Systemic Issues

A Systemic Issue is an issue that, if not identified and appropriately addressed, has the potential to have a negative impact on taxpayers in general, to recur, and to generate complaints.

An important part of the Ombudsman's mandate is to identify and review systemic and emerging issues related to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA)'s treatment of taxpayers. The idea is to identify and correct problems affecting large numbers of taxpayers as soon as possible. We do not have to wait until we have hundreds of complaints about an issue before we realize that it merits investigation. Our reviews allow us to determine if a service or fairness issue has, or could have, a negative impact on taxpayers and should be treated as a systemic problem that needs to be addressed. We research such issues thoroughly with the goal of making feasible recommendations to correct the problem. We make those recommendations directly to the Minister of National Revenue.

We become aware of systemic issues in a variety of ways. Sometimes individual complaints reveal trends in certain areas of CRA service. But we don't need to receive a complaint to start a review. Media reports can highlight problems that affect large numbers of taxpayers. And of course, our consultations with taxpayers and tax professionals across the country have brought several such issues to our attention.

Perhaps you are aware of a systemic service or fairness issue related to the Taxpayer Bill of Rights and the CRA's treatment of taxpayers. The Office of the Taxpayers' Ombudsman invites taxpayers, tax professionals, representative associations, special interest groups, and all Canadians to help us identify problems with the CRA's treatment of taxpayers. If you have an issue you would like to bring to our attention, please contact us.