2015-16 Departmental Performance Report

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Section 1 Organizational Overview

Organizational profile

Appropriate Minister: The Honourable Diane Lebouthillier, P.C., M.P.

Institutional Head: Bob Hamilton

Chair of Board of Management: Richard (Rick) Thorpe

Ministerial Portfolio: National Revenue

Enabling Instrument: Canada Revenue Agency Act

www.laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/C-10.11/ⁱⁱ

Year of commencement: 1999

Organizational context

Raison d'être

The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) administers tax, benefits, and related programs, and ensures compliance on behalf of governments across Canada. The CRA's activities provide these governments with the revenue needed to deliver essential services to Canadians, laying the foundation for continued economic prosperity and future growth. The CRA processes hundreds of billions of dollars in taxes annually and issue billions of dollars in benefit and credit payments.

The CRA's mandate is to ensure Canadians:

• pay their required share of taxes;
• receive their rightful share of entitlements and benefits; and
• are provided with an impartial and responsive review of decisions they choose to contest.

Responsibilities

The Agency has a broad range of responsibilities. In addition to the Income Tax Act and the Excise Tax Act, the CRA administers legislation relating to the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) and the Employment Insurance (EI) program. It is also responsible for enforcing legislation governing charities, collecting tobacco taxes and duties, administering registered plans, and collecting non-tax debts for the federal government.

Serving taxpayers: The CRA provides taxpayers with the accurate and timely information they need to comply with Canada's tax laws through its website, call centres, technical publications, and technical interpretations and rulings services. The Agency regulates charities and monitors and administers deferred-income and savings plans to ensure they meet legislative requirements. It assesses and processes tax returns and payments for individuals and businesses as quickly and accurately as possible, providing taxpayers with early certainty to help them manage their tax affairs with confidence.

Promoting and enforcing tax compliance: The CRA identifies, addresses, and deters non-compliance with Canada's tax laws by promoting and enforcing compliance. The Agency promotes compliance through outreach activities, targeted taxpayer assistance, and by educating taxpayers about their reporting responsibilities. It undertakes domestic and international examinations, audits, and criminal investigations. It helps to ensure tax debt is resolved on a timely basis and enforces compliance with tax laws for registration, filing, withholding, and payment of debt obligations.

Facilitating redress: The CRA provides a fair and impartial redress process to resolve disputes and requests for relief arising from decisions made by the CRA. If taxpayers are not satisfied with the outcome of this process, they can appeal to the courts.

Administering benefits: The CRA administers a range of ongoing benefits and one-time payment programs for the provinces and territories and the federal government, such as the goods and services tax/harmonized sales tax credit and child benefit programs. The Agency ensures the right benefit payment is made to the right individual at the right time and gives recipients accessible information and timely responses to their enquiries.

Strategic Outcomes and Program Alignment Architecture^{Footnote 1}

Internal Services: Internal Services is not an actual Program but includes groups of related activities and resources that are administered to support the efficient and effective delivery of government programs. Internal Services cut across all Agency programs identified in a PAA. An integral part of the PAA, Internal Services is situated at the Program level of the PAA.

Operating Environment and Risk Analysis

The CRA has a mature risk management process, one which takes a proactive approach to monitoring the environment and identifying, assessing, and prioritizing the CRA's risks.

To support corporate decision making, the CRA produces an annual corporate risk profile (CRP), which provides a description of the potential and emerging risks to the CRA's operational environment, risks which may affect the achievement of CRA priorities and objectives. This annual review of the Agency's risk information provides management with foresight to successfully prevent, respond to, or mitigate risks and, in doing so, to seize new opportunities to innovate.

In the 2015-16 Report on Plans and Priorities, the three key CRP risks identified were compliance, protection of information, and information technology sustainability. The prioritization of these three risks reflects their potential impact on the CRA's commitment to service, compliance, integrity, security, and innovation. By making sure its risks are properly identified and managed, the CRA continues to be well positioned to deliver on its mandate and to maintain the trust and confidence of taxpayers.

Organizational Priorities

Service

We provide services that make it easy and convenient for people to meet their filing, reporting, and payment obligations. Continuous enhancements to our secure digital services make it easier for people to access their tax and benefit information when it is convenient for them.

Progress Towards the Priority

We strive to meet the service needs and expectations of those who interact with us. We make improvements based on people's expectations, which are increasingly digital in nature, with the objective of making the experience easy. During the reporting period, we launched a variety of targeted initiatives to expand and enhance our digital services. We simplified our correspondence and other communications, making it easier for Canadians to understand their tax obligations. We also took steps to ensure that all Canadians receive the benefits to which they are entitled.

