Annual Report 2025–2026: In Pursuit of Better Service: Taxpayers deserve more

Office of the Taxpayers’ Ombudsperson

1000-171 Slater Street, Ottawa, Ontario K1P 5H7

Telephone: 613-221-3109 | Toll-free: 1-866-586-3839
Fax: 418-566-0321 | Toll-free fax: 1-866-586-3855

© Minister of Government Transformation, Public Services and Procurement 2026

Cat. No.: Rv6E
ISSN: 2564-1727

The Honourable François-Philippe Champagne P.C., M.P.
Minister of Finance and National Revenue
7th Floor
555 Mackenzie Avenue
Ottawa ON K1A 0L5

Dear Minister:

Pursuant to Order in Council P.C. 2020-0703, I am pleased to submit to you the 2025–2026 Annual Report entitled “In Pursuit of Better Service: Taxpayers deserve more,” which covers the activities of the Office of the Taxpayers’ Ombudsperson for the period of April 1, 2025, to March 31, 2026.

Yours sincerely,

Mr. François Boileau 
Taxpayers' Ombudsperson

Message from the Taxpayers’ Ombudsperson

Like every year, this one was made up of successes and challenges. The Office of the Taxpayers’ Ombudsperson (OTO) has been facing a large backlog of cases for years, and this year we saw the highest number of complaints since the pandemic. Rather than let the delays pile up, we took the bull by the horns and adapted. We changed our approach to incoming calls, and with an efficient decision tree, we were able to automatically direct certain complainants to the right place while respecting the limits of our mandate. In the fall, all of our staff from the complaints team buckled down to eliminate our backlog. As a result, we can now offer a callback service within our high service standards. This collective effort demonstrates our commitment to serving taxpayers efficiently and effectively, even under considerable pressure.

The level of complaints was the highest it has been in the last three years, and it was a significant increase compared to the 2024–2025 fiscal year. This demonstrates the persistent difficulties that taxpayers encounter during their interactions with the CRA. The problems they told us about were familiar and persistent. This report discusses processing delays, difficulties reaching an agent, increased use of call deflection when average wait times exceeded 30 minutes, as well as growing dissatisfaction with the Service Feedback Program (the CRA’s complaint service). Incidentally, this year the Program made the list of the top five trends in issues that our Office received. These issues are not individual frustrations; they reveal systemic gaps in service that continue to affect Canadians across the country. 

Concerns about how the CRA’s service was performing reached a level that demanded decisive action. Knowing that the Auditor General was about to release a devastating report, on September 2, 2025, the Minister of Finance and National Revenue asked the CRA to put into effect a 100-day plan to strengthen service, improve access and reduce delays. One major initial result was greater transparency. To our knowledge, this was the first time that the CRA had made public details about how its contact centres were performing and about the service improvements it was making—recognizing that transparency is essential for accountability. The other great advantage of the 100-day plan was the pressure on senior management to deliver on its commitments. One can certainly be transparent, but one must also have something to say. The following pages of this annual report will elaborate on this subject. 

Although the plan allowed for certain short-term gains, it also clearly demonstrated that sustainable progress will require medium- and long-term solutions. We even commented publicly to that effect this year.

The delays became the most common reason that taxpayers contacted our Office. Service standards exist to harmonize public expectations with the government’s performance, yet a number of taxpayers had to wait well above the timelines put out by the CRA. Although the Agency put in place new digital services that have generally been well received, these improvements often take years to materialize. One need only think about the lack of a callback service like the one that Service Canada has offered for years.

Faster and more comprehensive automation is necessary, not only to reduce operational costs, but also to respond to expectations related to service in the context of limited resources and growing demand.

As automated systems and artificial intelligence develop within the CRA, fairness is essential to their success. Taxpayer Right 5 commits the CRA to treating taxpayers professionally, courteously, and fairly. To meet this commitment, it is essential that the CRA make sure that new technologies do not introduce new barriers, especially for taxpayers with disabilities, and that they remain accessible for the most vulnerable populations.

This annual report reflects a year marked by pressure, adaptation, and renewed calls for accountability. Taxpayers deserve a tax administration that is accessible, transparent, and responsive. Our Office will continue to advocate for service improvements that place fairness at the forefront, because better service is not just a choice or a slogan—it is fundamental and at the heart of public confidence in our tax system.

That said, cooperation from senior management at the CRA was, again this year, exemplary. We do not always see eye to eye, but we have developed good working habits that allow us to understand each others’ points of view. My own approach is simple: to put oneself in the shoes of a taxpayer who is facing the entire expertise and sometimes intimidating weight of the CRA. 

I would like to thank the team at the OTO for their dedication, engagement and empathy towards the people who call on our services, often during very stressful circumstances, as well as the members of the other teams without whom we could not offer quality service.

