OTTAWA, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Oct. 17, 2016) - Canada Revenue Agency
The Government of Canada is committed to ensuring tax fairness for all Canadians, and recognizes the importance of small businesses in creating jobs and supporting the economy. This is why it made a commitment to facilitate access to its services.
To celebrate Small Business Week, the Honourable Diane Lebouthillier, Minister of National Revenue, attended a roundtable today with small and medium business owners in Moncton, New Brunswick, as part of the Canada Revenue Agency's (CRA) Serving You Better initiative. Speaking to business owners, Minister Lebouthillier highlighted her mandate to modernize and simplify the CRA's services, including services for businesses, so that they are more helpful and easier to use.
Through its Serving You Better initiative, the CRA is looking to identify ways to improve services to small and medium enterprises. The consultations now underway across the country and online are a forum to share valuable insights that the CRA can use to make its programs and services more streamlined and client-focused. In-person participants meet with senior CRA officials to share their views on the CRA's progress on improving services, and suggest ways to improve them further.
Service excellence is a top priority for Minister Lebouthillier. Budget 2016 provided $185.8 million over five years, starting in 2016-2017, and $14.6 million ongoing for the CRA to address the Government's commitments to service excellence through a number of initiatives.
These initiatives include revamping the structure, design and format of the CRA's correspondence to ensure all communication is straightforward and easy to read. Starting this fall, businesses will begin receiving two new, simple and easy-to-read notices of assessment and reassessment - one for corporations, and one for GST/HST. The redesigned notices will clearly state the most important information on the first page, and what action, if any, is required.
Businesses want modern, online services. My Business Account is one example of an ever-growing suite of CRA digital services designed to make it faster and easier to manage tax matters.
Quotes
"Our government has made a commitment to making real change by doing things differently. As Minister of National Revenue, one of my top priorities is to ensure that the Canada Revenue Agency becomes an even more client-focused organization, so that Canadians and Canadian business owners feel more supported, respected, and valued."
The Honourable Diane Lebouthillier, Minister of National Revenue
"The Greater Moncton Chamber of Commerce welcomes this opportunity to partner with the Canada Revenue Agency and host this Serving You Better consultation session. Our members know what it means to serve clients and customers all day long, and they know what works and what doesn't work. We value having this opportunity to share our feedback with the CRA."
Carol O'Reilly, Chief Executive Officer, Greater Moncton Chamber of Commerce
Quick facts
- The CRA is committed to improving services to small and medium businesses and has a clear and achievable action plan for serving businesses better, including making it easier to find information and services on the web, providing information in plain language, explaining the audit process better, improving telephone services for businesses, enhancing online services and tools, and helping businesses get their filing requirements right from the start
- Businesses who want to give feedback to the CRA can still register for an in-person consultation session at canada.ca/cra-serving-you-better. Those who cannot attend in person, or who want to give feedback right away, can go to cra-engage-arc.ca/en
Associated links
Understanding notices and letters
Serving You Better: How the CRA is helping small and medium businesses
Stay connected
Contact Information:
Press Secretary
Office of the Minister of National Revenue
613-995-2960
Media Relations
Canada Revenue Agency
613-952-9184