CRA Call Centre Report Card

Tax regulations are one of the most challenging and time-consuming responsibilities for small business owners. On top of the administrative burden, the consequences of not complying can be expensive and even put some owners out of business. This makes it essential that business owners be able to access the information and support they need to correctly manage their taxes.

This is the fourth time the CFIB has audited CRA’s business enquiries call centre. Not being able to access timely and correct tax information can have a big impact on small businesses; therefore in this report, we have graded the CRA on the ability to access agents, on wait times, as well as on the level of service, professionalism, and accuracy of responses provided by CRA agents. New this year, we have also graded the CRA on the readability and accessibility of the web pages being provided by agents.

This year, CFIB has scored the CRA business enquiries line an overall grade of D. While there have been some improvements since 2010, some things, such as the long wait times to speak with a CRA agents, the ability to have questions resolved within 30 minutes, agent accountability, and accuracy of information have declined from past years.

The report concludes that improvements to CRA’s business enquiries line are required to help improve the caller experience.