In 2015-2016, we improved service by:

• launching the e-Interactions strategy and roadmap to outline the plan to provide digital services
• revising the T1 notice of assessment so that it is easier for Canadians to understand
• promoting products, services, and programs in multiple languages for a diverse population    

Compliance

We aim to make voluntary compliance as easy as possible by providing services that are secure and easy to use, while addressing serious and deliberate non-compliance with timely and targeted action. International tax evasion and the underground economy are two significant areas of focus, given the potential tax revenue that is lost to these sorts of tax arrangements and schemes. We continue to evolve our non-compliance detection techniques and work closely with our international partners to maintain the integrity of Canada's tax base.

Progress Towards the Priority

During the reporting period, we continued to facilitate voluntary compliance, and to identify and address instances of willful non-compliance. With instances of international tax evasion on the rise, we are working with our global partners to adopt strategies to make sure that multinational corporations pay their share of tax to the jurisdiction where that tax is due. Domestically, we worked with the provinces, territories, and other federal agencies and departments to identify and pursue those who fail to file their income tax and GST/HST returns. As people try to evade their tax responsibilities, we continue to advance our efforts to identify them and bring them into compliance with the law.

In 2015-2016, we improved compliance by:

• collaborating with international partners to tackle international tax evasion and aggressive tax planning
• developing a tactical plan, based on the recommendations of the Minister's Underground Economy and Advisory Committee
• dedicating specialized collections officers to higher-risk files    

Integrity and security

We continue to apply the highest level of integrity and security to protect taxpayer information and maintain public trust. Public trust influences voluntary compliance and, as such, we must conduct ourselves ethically and honestly in order to maintain this trust. We endeavour to be visible, accessible, and accountable to the public we serve by fostering a culture of integrity. With increasing demand for digital services, we continue to evolve our security practices to keep pace with the sophistication and volume of cyber threats.

Progress Towards the Priority

Integrity and security continues to be one of our top priorities. Several initiatives were underway during the reporting period that promote and sustain a culture of integrity. The security of our systems continues to be top-of-mind at every stage of our decision-making process and in our daily operations. Protecting the personal information of Canadians, and ensuring that people trust us to do so, influences the voluntary compliance on which our tax administration is built. We continue to work closely with partners to make sure all appropriate systems, controls, and safeguards are in place.

In 2015-2016, we enhanced integrity and security by:

• adopting a centralized approach to managing passwords, through the Identity and Access Management Project
• establishing an internal fraud and misuse reporting line
• completing the Reliability Status + security screening of executives    

Innovation

Innovation is about finding solutions and doing things better, more efficiently, and in new ways. Effectively using our business intelligence, working with our trusted partners, and engaging our employees to pursue innovation is critical to our success. Our willingness to try new ideas, adapt new technology, and seek continuous improvement is fundamental to our ability and commitment to improve service to Canadians.

Progress Towards the Priority

Continuous improvement is fundamental to our ability to provide the best service to Canadians. Our ability to adapt to new technology and try new ideas is enabled by engaging our employees and leveraging existing partnerships. During the reporting period, we developed strategies and expanded centres of innovation that significantly advanced innovation both in direct work and in providing opportunities for engagement. Innovation is not a one-time deliverable, but an ongoing culture shift that will enable success for the Agency, the Government of Canada, and benefit everyone who interacts with us.

In 2015-2016, we demonstrated innovation by:

• creating the Accelerated Business Solutions Lab to support program, Agency, and Government of Canada priorities by using innovative approaches
• holding a "Leading an innovation" speaker series, where experts presented to employees on innovative tools and methods
• giving employees opportunities to bring their ideas directly to decision-makers    

People

Our success depends on the skill and commitment of a diverse and talented workforce. We recruit and develop employees to provide the expertise and experience necessary to fulfil our mandate now and in the future. We are a high-performing workforce that embraces new ways of working and emphasizes workplace well-being.

Progress Towards the Priority

Building and maintaining a strong workforce is an ongoing priority. During the reporting period, we focused on initiatives related to succession planning, rejuvenating our workforce, and promoting learning opportunities for our employees. In response to the government-wide focus of workplace wellness, we continued to address the state of mental health within the CRA. Achievements to date provide a solid foundation on which to build and sustain a healthy, productive, diverse, and knowledgeable workforce.

In 2015-2016, we supported our people by:

• introducing the Auditor Development Program recruitment campaign
• integrating succession planning into our Executive Performance Management Program
• establishing the Workplace Well‐being Strategy, which includes the development of the Discrimination and Harassment Centre of Expertise
• continuing to focus on ensuring values and ethics inform all aspects of the Agency’s operations through our enhanced CRA Code on Integrity and Professional Conduct, as well as our revised CRA corporate policy instruments affecting the conduct of managers and employees, such as the Policy on Workplace Management

For more information on organizational priorities, see the Minister of National Revenue Mandate Letter^iv.

Key indicators

The following indicators are used to assess the CRA's performance in providing Canadians with access to timely, modern, and innovative services, while promoting and supporting compliance. These indicators are a subset of the CRA's overall performance measurement framework as described in pages 30 to 85 of this report.

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