2002 Report of the Auditor General of Canada - April - Chapter 2 - Case Study - Two cases of inconsistent treatment of taxpayers

CRA rules and procedures -There are accountability rules in place for Revenue Canada -why are they not being followed by those that are bound by their organization to do so. In reference to Adam the developer - rather then getting the 90 days to follow the required appeal procedure at Revenue Canada - he was given 11 days to respond .The notice of reassessment was dated December 7,2000 and criminal charges were laid Decemeber 18,2000. Once criminally charged all regular procedures and remediation options were closed to him. This does not seem fair and is a potential abuse of the governments own process- PR
2002 Report of the Auditor General of Canada - April - Chapter 2 - Case Study - Two cases of inconsistent treatment of taxpayers: "Two cases of inconsistent treatment of taxpayers
Case 1. A large service provider with locations across the country changed its payroll provider. The payroll provider set the frequency of payroll deduction remittances incorrectly, which delayed remittances to the Agency in many locations.
Requests to cancel the penalty for late remittances were sent to various tax services offices across Canada. Four requests were approved; two others have not yet been reviewed; and one was denied twice although it was known that four requests had been approved.
Case 2. A tax services office (TSO) approved the cancellation of penalties for late filing by a number of taxpayers because of their financial hardship. When the TSO sent the decisions to a taxation centre for processing, the centre disagreed with the decisions. It said the taxpayers could have avoided the penalties had they filed their returns on time without payment. The centre also noted that other TSOs were denying similar requests. "

2.9 Under legislation, the CCRA does not start a legal action to collect income taxes owed until 90 days after it dates and sends a notice of assessment or reassessment. It will also hold off action to collect taxes that the taxpayer is contesting through the Agency's internal appeal process or through the Tax Court of Canada (except for large corporations, which are required in the interim to pay 50 percent of the tax amount in dispute). These restrictions on the Agency's ability to start collection proceedings do not apply to amounts that the taxpayer is considered to be holding in trust, such as employee deductions and GST collected.