Achievements, enhancements, and challenges

This year, like every other year, was filled with both achievements and challenges, but our Office is always open to adapting. We faced the biggest backlog of unprocessed complaints than we had seen in recent years, but we tackled it as a team and moved employees from other areas to help. This meant that by September 2025, we acknowledged receipt of complaints in a timelier manner, and by the end of the year we contacted complainants within five business days after receiving their complaint over 95% of the time.

We receive the majority of our complaints online, and email notifications are a feature that taxpayers expect from most organizations. As such, we knew that we needed to start offering this feature, and we were pleased to launch it in March 2026.

This feature will help us:

• set clearer expectations,
• manage the increased demand for our service, and
• provide taxpayers with more timely, direct communication.

As the majority of taxpayers reach out to us through our forms, which have remained relatively unchanged for many years, we also took the opportunity to refresh these forms to make them easier to fill out and to ensure that we get all the information we need from taxpayers at one time, further streamlining our operations.
 

Stakeholder outreach

To better understand the issues taxpayers can face when dealing with the CRA, we meet with organizations across Canada, both virtually and in person, to hear their perspectives. The makeup of these organizations ranges from tax professionals to academics to social workers serving vulnerable segments of the population, such as new immigrants and housing-insecure individuals. We also aim to meet with organizations that host tax clinics through the Community Volunteer Income Tax Program (CVITP) or the Income Tax Assistance – Volunteer Program (ITAVP) in Quebec. This year, we focused on New Brunswick and Saskatchewan, which Mr. Boileau had not yet visited during his term as Ombudsperson, for our virtual meetings with community organizations.

Additionally, we attend a handful of conferences every year to learn from our peers about best practices and emerging trends.

Locations of organizations and conferences

Because of budget constraints and to be able to direct more resources toward our complaint workload, we have continued to focus on virtual outreach rather than in-person meetings that require travel.

All events were virtual unless otherwise indicated.

Our digital footprint

Complaints by the numbers

Calls to our enquiries line*

*Starting in June 2025 we began only providing a callback service for taxpayers who need additional assistance beyond what we provide through our automated telephone messaging.

Complaints received

Urgent requests sent to the CRA**

**We send urgent requests to the CRA when there are compelling circumstances in a complaint. See “What is a compelling situation?” below.

Top five areas of concern

Another year, another surge of complaints

This year we saw a surge of complaints, receiving more than we did in any of the past three years and seeing a 27% increase compared to the previous fiscal year (April 1, 2024, to March 31, 2025).

The issues we heard about this year were not unique or uncommon. Much of what we heard about are recurring problems at the CRA, such as:

• processing delays
• the inability to reach a live agent, including the CRA’s policy to redirect callers to its automated services when wait times are over 30 minutes on average, which it refers to as managing wait times
• complaints about the Service Feedback Program, which became one of the top five areas of concern
   

While it is clear to us that the CRA is always working to improve the service it provides to taxpayers, many taxpayers have told us that what the CRA is doing is not enough and that they expect more. We have heard that the CRA should make changes more quickly. And for good reason. The delays many taxpayers have experienced did not even meet the service standards the CRA sets for itself.

While new digital services that increase functionality are well received by taxpayers, it can take the CRA years to introduce them. This leads to complaints. While the CRA automates many tasks, it needs to do so more broadly and rapidly.

For example, this year the CRA made a system enhancement to automatically process an additional 115,000 T1 adjustment requests annually.^{Footnote 3}  This is a good first step, but considering the volume of requests the CRA receives, it needs to do much more. Increasing robotic process automation while at the same time mitigating risk is key for reducing delays.

The Right Honourable Mark Carney, Prime Minister of Canada, has been very clear: The federal government wants to spend less on its operations to invest more in people and businesses.^{Footnote 4}  Therefore, the CRA needs to fast-track automation to not only deliver cost savings, but also ensure it is reducing delays to deliver the service taxpayers expect. 

More complaints – many factors at play

Most of the complaints we received could be attributed to the significant workload the CRA has had to deal with in recent years.

For example:

But this increase in returns filed is just the beginning. While each return corresponds to at least one interaction, many taxpayers likely had questions before or after they filed, further increasing the number of interactions and the workload for the CRA. For example, taxpayers may need assistance by phone, or their return may get reviewed by the CRA, which may lead to an agent requesting documents from the taxpayer to support their claim. 

Further, many temporary programs have put a significant strain on the CRA. When taxpayers have to provide more information to the CRA because of new requirements, the CRA also needs more resources to review this information. 

For example, from March 15, 2020, to May 7, 2022, the CRA administered many COVID-19 benefits. Not only was this a new workload for the CRA, but it has also led to years of additional work.
 

As of December 2025, the CRA had collected $3.3 billion of COVID-19 overpayments, and it is continuing to work to collect more than $10 billion from hundreds of thousands of taxpayers. 

