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Canada Revenue Agency
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Chapter 5 – Program Activities
Overview
This chapter is based on the Program Activity Architecture (PAA) developed by the CRA with the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat. The PAA provides a structure for organizing, integrating, and presenting plans, budgets and performance measures.
The Strategic Planning and Reporting Framework on 
links program activities and expected results, according to the PAA.
The chapter is organized according to our two strategic outcomes and the seven program activities (PAs) that support them:
For program activities 1 to 6, we present planned spending, an overview of the program, the approaches planned to advance the program and the priority initiatives for the planning period. We group together initiatives supporting core business and other initiatives reflecting new business opportunities.
Each section concludes with a table of deliverables for the planning period, as well as performance indicators and targets that measure the program activity’s expected results. These targets identify the percentage or degree of expected attainment of a performance level. Targets are established by program managers through analysis of operational realities and infrastructure, historical performance, the complexity of the work involved, and the expectations of Canadians.
The Corporate Services section covers infrastructure activities (e.g. information technology, financial management and human resource administration) where enhancements support both a strong core business and capacity changes implicit in Agency 2010. Initiatives to mature the governance regime are also outlined in this section. As with last year’s plan, Corporate Services expenses have been proportionately allocated among the six core tax and benefit program activities.
Taxpayer and Business Assistance (PA1)
Program Overview
The Taxpayer and Business Assistance program activity is responsible for providing tools, assistance and information that facilitate voluntary compliance with tax obligations. We undertake this work through several Call Centres and 46 Tax Services Offices (including the International Tax Services Office). We also supply taxpayers, businesses and registrants with rulings on legislative policy, and procedural entitlements and obligations in accordance with relevant federal and provincial/territorial legislation.
Enquiries and Information Services assists individuals and businesses in meeting their obligations under tax legislation by providing information, education and outreach services, and by responding to enquiries.
Legislative Policy and Regulatory Affairs assists taxpayers in meeting their obligations by providing income and commodity tax rulings and interpretations; Canada Pension Plan and Employment Insurance Act rulings; and services relating to the registration and audit of pensions, other deferred income plans and charities; and by administering duty programs for certain commodities and certain provisions of the softwood lumber agreement.
Enquiries and Information Services and Legislative Policy and Regulatory Affairs are distinct sub-activities, and are discussed separately under this program activity.
Program Resources
Program Strategies—Enquiries and Information Services
The CRA continues to focus on improving the quality of our services to make them simpler and easier to use, and thus facilitate compliance. We continually enhance and modernize our services to strengthen our core business of protecting Canada’s revenue base, by building on our position as an innovative service leader.
During the current planning period, our strategy for service enhancement will undertake the following:
- continue to realign our service options and information toward an approach centred on taxpayers or businesses, offering tools and information tailored to their needs;
- reduce costs by encouraging the increased use of self-service options through targeted outreach and educational programs to promote the use of assisted self-service and, at the same time, offering in-person service by appointment;
- foster a dynamic and flexible workforce with new strategies that respond in a taxpayer- or business-centred manner to changing and increasingly complex enquiries and concerns and, by using increased self-service options and program integration, enhance CRA agents’ ability to respond to more complex issues;
- provide interactive e-learning and online integrated reference tools to assist CRA agents;
- include feedback from taxpayers, businesses and their agents in our analysis and research results to support decisions on our Web site design;
- address changing demographics, economic trends, and national and local compliance issues through outreach programs that are fine-tuned, through a research-based approach, to meet the particular needs of specific taxpayer or business groups, such as seniors, new Canadians, existing ethno-cultural communities, students, and small and medium-sized enterprises;
- expand consultation and feedback in order to continually evaluate taxpayer, business and stakeholder needs and expectations; and
- ensure date stamping of documents hand delivered to CRA tax services offices.
The CRA will pursue partnerships with other service organizations at the federal, provincial, territorial and First Nations levels, and will expand the CRA’s business opportunities, providing more integrated services to Canadians where it makes sense to do so. In so doing, we will strengthen and enhance our technology/infrastructure across channels, which will support an integrated, taxpayer- or business-centred service approach and give us more flexibility to link to other organizations, programs and levels of government, providing services on their behalf.
