Personal Finance

Ringing CRA for help

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  • Apr 21st, 2022 10:20 am
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Deal Addict
Sep 3, 2020
2720 posts
1994 upvotes

Ringing CRA for help

Sometimes I ring the CRA to ask for tax guidance on rules etc. One time I spoke to a brilliant young agent who helped me understand different aspects like the RRSP and tax brackets. He was amazing. There were a few other times where the help was simply professional and excellent - I so appreciated it.

Cue the last two times. I get transferred through to specialist areas and the agents clearly don't know what they are talking about. Each time they offer to send me to the CRA website. One time, when I asked a business tax question, the woman had no clue even how deductions were made - this is how bad it was. Today I called and the man was clearly out of his depth on a topic.

Anyway mostly CRA staff are very good and courteous but I wish their "specialist" areas had qualified staff who know more than to give me incomplete info or send me to their website.

Rant over.
9 replies
Deal Fanatic
Jan 21, 2018
9652 posts
10924 upvotes
Vancouver
Yes, that's pretty standard now. Also keep in mind that any interpretation they attempt to give you beyond what's already published on the web is non-binding on the CRA, and may be incorrect. Often is incorrect according to surveys done in previous years.
Deal Guru
Jan 19, 2017
10048 posts
6145 upvotes
Scote64 wrote: Yes, that's pretty standard now. Also keep in mind that any interpretation they attempt to give you beyond what's already published on the web is non-binding on the CRA, and may be incorrect. Often is incorrect according to surveys done in previous years.
I was told to get written interpretation from CRA so that you have a record for the tax law area you need. Don't trust the verbal communication from CRA. when a CRA agent gives you the wrong answer, there is no penalty for hi/her. But when you use that wrong answer on your tax return, you are responsible for it.
Last edited by ml88888888 on Mar 18th, 2022 2:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Deal Addict
Jul 13, 2016
1232 posts
693 upvotes
ml88888888 wrote: I was told to get written interpretation from CRA so that you have a record for the tax law area you need. Don't trust the verbal communication from CRA. when a CRA agent gives you the wrong answer, there is penalty for hi/her. But when you use that wrong answer on your tax return, you are responsible for it.
The wait time for a written interpretation is 2+ years.
Member
Aug 23, 2021
325 posts
321 upvotes
I have a nephew, a CRA small business tax auditor who is a CPA. All his practical experience is with CRA. When I asked him if he considered leaving CRA and becoming an accountant for a small business or organization, he confessed that he didn’t feel competent to accept such a position.
Deal Addict
Feb 28, 2011
1203 posts
355 upvotes
Surrey
berrytree wrote: Sometimes I ring the CRA to ask for tax guidance on rules etc. One time I spoke to a brilliant young agent who helped me understand different aspects like the RRSP and tax brackets. He was amazing. There were a few other times where the help was simply professional and excellent - I so appreciated it.

Cue the last two times. I get transferred through to specialist areas and the agents clearly don't know what they are talking about. Each time they offer to send me to the CRA website. One time, when I asked a business tax question, the woman had no clue even how deductions were made - this is how bad it was. Today I called and the man was clearly out of his depth on a topic.

Anyway mostly CRA staff are very good and courteous but I wish their "specialist" areas had qualified staff who know more than to give me incomplete info or send me to their website.

Rant over.
If they are mostly good, then that's good enough for the price paid. Would you want them all to be super qualified with a huge bill for the taxpayers? I didn't think so.

Corporations pay minimum 100k per year for accountants, tax specialists, and lawyers for a reason.

However, it's also true that they try to pay attention to more customer service, rather than qualified service. I guess that's because people are like babies to be treated like babies. Knowledgeable people don't like such jobs, they don't wanna sit there and explain to you about tax brackets, smth a 10 year old could look up on google under 5 minutes.

There is another theory that a lot of people plateau at jobs they are not qualified for, because they keep getting promoted until they reach their limit.
Tangerine and Public Mobile customer
Deal Addict
User avatar
May 31, 2018
1207 posts
3036 upvotes
SK
ml88888888 wrote: I was told to get written interpretation from CRA so that you have a record for the tax law area you need. Don't trust the verbal communication from CRA. when a CRA agent gives you the wrong answer, there is no penalty for hi/her. But when you use that wrong answer on your tax return, you are responsible for it.
Years ago our curling club asked for a written interpretation on wether GST needed to be remitted for bonspiel entries. After no response by the beginning of the next season the same request letter was again sent to the CRA. A couple of months later we received a letter that stated curling bonspiels did not need to have GST collected and remitted. And a week or two later we received another letter stating that curling bonspiels absolutely were required to collect and remit GST.

I always intended to frame the two letters together and hang them in the trophy case. Never did though, might be worth digging through the old records to see if I could find them again.

In any case, I have no faith in the CRA ever holding to anything other than their interpretation at the time it actually matters regardless of anything conveyed prior, either verbal or written.
Deal Guru
Dec 20, 2018
10120 posts
10230 upvotes
Numbersman1941 wrote: I have a nephew, a CRA small business tax auditor who is a CPA. All his practical experience is with CRA. When I asked him if he considered leaving CRA and becoming an accountant for a small business or organization, he confessed that he didn’t feel competent to accept such a position.
And many CGA won't be able to do CRA job either . People do get specialized especially with time.. but that's also what makes them very valuable especially to other employers as well
Deal Addict
Jun 22, 2011
1340 posts
1199 upvotes
Numbersman1941 wrote: I have a nephew, a CRA small business tax auditor who is a CPA. All his practical experience is with CRA. When I asked him if he considered leaving CRA and becoming an accountant for a small business or organization, he confessed that he didn’t feel competent to accept such a position.
That has nothing to do with anything other than the fact that everyone feels incompetent all the time. Most CPAs I know want to work for the CRA, usually on audits.
Deal Fanatic
Jan 21, 2018
9652 posts
10924 upvotes
Vancouver
"CRA helpline gets another poor grade from CFIB [Canadian Federation of independent Business] 2017

Accuracy of Information (D-): In total, only 69 per cent of inquiries resulted in complete and accurate answers.

Agent Professionalism (C-): While the vast majority of agents tried their best to answer our questions, some put little effort into answering our questions clearly and correctly. Some agents simply read the answer off of the website, while others directed the caller to the webpage without providing a verbal answer."

https://www.cfib-fcei.ca/en/media/cra-h ... grade-cfib

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