The workload has not just affected collections agents recovering overpayments. If the CRA found a taxpayer was not eligible for a COVID-19 benefit, it allowed them to request a second review. While these reviews alleviated pressure on the Federal Court system and respected the spirit of Taxpayer Right 10 by lowering the costs of compliance for taxpayers, they also increased the CRA’s workload. 

Expectations remain

Despite knowing that the CRA is busy, taxpayers still expect good service. Although the CRA has tried to temper expectations, taxpayers have their own assumptions based on what they hear through their communities and the media, including about the increase in CRA staff over the past few years. There are also those who expect the CRA to provide services and features widely used by other institutions, such as voice authentication, email, and electronic signatures. 

Some may think the increase in complaints we received came from taxpayers having elevated expectations. However, we have found that the majority of taxpayers’ expectations are reasonable, such as wanting the CRA to process a request within its service standards. 

Pressure – consistent and growing workload 

While the CRA may see some reprieve as it winds down areas that are no longer linked to government priorities—including the Digital Services Tax, the Federal Fuel Charge, and the Canada Carbon Rebate for individuals and businesses^{Footnote 5} —the CRA still administers many demanding programs. For example, the Canada child benefit helps millions of Canadians each month, and this program alone contributes to an annual review workload of approximately 200,000 files, not to mention the hundreds of thousands of new applications the CRA receives annually.^{Footnote 6}  

Increased workload and new programs

The eligibility criteria for some programs the CRA administers, such as the Voluntary Disclosures Program, have expanded, leading to increased demand on CRA services. The CRA has also indicated that the introduction of other benefit programs, such as the Canada Disability Benefit, has expanded the number of applications the CRA expects to receive for other programs, such as the DTC. In addition, the CRA indicated that a number of factors can explain the sustained rise in DTC applications, including:

• improved medical access
• greater public awareness resulting from government and community outreach
• a growing number of persons with disabilities resulting in a larger eligible population
• the introduction of the Canada Disability Benefit Act

Over the next four years, the CRA expects to receive over 366,000 more DTC applications. 

As an impartial ombuds office, we acknowledge that the CRA can only do so much with the resources it has. Although it has a significant amount of resources, it equally has a lot to administer. It not only administers tax, benefits, and related programs for the Government of Canada, but also does so for most provinces and territories.

“[By] automating certain tasks in the risk scoring process, CRA estimates that repetitive tasks will be reduced by 50 per cent once fully implemented. This reinvestment will help protect the tax base, with an estimated positive fiscal impact of $1.1 billion annually from 2028-29 onwards.”^{Footnote 7}

The CRA’s goal to eliminate repetitive tasks by 50% in the next few years is commendable and will not only free up resources so it can do more, but will also provide a better user experience.
 

A positive path forward – expect more, not less

Although Budget 2025 proposed to eliminate some programs going forward, the workload at the CRA remains significantly higher than it was a little over a decade ago.

That said, this does not mean taxpayers should expect less. It is up to the CRA to deliver and work towards meeting taxpayers’ expectations. To its credit, it has implemented many new features in recent years, such as its Document verification service and Secure Drop Zone. However, it needs to do more and focus on reducing delays.

Action requested by the Taxpayers’ Ombudsperson – VDP

On October 1, 2025, changes to the CRA’s VDP came into effect. The changes made it easier for taxpayers and registrants to correct unintentional filing errors and omissions and made the program more accessible.

After the changes took effect, we reviewed the information the CRA was providing about the program. We found the CRA was insufficiently informing taxpayers about the VDP on many web pages, including on its Objections, appeals, disputes, and relief measures web page. 

As a result, we requested that the CRA review the information it provides on its applicable web pages (e.g. Objections, appeals, disputes, and relief measures, Taxpayer relief provisions, and Changing a tax return - Personal income tax) and in its outreach materials (e.g. Do you think you made a mistake? (PDF, 80 kB)) to ensure that readers can easily find all relief options, including the VDP. 

As part of the request, we asked the CRA to present relief options in a logical and consistent manner so that taxpayers can choose the most beneficial option for their situation.

Following the request, the CRA updated its web pages and will assess the feasibility of including the VDP in its online Self-evaluation tool.

Delays, delays, and more delays

We received complaints about the CRA’s ever-changing processing times and about how it informs taxpayers of changes to these processing times and the delays they would face. 

The Check CRA processing times tool

For example, let’s say a taxpayer submits a tax-related request on January 1st. If they were to check the Check CRA processing times tool, and the tool indicates that the current processing time is three months, then the taxpayer would expect their request to be processed by March 31st. However, when April 1st comes and goes and the request is not complete, they are left wondering why it has not been processed.

If they go back and check the tool again, it may indicate a different processing time if it has changed since they checked the first time. While the tool asks the user when they submitted the request, it only uses that date to calculate a new expected completion date based on the current processing time. It does not use previous estimates or projected workloads in the calculation. 

If the CRA were to estimate processing times based on these factors, it could set clearer expectations and thus alleviate taxpayers’ frustrations.