Priority Initiatives—Enquiries and Information Services
Measures—Enquiries and Information Services
Program Overview—Legislative Policy and Regulatory Affairs
For taxpayers, our Legislative Policy and Regulatory Affairs sub-activity publishes advance income tax rulings relating to the tax consequences of proposed transactions, as well as technical interpretations of income tax law. Our GST/HST rulings area provides taxpayers with an official interpretation of or ruling on Part IX of the Excise Tax Act in writing, by telephone or in person, and through various technical publications.
Our registered plans area registers and monitors pension and other deferred income plans, while our charities function administers the national registration program for charities. The charities program’s overriding objective is to improve compliance through strategic enhancements to education, outreach and service, balanced with an effective, risk-based monitoring and enforcement regime.
Our excise duties and taxes area is responsible for administering the non-GST portions of the Excise Tax Act, as well as the Excise Act, the Excise Act, 2001, the Air Travellers Security Charge Act, the Importation of Intoxicating Liquors Act and the Softwood Lumber Products Export Charge Act, 2006. This area is responsible for initiatives such as the Tobacco Compliance Strategy, which will bring in a new stamping and marking regime to improve compliance with the tobacco tax legislation.
We administer the determination of employment status, pensionable earnings and the insurability of earnings provisions under the Canada Pension Plan and the Employment Insurance Act on behalf of Human Resources and Social Development Canada.
Program Strategies—Legislative Policy and Regulatory Affairs
The CRA is committed to increasing compliance in all areas of tax regulation and strengthening our core business of protecting Canada’s revenue base, by providing strong taxpayer assistance.
In the area of charities, we will undertake the following:
- work with the sector to promote the accurate and timely filing of the charity information return, and further the development of compliance-related educational projects through the Charities Partnership and Outreach Program;
- strengthen accountability and transparency through enhancements to the CRA’s charities Web site, and through public education and awareness initiatives;
- work with the provinces and territories to streamline and coordinate the overall regulatory framework;
- continue implementation of the Charities Registration (Security Information) Act, which supports Canada’s national security agenda and international obligations to counter terrorism;
- continue to develop and implement systems to modernize charities operations and initiate work on the development of electronic service options for charities;
- implement a more sophisticated risk management regime with respect to monitoring and compliance; and
- continue the smooth implementation of a graduated approach to administering the new sanctions regime.
In the area of registered plans we will undertake the following:
- increase compliance by providing strong assistance to taxpayers across the sector;
- improve monitoring of all registered plans, by using an enhanced audit and review function and increasing the number of audits for registered plans;
- implement new procedures to register deferred income plans, using a risk-based approach, and ensure that the plans are in compliance with the Income Tax Act and regulations; and
- continue to enhance services to plan administrators by upgrading our toll-free enquiries line, making more information available electronically on our Web site, and improving our outreach activities and electronic publications.
For GST/HST/Excise, legislation underwent many amendments as a result of the 2006 federal budget, including the 1% GST/HST rate reduction, a one-time Tobacco Products Inventory Tax, and excise duty rate increases for alcohol and tobacco products. In addition, the budget added exemptions for Canadian wine and rate reductions for beer, resulting in new complexities to the excise legislative framework. To deal with these changes and generally enhance the effectiveness of our programs, the CRA will undertake the following:
- substantially increase the frequency of audit and compliance visits to tobacco manufacturers;
- implement initiatives under the Tobacco Compliance Strategy Project to enhance compliance at different stages of the production and distribution process; and
- implement an exemption for Canadian wine and beer, which will expand the scope of excise audits and compliance reviews to include the origin of raw materials.
The CRA is also responsible for the administration of the Softwood Lumber Products Export Charge Act, 2006, which includes administration of the export charge, the charge on duty deposit refunds and the distribution of funds to the provinces. To promote compliance during the implementation period, the CRA will initiate an outreach program to provide taxpayers with information on their rights and obligations under the new legislation. Later, the CRA will establish and maintain a post-verification program.
