The Appeals Branch administers the Government of Canada's largest administrative dispute resolution service.
The mandate of the Appeals Branch is to provide a fair and impartial process to resolve disputes, service complaints and requests for relief from assessed penalties and interest arising from decisions made under the legislation and programs administered, and services provided, by the Canada Revenue Agency.
It liaises with the Office of the Taxpayers' Ombudsman and provides assistance to Members of Parliament for their constituents' tax issues.
The Appeals Branch is the CRA's last opportunity to administratively resolve tax disputes before going to court.
APPEALS BRANCH
APPEALS RESPONSIBILITIES
Reviews taxpayers' objections to assessments relating to Income Tax, GST/HST, Benefits and Credits, and Charities, and confirms or reverses the assessments. The decision of the Appeals Branch may be appealed through the court system.
The CRA is responsible for making decisions on the insurability and pensionability of employees' income relating to the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) & Employment Insurance (EI). Anyone disagreeing with that decision can ask the Appeals Branch for a review. This decision can be further appealed to the court.
Provides relief to taxpayers by reviewing requests to cancel or waive interest and/or penalties. The Taxpayer Relief Provisions of the statutes give the CRA authority to cancel or waive penalties and interest (otherwise payable by the taxpayer) because of personal misfortune or circumstances beyond the taxpayer's control. They also provide for certain discretion in administration such as to allow late, amended, or revoking elections. CRA's decisions may be reviewed by the Federal Court.
Resolves service complaints. The CRA offers a process to resolve service-related issues resulting from mistakes, undue delays, misleading information, or concerns about behaviour of CRA employees. Taxpayers who are still not satisfied with the CRA service or a response on a complaint may seek redress from the Office of the Taxpayers' Ombudsman.
Provides assistance to Members of Parliament to resolve their constituent's tax issues or emergency tax situations. The assistance is provided through a dedicated phone service.
WORKLOAD
The Appeals Branch receives 60,000 to 70,000 income tax and GST/HST objections a year. The objections vary from the less complex issues, such as individual tax credits, to the CRA's largest and most complex files such as international transfer pricing and the General Anti-Avoidance Rule (GAAR).
OBJECTIONS BREAKDOWN
About 60% of objections relate to individual taxpayers with less complex tax issues and are resolved within 180 days.
Approximately 30% are typically related to businesses (small and medium) and are currently resolved within two years.
The remainder are comprised of large corporations with a lengthy resolution period.
In recent years, the CRA received a significant increase in objections relating to tax schemes such as gifting tax shelters, withdrawal of funds from registered retirement savings plans (RRSPs), tax protestor groups, etc. There are currently more than 117,000 of such objections in inventory – about 110,000 are related to gifting tax shelters. The processing of these objections is being conducted over time with about half being resolved administratively and the other half awaiting the outcome of lead litigation cases before the courts which may take many years to resolve.
2015-2016 PRIORITIES
PRIORITIES
Improve turn-around time for the resolution of business (small and medium) objections to an average of 180 days.
Support the newly appointed Taxpayers' Ombudsman, Ms. Sherra Profit.
Strengthen the CRA's ability to improve service delivery to Canadians through a robust analysis of taxpayer feedback and service complaints.
