Background - Integrated Revenue Collections (IRC) Project

The Integrated Revenue Collections (IRC) Project provides the Agency with new technology tools and increased flexibility in its large scale computer systems to address business needs and goals.  It is a systems development project that creates a new technology platform to support the Agency’s vision of an integrated taxpayer-focused approach to collection and compliance management. It introduces innovative technology tools, to support business transformation.

Additionally IRC: 

• Modernizes the core business functions to address program challenges;
• Enables continual and responsive updating of collection strategies in order to effectively manage the portfolio and increase revenues for the Crown;
• Allows for strategic use of Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) information to better develop collections’ strategies.

IRC – Phase I Overview

The primary focus of IRC for the current release under development is to improve the information available and to introduce innovative technology to enable better management of unpaid taxes for individual taxpayers with new debt.

The IRC project will introduce new functionality incrementally and has adopted a phased-in approach to ensure a smooth transition from the existing technology to the new solution.  

Phase I consists of:

• Taxpayer Folder,  a mechanism to access additional information on debt and on agent activities which will enable the CRA to analyse components of the outstanding debt as well as make automated decisions on best collections strategies to employ based on individual tax debtor past behaviours.
• Business Rules Engine (BRE) is a software that allows the business to develop and manage rules which provides the flexibility to readily change rules.
• Improved Analytics will support and influence the decision making process for Debt Management Programs using tools such as Data Mining which enables predictive analysis by sifting through large amounts of data and predicting taxpayer behaviour based on historical patterns.
• Improved Performance Measurement will deliver a wide variety of information essential for tracking intake, production, and inventory and to support corporate activities such as trend analysis and evaluation of collections and compliance strategies. 

Moreover, there will be greater accessibility to data for debt management research to better understand the make-up of the tax debt.

IRC – Phase II Overview

IRC Phase II will build on the foundation established in Phase I by extending the functionality developed for the T1 Individual tax population to the T2 Business population.  This will further contribute to agency plans to address the growth in accounts receivable as well as increasing the revenue generated from increased filing and reporting compliance.

Phase II will:

• Enhance Business Intelligence (Data Mining, Research and Analytics and Performance Reporting);
• Provide increased ability to determine the risk of each account based on its individual characteristics;
• Allow for strategic use of information to better manage front-end collections and non-filer strategies;
• Reduce data retrieval time through the development of end user productivity tools;
• Increase program effectiveness through better file selection.