In the area of the Canada Pension Plan/Employment Insurance, the CRA is undertaking the following:
- converting requests for CPP/EI rulings from paper to an electronic format, which has already started by allowing payers to request rulings online for coverage requirements for their workers; and
- implementing a national quality assurance process in order to maintain reliable rulings.
The CRA will expand business opportunities by continuing to establish business relationships with other federal government departments, provinces and territories, and First Nations to improve service and reduce overall administrative costs. In particular, the Income Tax Rulings Directorate will pursue the full integration of the Ontario rulings function as part of the corporate tax administration for Ontario initiative.
Priority Initiatives—Legislative Policy and Regulatory Affairs
Measures—Legislative Policy and Regulatory Affairs
Assessment of Returns and Payment Processing (PA2)
Program Overview
This program activity encompasses a range of activities to accurately, efficiently and effectively process millions of individual and business tax returns and payments using risk assessment, third-party data matching and dependable information validation processes. As well, every known business in Canada is registered through this activity area (except those for which registration is not required by law). The key sub-activities in this program are the following:
- Individual Returns Processing processes T1 Income Tax and Benefit Returns and T3 Trust Income Tax and Information Returns for tax programs, through initial assessment, pre-and post-assessment validation review (T1 returns), accounting, adjustments, and general correspondence.
- Business Returns Processing registers businesses in Canada using the Business Number; processes, assesses and validates information filed through T2 (corporate income tax), T4 (employee), T5 (interest income) and GST/HST returns; establishes and maintains account status; carries out excise programs; and processes all payments.
- GST Administration in Quebec administers both the memorandum of understanding with the ministère du Revenu du Québec (MRQ) and payments to the MRQ.
Program Resources
Program Strategies
The ways of delivering our programs have been undergoing significant changes during the past several years. Client needs and changes in the environment are the chief considerations in our commitment to improving the accessibility and efficiency of our programs and services. Over the planning period, we will continue to strengthen our core business by encouraging wider use of electronic filing and expanding our electronic service offerings, and by redeveloping and modernizing our core information processing systems. Specifically, we will provide enhanced services to increase accessibility and efficiency, for example, by enhancing My Account and My Business Account, introducing third-party privilege management for businesses, and expanding GST/HST NETFILE and TELEFILE to allow the filing of debit returns.
The CRA will pursue partnerships with other service organizations at the federal, provincial, territorial and First Nations levels, and will expand the CRA’s business opportunities, providing more integrated services to Canadians where it makes sense to do so. Over the planning period, we will undertake the following:
- implement the redeveloped GST/HST system to modernize the delivery of the program, capitalize on opportunities to improve client service and compliance, position the CRA to develop new partnerships with the provinces and territories, and address the interface with the ministère du Revenu du Québec and provinces that use the harmonized system;
- focus on business opportunities by establishing and expanding business relationships with, and developing and delivering more programs for other federal, provincial, territorial and First Nations organizations, thereby improving and integrating services and reducing the overall administrative burden and costs for taxpayers/businesses and clients; and
- work with Ontario to begin the implementation of the Business Number as the file identifier for businesses, and start the development of business requirements for the delivery of the Corporate Tax Administration for Ontario Initiative—success will be measured against agreed project plans and deliverables.
Priority Initiatives—Assessment of Returns and Payment Processing
Measures—Assessment of Returns and Payment Processing
Accounts Receivable and Returns Compliance (PA3)
Program Overview
Our Accounts Receivable and Returns Compliance program activity ensures compliance with tax laws for filing, withholding and payment requirements, including amounts collected or withheld in trust on behalf of the Government of Canada, as well as provinces, territories and certain First Nations.
Our non-filer/non-registrant function pursues unfiled personal and corporate income tax returns, as well as the registration of businesses that have not registered for the GST/HST as required. We also carry out compliance and enforcement activities related to filing returns and remitting payroll source deductions (encompassing taxes and CPP/EI premiums) and GST/HST amounts.