Other government departments already do so. Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada’s processing tool, while very similar to the CRA’s, provides more concise information and sets clearer expectations. Specifically, it provides users the estimated time left to get their request processed and approximately how many people are ahead of them, how many are waiting, and the total processing time. If the CRA were to set clearer expectations and provide more accurate processing times, its contact centres would likely get fewer calls, which could also lead to shorter wait times. 

Moreover, we find the CRA’s processing tool to be outdated and not user-friendly. For example, the tool does not ask probing questions to determine if the taxpayer’s request is excluded from the processing times. Because many requests may be excluded, some taxpayers may think that their request is included in the normal processing time when that is not the case. Exclusions include tax returns filed late or for a deceased, bankrupt, international or non-resident individual, or an emigrant. The processing time also does not apply in a situation where a taxpayer files returns for multiple tax years or if the CRA has to contact an individual for more information.

CRA Progress tracker

Alternatively, taxpayers can also access a target completion date for some tax-related requests through the CRA’s Progress tracker, available in both My Account and My Business Account. However, we have heard that as the target date approaches, the deadline changes, or that there is no date at all, or that it reads “not available.” These situations are not helpful and lead many taxpayers to call the CRA and, in some cases, make service complaints. These situations also do not reflect the CRA’s commitment to Right 6 of the Taxpayer Bill of Rights to provide taxpayers with complete, accurate, clear and timely information.

Change is needed 

The CRA needs to do a better job of providing taxpayers with tailored responses for their situations through its Check CRA processing times tool and provide estimates of when they should expect their request to be processed. Further, the CRA needs to provide more accurate target completion dates through its Progress tracker. 

All recommendations in this report are presented to the Minister of Finance and National Revenue and to the Chair of the CRA’s Board of Management.

Strengthening accountability

This year, one of the most prevalent issues we heard about was delays at the CRA. Many taxpayers would reach out to us because the CRA was far from meeting its own goals of when it should complete tasks. In the Government of Canada, these are called service standards.
 

For example, the CRA indicates that taxpayers can expect it to issue a notice of reassessment or a letter of explanation within 20 weeks of receiving a taxpayer’s T1 adjustment request if it considers the request to be complex, 80% of the time. However, the CRA routinely did not meet this service standard, and for months it was taking up to 50 weeks—nearly an entire year and more than double the CRA’s own goal.

Over 50% of the complaints we received had an issue related to the timeliness of CRA’s processing.

Accountability through transparency 

This year, due to the difficulties taxpayers faced accessing timely assistance from the CRA, on September 2, 2025, the CRA was directed by the Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Finance and National Revenue, and the Honourable Wayne Long, Secretary of State (Canada Revenue Agency and Financial Institutions), to put in place a 100-day plan to strengthen services, improve access, and reduce delays. The first thing the CRA did as part of this plan was to increase transparency related to its contact centres’ performance and the improvements it was making to the service it provides to taxpayers, something it indicates taxpayers and stakeholders need^{Footnote 9} .

Although the CRA publicly reports on its performance against its service standards in the Departmental Results Reports, it does not report on its performance regularly throughout the year. That is like a sports team not releasing its game results until the end of the season.

Increasing transparency about the CRA’s performance against its service standards throughout the year would hold it more accountable to the public and to Parliament on a regular basis, rather than only after the year has ended. This accountability could possibly impact productivity and result in more timely service improvements.

We have found that, at times, the experiences shared by taxpayers do not line up with what the CRA says publicly. For example, in July 2025, the CRA told the media that “At times, demand for phone support can exceed our capacity and as a result, some callers are being redirected to automated self-service options” [emphasis added]. The CRA told us that this statement was meant to reflect variations across the year. However, when the CRA announced its 100-day plan, it revealed to the public that from June 30 to July 4, 2025, it only answered 35%^{Footnote 10}  of unique callers. It therefore would have been more accurate to write: 

“Right now, demand for phone support exceeds our capacity and as a result, most callers are being redirected to automated self-service options.” 

The CRA defines unique callers as a distinct number of callers, identified by their phone numbers, who contacted the CRA general enquiries contact centre within a given week.

While the number of unique callers answered is not a service standard, if the CRA were to report on its performance monthly, then the results would lead to increased transparency and may lead to faster change. That is what happened with its 100-day plan. 

Although Right 13 in the Taxpayer Bill of Rights says that taxpayers have the right to expect the CRA to publish its service standards and report annually, this practice is not sufficient anymore. More accountability and transparency is needed.

Service Feedback Program – delaying justice

When a taxpayer has concerns with the service they received from the CRA, they can complain to the Service Feedback Program (SFP); however, in November 2025, the SFP was taking up to 100 business days, more than 4 months, to respond to concerns. This directly affected the operations of our Office because we usually only review complaints if there is an unresolved service issue after the SFP has finished its review, or if a taxpayer is not satisfied with how the SFP addressed the service issue. If the SFP is still reviewing the complaint, then we cannot review it unless the situation is compelling.

