Taxpayers’ Ombudsperson publishes its annual report
The Office of the Taxpayers’ Ombudsperson (OTO) has published its latest annual report, detailing its activities in the year ended March 31, 2025.
The report focuses on how the organization has influences the Canada Revenue Agency over the year and the recommendations it has made to improve the service provided to Canadian taxpayers by the CRA.
The OTO received 2,796 complaints in 2024-25 of which 418 were deemed ‘urgent’ and sent to the CRA. This compares to 2,833 and 562, respectively, for the previous year and is down from the post-pandemic peak of 3,874 and 1,746 in 2021-22.
Among the key elements of the report are the top five complaint trends for the year, which is topped by complaints about the CRA’s call centre agents providing information. Of those taxpayers who were able to speak to an agent, given reports of long wait times, many reported to the OTO that they were provided with incomplete, inaccurate, or unclear information.
The second highest complaint trend related to income tax and benefit return processing and adjustments, with many complainants reporting delays beyond the CRA’s published service standard for processing returns submitted on or before the deadline date.
Third comes complaints about CRA collection action, such as not considering a taxpayer’s personal circumstances and, in some cases, claims that the CRA’s action put them in financial hardship.
Next come complaints about claiming Canada Child Benefit including the CRA saying that information submitted with claims was not complete without clarifying what was missing.
The fifth trend in complaints relates to the CRA's Service Feedback Program with complainants saying that the CRA did not respond to their complaint within its published service standard.
Among the recommendations made to the CRA by the OTO are:
- that the CRA perform a comprehensive review of its content on Canada.ca, including its web page architecture and content, to remove redundant information and to make sure the information it provides is relevant, clear, concise and easy to find. It should complete this review by spring 2026 and start implementing changes by fall 2026.
- that the CRA provide a permanently funded grant program for organizations participating in the Community Volunteer Income Tax Program and the Income Tax Assistance – Volunteer Program to support their free tax clinics for eligible taxpayers and help them offset their operating costs.
"I am especially proud of the work we have done to improve the CRA's services for the most vulnerable,” said ombudsperson François Boileau as he reaches the last year of his five year mandate. “The dual nature of the CRA's work is not well known, aside from its role as tax collector. The second, lesser-known role is to administer benefit and credit programs that can be crucially important to a large segment of the Canadian population. However, when the most vulnerable do not file, they will not receive what they're entitled to, which has a profound effect on not only them, but also our society as a whole."
During the last fiscal year, the OTO released two systemic examination reports, one about the CRA's administration of the 2023 bare trust filing requirements, and the other about issues that may be causing delays in Canada child benefit (CCB) payments for temporary residents. Between these two reports, the OTO made 16 recommendations, and the CRA accepted 13 of them.