Our accounts receivable function is responsible for the timely collection of overdue accounts for all taxes, levies, duties and other amounts, and assures effective tax debt management. This function now also deals with the collection for other departments of non-tax debts related to overpaid CPP and EI benefits, as well as the collection of defaulted student loans. The collection activities for these programs were transferred to the CRA on August 1, 2005.
Program Resources
Program Strategies
Since our collection and non-filer sub-program activities are subject to important compliance risks, we plan to reinforce our processes and enforcement approaches aimed at curbing non-compliance and maximizing tax debt collections. In so doing, we will strengthen our core business of protecting Canada’s revenue base.
For the planning period, we have an aggressive business transformation agenda built on the following:
- the adoption of an integrated taxpayer-/debtor-centred approach aimed at modernizing our procedures;
- the adoption of new technologies to enhance strong core performance, and to allow for improved analytical capacity and associated risk-based approaches; and
- the development and support of our employees, as we modify our approaches and prepare them to work with new technologies and to face more complex and diverse workloads.
Our business transformation agenda will strengthen the CRA’s position as an attractive and effective service provider. It will also expand the CRA’s business opportunities in the areas of tax and non-tax accounts receivable and returns compliance.
Priority Initiatives—Accounts Receivable and Returns Compliance
Measures—Accounts Receivable and Returns Compliance
Reporting Compliance (PA4)
Program Overview
The Reporting Compliance program activity addresses the accuracy and completeness with which taxpayers report their tax liability. It covers a range of audit and enforcement sub-activities. Major functions include examinations, reviews, audits and investigations to ensure compliance with federal, provincial and territorial income tax and GST laws.
Our audit sub-activity deals with individual audits, business audits, international tax and tax avoidance.
Our investigations sub-activity investigates suspected cases of tax evasion and fraud, pursues criminal prosecutions, and publicizes convictions of tax law offenders in order to deter others. In addition, our Special Enforcement Program helps combat organized crime by enforcing the legislation that the Agency administers.
The Reporting Compliance program activity is also responsible for administering the Voluntary Disclosures Program. The program encourages taxpayers to come forward and correct past omissions in order to comply with their legal obligations relating to taxation.
Our SR&ED sub-activity is a federal tax incentive program that encourages Canadian businesses to conduct research and development in Canada. Under this program, we provide credits to more than 18,000 SR&ED claimants each year.
Other functions include research and analysis of compliance behaviour and trends, the identification and assessment of tax compliance risk, and the development of tools for use in audits and investigations.
The Reporting Compliance program activity is delivered by more than 9,500 employees across Canada. We conduct more than 388,000 compliance actions every year and refer over 200 investigations to the Department of Justice Canada for prosecution. In 2005-2006, our actions had an identified fiscal impact of $5.5 billion, which exceeded our commitment to the Government of Canada.
Program Resources
Program Strategies
The vast majority of Canadians (individuals and businesses) comply with tax laws when provided with the proper information, tools and assistance. When they do not, our strategy is to identify and address the most serious non-compliance issues and cases, take appropriate action, and deter future non-compliance. To this end, we review all returns, continually refine our understanding of non-compliant taxpayer behaviour, improve risk management and targeting techniques, and sharpen the focus of our audit and investigation resources. Our program priorities for the coming period are the following:
- increasing our focus on aggressive tax planning, in particular the abusive use of international transactions and tax havens;
- enhancing programs to address interprovincial tax avoidance and provincial income allocation;
- continuing to combat the underground economy and GST/HST fraud;
- developing and implementing a compliance communications strategy action plan to guide the publication of information about CRA activities to address non-compliance, in order to inform taxpayers of their obligations and the consequences of not meeting them;
- improving the administration of the Voluntary Disclosures Program; and
- enhancing the administration of the SR&ED program.