Many taxpayers who reached out to us felt these delays were restricting them from using our services and ultimately from getting a timely resolution.

Justice delayed is justice denied

According to the Forum of Canadian Ombudsman’s definition, “An Ombudsman/Ombudsperson assists with the fair and expeditious resolution of complaints in an impartial, confidential and independent manner.”^{Footnote 11}  Delays can lead to a situation of “justice delayed is justice denied,” leaving taxpayers questioning the value of complaining in the first place. This could lead to the erosion of public trust in the CRA.

Our mission is to help Canadians who are experiencing service issues with the CRA. We cannot help them if we cannot review their complaints. This year, delays at CRA’s SFP prevented us from doing so in a timely manner.

We know the CRA has meaningfully reduced delays and has integrated artificial intelligence to speed up some administrative elements to help it process complaints faster. However, more needs to be done. This year we saw a significant increase in complaints to our Office about the SFP.

Further, due to our Office’s limited resources, we also experienced delays in assigning complaints to get examined. Between the SFP delays and the delays at our Office, it could take over a year for a taxpayer to see a possible resolution. This is unacceptable. That is why we took steps to address our backlog. 

The Department of Finance Canada and the Canada Revenue Agency 

This year, a big change happened for the CRA in how it is accountable to Parliament. The Honourable François-Philippe Champagne was named Minister of Finance and National Revenue and became accountable to Parliament for all the CRA’s activities along with his new portfolio at the Department of Finance Canada (Finance Canada). In the past, this accountability fell on two separate Ministers. Additionally, the Honourable Wayne Long, Secretary of State (Canada Revenue Agency and Financial Institutions) and Mr. Ryan Turnbull, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister and the Secretary of State, are also accountable to Parliament for all the CRA’s activities.^{Footnote 12} 

In our report Unintended Consequences: Bare Trusts, published in March 2025, we highlighted that the CRA places great importance on maintaining open and reciprocal discussions with Finance Canada. However, we found the relationship needed improvement. The Taxpayers’ Ombudsperson therefore recommended that the CRA review how it works with Finance Canada, particularly when it appears that the administration of a legislative proposal could increase the costs of compliance for taxpayers. 

It is encouraging to see that accountability has been centralized under one Minister. However, time will tell if this consolidation will lead to a more seamless relationship between Finance Canada’s development of tax policies and the CRA’s implementation and administration of them.

Minor change, big impact – rebranding of the GST/HST credit

When we saw that the Government of Canada had rebranded the goods and services tax/harmonized sales tax (GST/HST) credit as the Canada Groceries and Essentials Benefit, we knew the CRA had a lot of work and significant administrative costs ahead. While at face value a name change may not seem particularly big, the new name will require updates to many web pages as well as changes to the CRA’s outreach resources, videos, webinars, forms, and documents that reference the previous name. In addition, if CRA employees are working on these changes, it limits the time they can work on other tasks.

The change may also lead to confusion for taxpayers, as the GST/HST credit has existed for over 30 years. When rebranding the GST/HST credit, the CRA should try to make the change as seamless as possible for taxpayers.

Prevention is key – postponement of backup multi-factor authentication requirement for CRA accounts

Part of the Ombudsperson’s mandate is to identify and review systemic and emerging issues related to service matters that have a negative impact on taxpayers. We had concerns about an upcoming requirement that would have such an impact. 

In a tax tip published in December 2025, the CRA announced that in February 2026 taxpayers would be required to add a backup multi-factor authentication (MFA) option to their online CRA account. This meant that taxpayers who were already registered to receive a one-time passcode by text or phone call when signing into a CRA account would have needed to set up an authenticator app or passcode grid as well. 

The goal of this new requirement was to avoid lockouts during the authentication process, reduce call volumes, and enhance account security by having an alternative method of access. 

However, when we first heard about this requirement, we had concerns that some of the information the CRA was providing relating to backup MFA options was incomplete, inaccurate, or unclear. From what we had learned, the new requirement would have caused confusion and created roadblocks when taxpayers tried to prepare their returns. As well, many taxpayers desire simpler processes and are therefore less familiar with MFA options like authenticator apps or passcode grids compared to text- or phone call-based MFA options. Such issues would have lead to increased calls to the CRA for assistance. 

We raised our concerns with the CRA and requested more information about what it was doing to prepare taxpayers for the requirement. Following our request and after the CRA conducted internal consultations, it decided to allow taxpayers to choose if they wanted to add a backup MFA to their CRA account when they signed in, letting them delay adding the backup option during tax season. 

Allowing taxpayers to set up the backup MFA option later was the right move. It likely prevented hundreds of thousands of calls to the CRA’s contact centres from the millions of taxpayers who would have been required to set up a backup MFA option and might have had questions. If these taxpayers were not familiar with the backup options, they may have directed their questions to the CRA’s general enquiries lines, thus creating other complicated nightmare scenarios for people who just wanted to access their account.

