Improvement Priorities – March 2017 Implementation Report
The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) consulted with the small business community in the fall of 2014 to help identify priority areas for improvement, including improvements with respect to the CRA’s Information Provision Policy.
Resulting improvement priorities related to the Information Provision Policy and metrics for evaluating successful implementation were posted in June 2015. The current status of each of these improvement priorities is noted below.
Telephone Service Improvements
Improvements and enhancements to our telephone services for dealing with, and receiving information from, the CRA.
| Improvement action | Status |
|---|---|
Streamline procedures and develop new tools for telephone service agents to better serve the business community by:
|
Procedures have been streamlined and new tools implemented. |
| Work closely with key stakeholders to look at the merits of piloting a dedicated telephone service for registered tax preparers to answer their complex tax questions. | Feedback from key stakeholders was positive and a pilot is planned for 2017. |
Accessible, Clear and Understandable Tax Information
Improvements to the information small or medium business owners need from the CRA to comply with their tax requirements and obligations.
| Improvement action | Status |
|---|---|
| Establish the Liaison Officer Initiative as a permanent program to help small business owners get it right from the start. | The Liaison Officer Initiative is now a permanent program. |
| Engage stakeholders (such as the Canadian Payroll Association and CPA Canada) to identify the most common guides and forms needing to be clarified and easier to understand. | Discussions are now part of a continuous consultation process and many recommendations have been received. |
| Create a dedicated webpage for small and medium businesses to meet their needs. | New dedicated webpage, Checklist for new small businesses, is in place. |
| Offer new plain language e-learning tools to help CRA employees write publications, web content and correspondence. | New plain language e-learning tools are in place. |
| Offer and actively promote webinars for small and medium businesses. | 19 videos and recorded webinars are now available to businesses. Other webinars are being developed. These webinars continue to be promoted on the CRA website. |
| Add more useful links to the small business checklist. | Additional links have been added to the Checklist for new small businesses. |
| Expand outreach through public- and private-sector partnerships that support small and medium businesses. | Serving You Better 2016 Consultations engaged over 45 stakeholder associations. Work on expanding outreach is ongoing. |
Move to the new Canada.ca over the next few years, including:
|
CRA is working towards a 2017 migration date for content to move to Canada.ca. Improvements to web content and organization are ongoing. |
Other Improvements
| Improvement action | Status |
|---|---|
| Explore opportunities to introduce more convenient options for businesses and the CRA to communicate securely. | Options have been explored and are in development. |
| Advance the existing mobile app for business and add new apps. | A new app for small businesses is in the early planning stages. |
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