Priority Initiatives—Reporting Compliance
Measures—Reporting Compliance
Appeals (PA5)
Program Overview
This program aims to resolve disputes between the CRA and taxpayers by conducting fair and impartial reviews, including the following:
In addition, this program activity is responsible for:
- collaborating with the Department of Justice Canada during any subsequent appeals to the courts; and
- horizontally managing the administration of:
Program Resources
Program Strategies
Our objective is for Canadians to continue receiving an impartial and responsive review of contested decisions. Over the planning period, we will continue to strengthen our core business by improving the CRA’s business intelligence related to our dispute resolution procedures and our response to court challenges. In so doing, we will foster increased taxpayer confidence in our self-assessment system, thereby helping further protect Canada’s revenue base.
Our program priorities are as follows:
- reviewing and strengthening core business processes and operations to enhance the accessibility, transparency, consistency and timeliness of dispute resolution;
- improving the consistency of the Agency-wide administration of the Taxpayer Relief Provisions; and
- formalizing the process for resolving service-related complaints.
Priority Initiatives—Appeals
Measures—Appeals
Benefit Programs (PA6)
Program Overview
The Benefit Programs program activity supports the efforts of federal, provincial and territorial governments to assist persons with disabilities, families and children, and low- and moderate-income households, and to reduce child poverty. We provide Canadians with benefits, credits and other services that contribute directly to their economic and social well-being. The CRA administers three federal programs that issue benefit payments:
- the Canada Child Tax Benefit (CCTB);
- the Goods and Services Tax/Harmonized Sales Tax (GST/HST) credit; and
- Children’s Special Allowances (CSA).
The CRA also delivers the Universal Child Care Benefit (UCCB) on behalf of Human Resources and Social Development Canada and administers the Disability Tax Credit (DTC), under which entitlements are delivered at the time individual tax returns are processed, rather than as direct cash payments.
In addition, we administer 17 ongoing benefit programs on behalf of the provinces and territories. As well, we deliver one-time payment programs for provinces and the Government of Canada, upon request. We also supply information as authorized by law to federal, provincial and territorial clients, supporting the administration of their benefit and other income-based programs. In total, the CRA administered 66 different benefit-related programs and services for provinces, territories and other government departments in 2005-2006.
This program activity is divided into two sub-activities:
Benefit Enquiries provides benefit recipients with the tools, assistance and information they need by maintaining high-quality services on the telephone, and through self-service and in-person channels.
Benefit Programs Administration is responsible for issuing more than $15 billion in benefit and credit payments on behalf of the federal, provincial and territorial governments. This sub-activity provides the right tools and information so that potential recipients can provide us with the information we need to register them on the appropriate benefit rolls and ensure that they receive timely and accurate benefit payments. Review activities are conducted to verify that only eligible recipients receive benefits and credits, and that the amounts they receive are correct, in accordance with the legislation.
Program Resources
Program Strategies
The Benefit Programs program activity supports the achievement of the CRA’s strategic outcome for benefits. We process millions of timely and accurate payments each year for CCTB, UCCB, and GST/HST credit recipients, including payments under related provincial and territorial benefit and credit programs. We will continue to strengthen our core business by reassessing the core systems which ensure that the right benefits are delivered only to the right individuals. To maintain overall benefits compliance, we will continue to implement our benefits compliance strategy, based on education, facilitated compliance and a credible enforcement presence. Further, over the planning period, we will continue to enhance the self-service options on the Internet, while maintaining appropriate levels of telephone service. This is essential to many benefit recipients, especially those who may lack access to the Internet.
Maintaining our historically strong performance in benefits administration by enhancing the CRA’s national benefit delivery infrastructure also reinforces our capacity to expand business opportunities. Our aim is to reduce the overall administrative cost of government by making the use of our platform more attractive to provinces, territories and other government departments. By delivering new programs and services for clients, we can simplify administration and eliminate duplication, limit compliance burdens, and deliver higher-quality service.
The main priorities for this program are the following:
- ensure timely, accurate and accessible information and services to benefit recipients;
- ensure timely and accurate processing of benefit payments, applications and other transactions, by maintaining and enhancing our infrastructure;
- ensure benefits compliance; and
- expand business opportunities to deliver new programs and services on behalf of federal, provincial and territorial governments.