However, we also have concerns that the CRA continued to communicate this requirement on its web pages until February 8, 2026, the day before the planned launch date of February 9, 2026. By contrast, the CRA knew before the launch date that it was going to pivot and no longer require the backup MFA option during tax season, but it only informed taxpayers on the launch date. The CRA must stop making last-minute decisions, as they cause confusion and can lead to taxpayers questioning whether they can rely on the CRA’s communication. Therefore, the CRA should review its current processes to prevent similar situations in the future.

Even though adding a backup MFA option was no longer a requirement, we knew that many taxpayers would want to set one up after being asked by the CRA. However, we found the CRA’s guidance lacked clarity about options, setup instructions, and scam warnings. Therefore, on February 13, 2026, we requested that the CRA improve the information it provides to taxpayers to ensure that adding the backup option is as seamless as possible.

Helping vulnerable people - delays impacting persons with disabilities

This year our Office received numerous complaints about delays and communication gaps concerning the CRA’s processing of DTC applications (Form T2201, Disability Tax Credit Certificate) and related T1 adjustments.

To address these issues and improve service for taxpayers with disabilities, we sent a request to the CRA and on December 3rd, International Day of Persons with Disabilities, Mr. Boileau made an announcement. We had requested that the CRA change its “First In, First Out” policy to prioritize T1 adjustments related to the DTC.

As a result of this request, the CRA has committed to evaluating whether it could prioritize certain T1 adjustments while also analyzing other potential system enhancements by March 31, 2027. While we understand there are many factors that can affect processing times, we will be monitoring how fast the CRA makes these system enhancements so that taxpayers can benefit sooner rather than later.

The CRA’s 100-day Service Improvement Plan 

On September 2, 2025, the Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Finance and National Revenue and the Honourable Wayne Long, Secretary of State (Canada Revenue Agency and Financial Institutions), directed the CRA to put in place a 100-day plan to improve service. In addition to other improvements, this plan led to the CRA implementing some of the recommendations and suggestions we had made in previous years.
 

At the time of making our recommendation, the then Minister, the Honourable Diane Lebouthillier, agreed. But a few years later, the CRA reverse course to say that it could not be done given technical limitations. However, when the Honourable François-Philippe Champagne requested it in his 100-day plan, it was suddenly possible. Why the change?

The CRA decided to pursue this callback feature internally and it was successful. However, the pilot has since ended.

We had hoped that this callback request pilot project was only a stepping stone. Similar services are widely available elsewhere in both private businesses and other government departments. For example, Service Canada offers this feature, so we know it is possible for the CRA to do so too.

In addition, in 2024 the CRA still agreed that the ability to request a callback, without having to call the CRA first, would be a better experience. It indicated that it would further explore this functionality as it transitions to the new cloud-based telephony platform—the same platform used by Service Canada.

The CRA should build on what it learned through this pilot project and make the callback service more widely available to benefit more taxpayers. While we recognize that the CRA does allow some callback requests for certain topics, it should expand this initiative.

In addition, taxpayers nowadays expect online chat services with a live agent. Therefore, it was good news for taxpayers, especially those in Western Canada, that the CRA’s 100-day plan included extending the online chat hours of service.
 

That said, this service is only available for My Account users. This means My Business Account and Represent a Client users cannot access the chat. One would think that, logically, the CRA would be looking to expand this service. However, when we asked the CRA if it planned to expand this service to other CRA portals, such as My Business Account, it indicated that it had no plans to do so.

That said, while the 100-day plan did lead to short-term results, it demonstrated the dire need for mid- to long-term solutions to address many concerns about CRA services. It also highlighted the benefit of the CRA publicly reporting on the changes it makes to improve service.

Continued transparency is necessary to demonstrate to taxpayers where the CRA is making improvements, as it can lead to increased accountability. Therefore, we were pleased to see in February 2026 that the CRA launched its Continuous Service Improvement web page, where it reports on the improvements it is making to its services beyond the 100-day plan. We hope that this is just the beginning of an era of increased transparency at the CRA. To enhance its contact centre reporting on this web page, we made a service improvement request in March 2026 to the CRA.
 

Budget 2025

Budget 2025 (PDF, 11 MB) directs the Government of Canada to reduce the size of the public service to a more sustainable level. The CRA was not exempt from this reduction; before the budget was released, the CRA was required to do a Comprehensive Expenditure Review to develop savings. 

The government is planning to use artificial intelligence (AI) to make the public service more efficient and save on resources while also delivering results. While AI may be able to increase efficiency and, as a result, reduce the number of personnel needed, it is important to recognize that results will not be immediate. Government departments and agencies need time to develop, test and implement AI processes, yet the budget demands immediate cuts.

