Taxpayers’ Ombudsperson.
The office aims to improve the CRA’s service by reviewing individual complaints. The annual report provided an overview of the office’s activities for the year ended March 31, 2025. Overall, 2,796 complaints were received about the CRA’s services, compared to 2,833 the year before.
“Our office is well aware of the public’s complaints about the contact centres,” the report said. “They are regularly one of the top complaint trends each year, and this year was no different.”
A 2017 report from the auditor general found that CRA call agents provided wrong information almost 30% of the time. In that report, the agency committed to measures such as training and monitoring agents. The auditor general plans to release another report this year on the CRA’s contact centres, Friday’s report said.
Also, a public opinion research study published in March 2024 that looked at taxpayers’ service expectations for CRA’s contact centres found that some callers phoned the CRA after having difficulty navigating the CRA’s website. As such, Friday’s report suggested that the CRA review its website architecture and content to ensure relevant and clear information is provided.
In addition to contact centres, complaint trends in the Taxpayers’ Ombudsperson report related to delays in processing tax returns, claims that the CRA failed to consider taxpayers’ personal circumstances when taking collection action and claims that the CRA burdened taxpayers regarding their eligibility for the Canada Child Benefit.
Complainants also said the CRA’s Service Feedback Program failed to respond to their complaints within the agency’s published service standard. (The two main ways that taxpayers can complain to the CRA are by calling the agency or submitting service feedback.)
The report also recommended that the CRA establish a grant program for organizations that provide income tax clinics to eligible taxpayers.
“[A] key focus of our office has been on how vulnerable, hard-to-reach non-filers can be better informed about the advantages of income tax filing,” such as receiving benefits, credits and other entitlements, the report said. To that end, other initiatives detailed in the report included automatic tax filing for eligible lower-income taxpayers.
The Taxpayers’ Ombudsperson report also detailed other activities this year, such as its review of the CRA’s administration of the 2023 bare trust filing requirements.