Priority Initiatives—Benefit Programs
Measures—Benefit Programs
Corporate Services (PA7)
Program Overview
The CRA delivers high-quality tax and benefit services. Our Corporate Services program activity includes human resource management, information technology, public affairs, finance and administration, corporate audit and program evaluation, legal services, and corporate strategies and business development. These activities are interrelated, and by managing our corporate services in an integrated manner across the CRA, we ensure that our tax and benefit services have the guidance, infrastructure and resources needed for successful delivery.
Program Strategies
As we move forward in implementing Agency 2010, the Corporate Services program activity will focus on strengthening our governance and infrastructure to support a strong and modern core business and new business opportunities.
Human Resources
The CRA is responsible for its own human resource regime. Since becoming an agency, we have continued to revise our human resource policies, systems and infrastructure in order to more effectively support the achievement of the CRA’s business results.
In partnership with our clients, we will develop and implement strategies in support of the Agency 2010 vision. These strategies will help ensure that Agency employees have the competencies required to work effectively in our changing business environment. We will also continue to play a critical role in support of the Agency 2010 vision by providing effective support for the acquisition of new business.
We will maintain efforts to strengthen our human resource infrastructure by creating a robust, efficient and flexible human resource function that can rapidly meet the human resource service requirements of both core business functions and new business development. These efforts continue to be guided by our Competency-based Human Resource Management Framework and will include key priorities such as the Agency Classification Standard for Services and Programs, eResourcing, and union-management relations.
Information Technology
The CRA is built on our information technology systems. The CRA will respond effectively to the key challenge facing the IT program, which is to maintain the right balance between delivering on existing commitments and creating the capacity to respond to the changing business context of Agency 2010, while addressing pressures such as the “enterprising” of government and the evolving technological environment.
Over the planning period, we will undertake the following:
- strengthen our technical infrastructure and identify opportunities for increased efficiencies by taking an enterprise view of program plans;
- develop the core building blocks for supporting self-service and enhanced compliance;
- provide supportive technology to allow appropriate access to Agency data:
- continue deployment of the IT Security Program to maintain the integrity and security of the Agency’s electronic data and IT systems;
- strengthen the recovery capability for IT systems and services to support critical business processes and meet the changing needs of the Agency, with the completion of the multi-year Data Centre Recoverability project;
- continue to build a more robust IT infrastructure that will support the high availability systems required by the Agency’s 2010 agenda and the IT infrastructure for the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA);
- leverage evolving technology by increasing automation, rationalizing architecture, and consolidating services and products through the multi-year Managed Distributed Environment Program, in concert with the National IT Support Program;
- continue to improve the control of key development and operations processes by leveraging the Quality Program using industry best practices; and
- leverage our efficient and effective high-volume transaction processing capacity to ensure that we will have the IT resources available to take on new business.
Public Affairs
To improve the Agency’s use of its intranet as a preferred working tool and increase the value of the information it contains, we will continue to examine ways to effectively manage the Agency’s intranet content and applications.
Canadians rely on CRA’s publishing products for access to Agency information and services. We will continue to modernize our publishing function to achieve better value for money, while recognizing environmental concerns.
The CRA continues to effectively administer the Privacy Impact Assessment Policy. During fiscal year 2005-2006, the CRA’s Director-General level ATIP Oversight Review Committee expanded its mandate to ensure experienced senior horizontal review and monitoring of all privacy issues and developments that could have an impact on the CRA’s business.
Public Affairs will continue to build and implement a communications strategy aligned with the future direction of the Agency. We will emphasize the image of the Agency as a responsive service provider in all regions of Canada, and promote the Agency as contributing to the well-being of Canadians and the efficiency of government by delivering world-class tax and benefit services.
Finance and Administration
To sustain trust in our ability to collect revenue and deliver entitlements, the CRA will sustain its environment of sound comptrollership and administrative governance.
