Taxpayers’ Ombudsman
Upholding Your Service Rights
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Achieving results for taxpayers
The power to report is a significant power. It brings a public voice to existing issues, shedding light on why they are occurring, what needs to be done to correct them and how they can be prevented in the future.
For the Taxpayers’ Ombudsman, investigating and publicly reporting on existing systemic service and fairness issues with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) in the form of Special Reports is making a difference for taxpayers.
The recommendations found within each Special Report are aimed at helping the CRA improve its policies and procedures to better serve taxpayers. They are presented directly to the Minister of National Revenue.
The following is a breakdown of the Special Reports published by the Taxpayers’ Ombudsman to date:
| Special Report | Ombudsman’s recommendations | Recommendations accepted by Minister of National Revenue |
|---|---|---|
| The Right to Know Examination of the sufficiency of information in Decision Letters from the Appeals Branch of the CRA [see recommendations] |
1 | 1 |
| Proving Your Status Establishing eligibility for the Canada Child Tax Benefit [see recommendations] |
5 | 5 |
| Knowing the Rules Confusion about the rules governing the Tax-Free Savings Account [see recommendations] |
3 | 3 |
| Earning Credits Service and fairness issues in the assessment of tuition tax credits for expenses incurred attending educational institutions outside Canada [see recommendations] |
5 | 5 |
| Acting on ATIP Service issues in the CRA’s Access to Information and Privacy processes [see recommendations] |
7 | 7 |
| Getting it Right Investigation of service and fairness issues arising from the misallocation of payments by the CRA [see recommendations] |
3 | 3 |
| 6 reports | 24 recommendations made | 24 recommendations accepted |
Select [see recommendations] under each Special Report title to view the recommendations specific to that report.
The Taxpayers' Ombudsman also achieves results for Canadians by investigating and resolving individual taxpayer complaints. For more information, see the Digest of Taxpayer Service Rights.