With no interim solution, taxpayers may see a reduction in the level of service they are provided by the CRA and the organizations the CRA supports. Given the current rate of illiteracy, the lack of sufficient bandwidth in many remote areas and the inherent difficulties for thousands to understand and fill out their own returns because of the inherent complexities of the Income Tax Act, the CRA must be certain these vulnerable populations will not be left behind. 

We reviewed the CRA’s Accessibility Plan 2026–2028, launched January 5, 2026. The plan highlights that the CRA provides all of its employees with access to an AI assistant tool to ask questions about accessibility. While the Accessibility Plan is supplemented by the CRA’s internal AI Strategy, which includes safeguards specific to AI to ensure persons with disabilities are not penalized as the CRA integrates AI, the CRA must make sure that it considers AI bias as it rolls out AI and that it follows Section 11 of Accessibility Standards Canada’s National Standard on Accessible and Equitable Artificial Intelligence Systems.

Taxpayer Right 5 of the Taxpayer Bill of Rights states that taxpayers “have the right to be treated professionally, courteously, and fairly.” Avoiding bias as the CRA rolls out AI is an important aspect of making sure that taxpayers with disabilities receive fair treatment.

Budget 2025 also delivered exciting news for lower-income individuals. It secured funding for automatic federal benefits. Automatic tax filing was first announced in 2020 by the previous government, and automatic federal benefits builds upon existing tools and services provided by automatic tax filing. Some new measures can apply to the 2025 and subsequent tax years, but the major rollout is anticipated for 2027.

This is an important change at the CRA, as it will transform how millions of taxpayers file their returns every year. The CRA will prepare a pre-filled return in its portals, and lower-income individuals with simple tax situations will be able to review, update and confirm their return and consent to the CRA filing it on their behalf. These individuals will not need additional software or services to take advantage of these programs. This change will also grant the CRA the ability to file returns on behalf of individuals who meet specific criteria.

That said, while automatic federal benefits are targeted to help lower-income individuals with simple tax situations, there may also be an opportunity for the CRA to expand the program to help more taxpayers. The CRA should make sure to be open to exploring whether it could expand the service to millions more taxpayers who are not low-income but have a simple tax situation and could benefit from a pre-filled tax return.
 

Automatic federal benefits: the details

Starting in 2027, for the 2026 tax year, the CRA will pre-fill tax returns in its portals for about 1 million lower-income individuals with simple tax situations. The program will scale up to about 5.5 million individuals by 2029.

Will the CRA continue to support the current automatic tax-filing services?

Yes, automatic federal benefits will still be complemented by the following programs:

• SimpleFile
  Simplified tax-filing methods offered by the CRA to eligible individuals by invitation only:
  • SimpleFile by Phone
  • SimpleFile Digital
  • SimpleFile by Paper
• “Let us help you get your benefits!” Indigenous credit and benefit short return
  A paper-based filing option available to Indigenous Peoples (First Nations, Inuit, and Metis) with a simple tax situation, including no income or tax-exempt income.
• Free tax clinics
  Through the Community Volunteer Income Tax Program (CVITP) or the Income Tax Assistance – Volunteer Program (ITAVP) in Quebec, community organizations host free tax clinics where volunteers complete tax returns for people with a modest income and a simple tax situation.
• Auto-fill My Return
  A secure CRA service that allows individuals and authorized representatives using certified software to automatically fill in parts of an income tax and benefit return.

Grant for hosting free tax clinics 

Piloted for the last five years and extended in 2026 for three more years, the CVITP Grant has been beneficial to organizations across Canada by offsetting the cost of hosting free tax clinics. 

In 2024 and 2025, the Taxpayers’ Ombudsperson recommended that the grant be permanently funded. The grant supports organizations that provide a vital service to many of our society’s most vulnerable. Even once automated federal benefits are available, many Canadians will still rely on these free tax clinics; these organizations provide other types of assistance to taxpayers, such as directing them on how to get all the relevant documents they need to prepare their returns. 

While permanent funding would help organizations better plan their long-term operations by providing them with a stable source of funds, the Government of Canada’s funding extension was welcome news. On February 3, 2026, the Honourable Wayne Long, Secretary of State (Canada Revenue Agency and Financial Institutions), announced the renewed funding for the CVITP Grant for the next three years. This means that organizations can rely on the grant until the 2028 tax season. This will help them to continue offering free tax clinics and assist the hundreds of thousands of taxpayers who rely on them every year.

2025 Report of the Auditor General of Canada to the Parliament of Canada—Canada Revenue Agency Contact Centres

On October 21, 2025, the Auditor General of Canada released a report on the quality of service provided by the CRA’s contact centres (PDF, 1.3 MB). Some of the findings were alarming, such as the fact that the CRA’s responses to the OAG’s non-account-specific questions or general questions about individual taxes were accurate only 17% of the time. However, these findings were not surprising for our Office. We consistently receive complaints about service issues linked to the CRA’s contact centres.