The Agency will advance its capacities in enterprise risk management and support a working culture that values responsible risk taking, innovation and continuous improvement. The CRA will focus on identifying and communicating enterprise risks to senior management and the Board of Management in accordance with the CRA Enterprise Risk Management Policy, as revised in 2006-2007.
To maintain high standards of information protection, we will continue implementation of the System Access Profile Program, which is aimed at rationalizing employee access to the Agency’s systems. This program will continue through 2008-2009.
The CRA will continue to improve accounting and reporting of tax revenues on an accrual basis and continue the roll-out of the Revenue Ledger Strategic Plan that will further automate the public accounting for and reporting of tax revenues.
We will continue to focus on the integrity of our financial systems and processes. Government-wide efforts to strengthen accountabilities will be supported with the introduction of a new Financial Monitoring Framework. This framework will allow the Agency to assess and report on the soundness of our internal controls, facilitating the establishment of a Chief Financial Officer certification process.
We will continue to enhance our reporting to senior management, Board of Management and central agencies according to the Agency’s Program Activity Architecture, which improves the integration of financial and non-financial reporting, and improves the linkages between resources and results.
The Agency is positioned to enhance its corporate oversight and monitoring activities with improved accounting for major investments and through the development of a robust framework for reporting against project plans to the Resource and Investment Management Committee, and, where required, to the Board of Management, in accordance with the new project management policy.
Building on past successes, the CRA’s Sustainable Development Strategy 2007-2010 will move the Agency closer to achieving its vision of being a globally recognized tax and benefit services delivery organization that demonstrates best practices in sustainable development. This strategy sets aggressive targets for greening internal operations, and provides the Agency with a framework that defines social responsibility. Additional details can be found in Appendix E – Sustainable Development Strategy.
The Agency intends to engage its partner, Public Works and Government Services Canada, in the development and implementation of a long-term accommodation strategy for the national capital area that meets the Agency’s needs while supporting government-wide objectives for improved management of real property.
Corporate Audit and Evaluation
Corporate audit and evaluation activities will continue to provide the Commissioner, the Board of Management and senior management with independent and objective information, advice and assurance on the soundness of the Agency’s management framework, and on the effectiveness, efficiency and value for money of its strategies, programs and practices.
Legal Services
The Tax Law Portfolio of the Department of Justice Canada provides advisory and litigation services to the Agency. The legal services unit is responsible for giving advice to the Minister, the Commissioner and the Board of Management for all program activities. The legal services unit also provides training to Agency employees on key areas of public law and on confidentiality and protection of tax information. Litigation services are provided to the Agency nationally through the Portfolio’s Headquarters and regional offices.
Corporate Strategies and Business Development
The CRA is continuing to enhance the accountability practices inherent in our unique governance regime and to clarify our legislated responsibilities vis-à-vis the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (TBS). Under section 31 (1) of the Canada Revenue Agency Act, the Board of Management is responsible for “overseeing the organization and administration of the Agency and the management of its resources, services, property, personnel and contracts.”
In the TBS’ annual Management Accountability Framework (MAF) assessment of the Agency, the Secretariat refrains from rating the CRA in areas where the Board of Management has oversight responsibilities.
During 2007-2008 the CRA will develop and pilot a Board of Management oversight framework that will generally apply to the Board’s areas of legislated responsibility. This oversight framework is intended to complement the annual assessment carried out by the TBS under the MAF.
Client Relations will host two multilateral meetings a year with provincial and territorial governments to discuss common interests. The discussions will focus on the CRA working with provincial and territorial governments in areas of parallel tax administration, and the CRA’s delivery of tax and benefit programs.
In October 2006, the Government of Canada signed a Memorandum of Agreement with the Government of Ontario, under which the CRA will administer Ontario’s corporate taxes in 2009. A CRA governance structure has been established to oversee the implementation of the project and guide the negotiations of the various agreements required between the CRA and the Ontario Ministry of Finance.
CRA account executives are now in place to manage the CRA’s working relationships with existing and prospective clients.
Deliverables—Corporate Services