Taxpayer Communications Clarity Testing

Prepared for the:
Canada Revenue Agency
November, 2014
Contract Number: 46558-147677/001/CY
Contract Award Date: November 11, 2013
Project Cost: $89,797.20 (HST included)
POR Number: 035-13

Prepared by:
TNS

For further information:

Media Relations
Canada Revenue Agency
4th Floor – 555 MacKenzie Avenue
Ottawa, ON K1A 0L5
Media.relations@cra-arc.gc.ca

Executive Summary

Objectives and Methodology

As part of its continuous improvement, the CRA is evaluating its External Administrative Correspondence (EAC) to determine how clients perceive these documents and letters in terms of clarity, comprehension and ease of understanding.

The research was undertaken to:

• Evaluate recipients' ability to understand the information conveyed in selected samples of letters or notices sent by the CRA;
• Determine what are the main obstacles to recipients' understanding of selected letters or notices sent by the CRA;
• Determine recipients' overall reaction to notices or letters received from the CRA (do they generally know why they receive EAC and what is expected from them?);
• Identify the factors that make a letter or notice more understandable.

An online survey was conducted, along with an exercise using TNS' Highlighter tool, which allowed respondents to identify the main message(s) in CRA documents, as well as items that were unclear. Four audiences were targeted: Individuals, Benefit Recipients, Business Owners and Charities. A total of 26 documents, 13 in English and 13 in French, were evaluated by 1,702 respondents completed between March 12th, 2014 and May 26th, 2014. All participants were provided the option of participating in the official language of their choice. In total, 1,142 surveys were completed in English and 560 in French. The survey questionnaire took, on average, 12 minutes to complete.

Overall reaction to notices or letters received from the CRA

About two thirds of all English and French respondents indicated the correspondence they receive from the CRA is easy to understand, while 16% stated it is difficult to understand. Once a CRA document is received, virtually all respondents (English and French) open it themselves with most doing so immediately.

When the CRA correspondence is not understood, all segments (English and French) are most likely to contact the CRA by phone or visit the CRA website. Very few would first reach out to a tax professional or family and friends.

Ability to understand the information conveyed

Both English and French respondents were able to identify the main messages/purpose of the CRA correspondence they reviewed, although respondents were, for the most part, able to more easily identify the purpose of the English documents compared to the French documents. Of the 26 documents evaluated, there were two exceptions: the CCTB Redetermination Notice (E11/F11); and, the Source Deductions letter (E06/F06). For both documents (English and French) there was no consensus on the purpose of the CRA correspondence.

The majority of all segments (Individuals, Benefit Recipients, Business Owners and Charities) indicated the CRA correspondence they evaluated is easy to understand (ranging between 58% and 73%). Business Owners (58%) and Individuals (62%) were less likely than Charities (73%) to have rated CRA documentation as easy to understand.

Between 61% and 91% of all respondents indicated they did not find anything unclear in any of the CRA letters/notices evaluated.

Main obstacles to recipients’ understanding

Across the different segments, between 9% and 37% of respondents perceived the different documents (French and English) as confusing. The most commonly identified reasons included: a lack of straightforwardness, too much information/too wordy, too many forms, use of technical CRA words, the layout of the document and unclear calculations/a lack of explanation.

Total Expenditures

The total cost of this research was $89,797.20 HST included.