While all the Auditor General’s recommendations, if implemented, will improve the level of service taxpayers can expect from the CRA, the CRA must not stop there. There are many opportunities it can explore to reduce demand on its contact centres. For example, while the CRA encourages taxpayers to “use digital first,” at times it does not show a clear advantage for taxpayers to convince them to choose the digital option. Rather, it still gives all the options and leaves taxpayers to decide, even though the “Online” option will often provide the best service experience. 

For instance, if a taxpayer wants to update their address with the CRA, its web page presents the “Online” option first, but it also provides “By phone,” “By mail” and “On your tax return.” While it details the processing time for each, it shows no clear advantage to “Online” versus “By phone,” as each will be processed immediately. That said, as we know from the OAG’s report, taxpayers only have about a 31% chance of being able to do it “By phone.” Therefore, in the spirit of lowering unnecessary call volume and improving the service experience for taxpayers, we made a service improvement request to the CRA in March 2026 for it to strengthen its digital services first approach. 

In addition, we reviewed the CRA’s contact web page and found that it does not immediately guide visitors to the most suitable option for their needs. The web page contains a large amount of information that visitors may not necessarily need and does not intuitively encourage taxpayers to complete tasks on their own. Therefore, in March 2026 we made a service improvement request to the CRA to improve service and reduce the burden on its contact centres by modernizing this web page.

Audit process – charities

In July 2021, the Minister of National Revenue requested that we review concerns raised by Muslim-led charities, and we opened a systemic examination focused on the fairness of the audit process for charities.

Soon after opening the examination, we encountered several challenges that prevented us from accessing information. Because of the incomplete information available and the lack of authorities provided to us in Order in Council P.C. 2020-0703, our examination was not as comprehensive as we had hoped. We concluded our examination and released a report on March 27, 2023, making one recommendation and expressing the need for a deeper review of the issue.

Since then, two additional reports have been published: Review of Canada Revenue Agency’s Review and Analysis Division (RAD) (PDF, 22.8 MB) by the National Security and Intelligence Review Agency (NSIRA), released in October 2025, and the Internal Audit – Charities Audit Process by the CRA, released publicly in June 2025. These examinations were more comprehensive than our own because the investigators had greater review powers and therefore fewer limitations. 

For example, a challenge we faced was that we could not access audit techniques and how the CRA assesses risk. This information is a recognized exemption under the Access to Information Act, as it could provide insight into how to circumvent the CRA’s compliance activities and in turn undermine and potentially jeopardize the CRA’s compliance efforts. However, NSIRA did not have this challenge and found that “across individual case files, there was no structured approach to evaluate risk or to inform decisions.”^{Footnote 14}  That said, our position remains, as detailed in our report Charity Begins with Fairness: More to Explore, that it would be beneficial for future examinations if we had increased access to CRA information, including taxpayer information, when warranted.
 

Summary of Expenditures

(in thousands of dollars)

* Please note that amounts may not balance to total due to rounding.

** Represent internal services expenditures that relate to the support of the Office of the Taxpayers’ Ombudsperson (OTO). As of April 1, 2019, internal services expenditures that relate to the support of specific programs are being reported under the applicable core responsibility in compliance with the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat’s Guide on Recording and Reporting of Internal Services Expenditures.

*** The amount shown under related party transaction represents funding that has been transferred by the OTO to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) for corporate services rendered by the CRA in the area of financial management advisory services.

Recommendations in this annual report are made to the Minister of Finance and National Revenue and the Chair of the CRA’s Board of Management.

Recommendation 1

The Taxpayers’ Ombudsperson recommends that the CRA:

1. modernize the Check CRA processing times tool on Canada.ca to improve usability, intuitiveness, and information; and
2. improve the Progress tracker in CRA accounts so taxpayers can rely on the target completion date and are made aware of changes to that date.

Recommendation 2

The Taxpayers’ Ombudsperson recommends that the CRA publicly report its current processing time performance against all of its service standards monthly or quarterly starting Fall 2026.

Recommendation 3

The Taxpayers Ombudsperson recommends that the CRA proactively engage key stakeholders who may be affected or who could provide valuable feedback to inform the development of digital enhancements or changes that directly impact service to taxpayers.

Recommendation 4

The Taxpayers’ Ombudsperson recommends that the CRA provide taxpayers with the opportunity to request a callback without the need to call a contact centre first and to not limit callbacks to specific topics by Fall 2027.

Recommendation 5

The Taxpayers’ Ombudsperson recommends that the CRA expand its live online chat service with a CRA agent to My Business Account and Represent a Client by October 2028.

Recommendation 6

The Taxpayers’ Ombudsperson recommends that, as part of the CRA’s AI strategy, it makes sure to meet the needs of vulnerable populations so that they are treated fairly.

Recommendation 7

The Taxpayers’ Ombudsperson recommends that the Minister of Finance and National Revenue expand eligibility for automatic tax filing to allow all taxpayers in a simple tax situation, not just low-income individuals, to access pre-filled tax returns in CRA accounts.