Just wondering if any are seeing the same thing…CRA calling to advise that “they’re sending a letter” or call to see “if you’ve received our letter”?
Not sure why, but it seems to be a “thing” now. Not sure if they’re getting the new know-nothings at CRA to do something that looks like work? Weird, for sure. Have had a few clients or colleagues questioning this practice.
Sounds good to me. I’ve had numerous clients not receive letters from CRA that resulted in reassessments we had to get reversed.
New one…
Have a Biz client ( sole prop – local truck delivery but starts day between 1 and 3am finishing 1pm.. then has a nap til supper) he does not have online anything, he was 5 quarters behind in filing HST, CRA could not reach him by phone.
SOOOO the Trust Examiner… DROVE to his HOUSE and taped an envelope to his door with her card and a note to call her.
He did, she demanded all returns filed to date gave him a date for the trust exam at his place.
Client brought me paperwork, I filed and the trust exam was smooth as silk accompanied by a stern warning from agent.
I expressed that although we had filed the appropriate forms in September to request Paper Mail none were ever recognized by CRA as they had apparently sent requests in the portal.
She indicated this was indeed the case with many business taxpayers but that she was not authorized to mail anything to him but completely understood has this makes no sense for those that are not computer literate.
Insanity rules over there.
CRA started issuing letters electronically with very little discussion with the average business client. When CRA issues a letter, they send an email to the client saying there is mail and it’s available on their CRA account. The problem is that people have been conditioned into thinking email from CRA is likely spam.
The result is that the client doesn’t get the mail, CRA (re)assesses, and THEN we get the original mail. I’ve come across CRA mail when looking at a client’s CRA account for something else but there would otherwise be no reason for me to go looking for this mail. CRA should send a notification to the representative that their client has mail, and I don’t mean regular stuff like source deduction balances. By the time a client finds this mail, an appeal period may have expired. This is definitely not a well thought-out process.
In addition taxpayers who do not have an email setup to get notifications even if they have “my account” never get notice they have mail. Those clients do not regularly check their cra portal.
In my view, this entire system was designed by persons who live in an electronic bubble and have no idea what true internet deadzones are and the lack of affordable coverage and ability of persons to pay for internet when it is available in rural Canada. Many taxpayers are not computer literate as it is not a requirement to be so to run a business in Canada.
Rachel
I agree, @rachelavryl, that CRA designed this with their own convenience in mind, assuming all taxpayers have and use the MyAccount for personal and business. That may come some day but we’re not there yet. I spend a fair amount of time looking up info in RAC for clients who don’t have or use the system. CRA’s intentional messing with our ability to stay logged in to their system for more than a few minutes of inactivity and the problem of getting logged back in make it very frustrating to deal with their e-system.
I’d accept these problems if it meant CRA could handle things faster and more efficiently now that tax representatives and individuals are doing more of CRA’s work but that’s not happening. I filed a service complaint Monday for a simple “re-file” I did exactly one year ago (added one medical expense to a T1 that had none originally reported). CRA called it a “complex adjustment” and said the service standard for completion was 50 weeks. After 52 weeks, there has been no movement on it and the anticipated completion date is “indeterminate”.
Have similar adjustment issues.. adding accepted dtc to spouse for wife who did not have much income..no pension splitting on this file as he is still working and cra deemed it complex.. service complaint response was a lot of x#$/÷ with no resolve.. told to wait .. anyways still waiting been 14 months now with a date of September to review. Wish you better luck then I had
And yes your absolutely correct on the cra system.. not being ant better despite their " changes"
Rachel Parlee
(506) 874-3093
This article appeared in my inbox last week regarding complex adjustments taking too long.
https://www.advisor.ca/tax/delays-in-t1-adjustments-to-be-examined/
I was on vacation down East and saw that release. I filed my complaint on Monday when I returned to make sure they had lot’s of amunition.
Interesting to say the least. Complaining does help. At least if it is done in a respectful manner.
Well so far complaining has only raised this one issue (of many) to the level of vague administrative awareness. Not sure, personally, if I’d categorize that as “help”. 
CRA appears to be systemically afraid of various external bogeymen (bogeypersons?) but consistently has failed to do anything about those that their own actions have caused or enabled. Not sure how this has become a cultural norm there, but under Bob Hamilton’s reign it certainly did.
I filed a service complaint a year or two ago about “unread emails” on my RAC that were not possible to identify…they said it was a bug and it was being fixed. The number of “unread emails” has now gone from 2 (then) to 7 (now). Some fix.
The Efile Association has complained about the short “inactive” timeouts…zero effective response from CRA so far. (This was to prevent fraud. Wonder how they think that might have worked?)
They are SUPPOSED to send ALL communications for clients to me, electroncially. Most do not come to me, still. Why not?
It’s puzzling, but Iliked Rachel’s statement …
So true!