Kyle: Motivated by our clients to create change

“Our goal was to directly involve the taxpayer in authorizing access to their personal information and to help them feel more comfortable accessing the CRA’s online portals.”

Kyle began his career at the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) in 2009. In 2014, he was assigned to help guide new colleague Philip, and they have been working together ever since. In Kyle’s role at the CRA, he helps modify and develop authorization services.

In 2021, Kyle and Philip began working on Confirm My Rep – an online service that gives taxpayers an active role in authorizing who has access to their tax information. Taxpayers access this service through My Account and My Business Account to actively accept or deny authorization requests from representatives.

In the early stages of development, they spent hours bouncing ideas off each other. “One of the best parts of this project is working with Philip, someone who has such a deep working knowledge and openness to new ideas. That’s rare.” Early on they figured out that involving clients in the solutions was an important part of the process.

Without Kyle, going from the idea to the actual product would have been an uphill battle. He bridged the gap between what they needed the portal to do and how to translate it into something that could be coded online. Kyle worked closely with two IT teams, one working on the individual taxpayer side and another on the business side.

One challenge Kyle faced was working with the two teams to ensure that the final products were consistent. “I wanted to make sure that whether you were a business client, an individual client, or a tax representative, Confirm My Rep looked the same,” he says.

He acted as a liaison, talking with both teams and making sure that there was consistency in design every step of the way. This meant looking at the smallest details, like putting buttons in the same place so that people using both the individual and business platforms would see the same thing.

In October 2021, Confirm My Rep went live, but Kyle and Philip are still working to make the service even more accessible.

“When you’re creating programs that everyone uses, listening to clients and finding solutions that are innovative and adaptable is key,” he says. For instance, many people take internet access for granted, yet not everyone who files taxes has secure and fast internet access. Kyle and Philip created a work-around so that these people can provide their tax representative with a specific line from a previous tax return. This way, the tax representative can go online for the taxpayer and complete the Confirm My Rep process with information that only the taxpayer or the representative would have.

In collaboration with Philip and the IT teams, Kyle continues to evolve Confirm My Rep to improve the authorization processes that protect taxpayer information.

“What I appreciate the most about being involved with Confirm My Rep is knowing that I am improving services for clients and helping people feel more secure and empowered.”