92 replies to this topic

[aastra]

The CRA has become a Soviet-style absurdity. They provoked the worst side of me not too long ago. Although the guy I was dealing with actually lost control of his temper before I did, because he kept stepping into the same logical contradiction with his responses and I kept pleading with him to understand. The experience stressed me out so badly I can only recount it in allegorical form.

 

 

"You need to swim across the crocodile pool."

 

   "I can't do that because there are crocodiles in there."

 

"I know that, sir."

 

   "Okay, so what should I do?"

 

"You need to visit the boat rental place."

 

   "The boat rental place is on the other side of the crocodile pool."

 

"I know that, sir."

 

   "How can I get there?"

 

"You need to swim across the crocodile pool."

 

   "I can't do that be--"

 

"I KNOW THAT, SIR!"

 

 

 

 

[aastra]

 

 

It's the only giving correct answers 17% of the time that gets me. Why bother talking to them if you have a better than 80% chance of getting the wrong info. Just do what works best for you.

 

I've pretty much settled on the same attitude, but obviously there's some serious underlying insanity there. If the right answer does indeed exist and if the reviewers of filings somehow have access to the right answer, then why can't the right answer be clearly and easily communicated to anyone else?

 

For years they've had huge teams of poor bozos trying to tackle thousands of questions per day that they probably can't answer adequately. Tax season is industrialized time-wasting for millions of people.

 

[lanforod]

Ai assistants can answer many of the frequently asked questions.

 

Actually, apparently their Charlie AI bot is almost as bad as the 17%.

[Mike K.]

Classic.

[Tony]

Beta testing still?

The CRA is testing a Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) chatbot to improve our digital services and help users self-serve more easily.

Starting on March 24, 2025, the GenAI chatbot beta will be available 24/7 to answer questions relating to charities, personal income tax, as well as information relating to accessing a CRA account.

You will be offered a survey after using the GenAI chatbot beta, we encourage you to take part. Your feedback will help to improve and expand the service in the future.

[lanforod]

Do you work for the CRA, in the chatbot dev team Tony? You seem like an apologist.

There's no excuses for this level of performance. None.

[Bambam]

Can’t they just call you back like civilized call centres do? Or do they rely on you just giving up, to keep call volumes down?

 

If you have a MyCanada account, and I created one earlier this year because I've started down the early stage of retirement, taking OAS as of last month, there is a feature where you can check a box that guarantees a call back within 2 business days. Despite my scepticism a CRA agent did in fact call me back about 36 hours later so it not only exists but seems to work quite well.

[Mike K.]

36 hours?

My goodness, that’s awful.

[Tony]

Do you work for the CRA, in the chatbot dev team Tony? You seem like an apologist.

There's no excuses for this level of performance. None.

No. Just commenting that we will see more Ai type info provied in the future that will continue to improve in quality and accuracy.

 

Initial comment was to suggest that the CRA might use this development to help. I did not know if they were using one.

 

Second comment about the Beta testing was a response to the information as to why the CRA bot may not be as good as it can be even if better than a person at the moment.

Edited by Tony, 25 October 2025 - 09:42 AM.

[Matt R.]

Speaking of tip income, Worksafe is looking for inclusion of tip income when calculating premiums now. It’s been a bit of slow rollout and of course industry groups are pushing back but apparently the answer from Worksafe is “tough luck”.

I personally don’t think Worksafe needs anymore of anyone’s money but the days of tax free tips are probably coming to an end because as soon as worksafe knows the numbers, CRA will too.

[UDeMan]

The CRA call centre job position tops out at about $72,000 a year. While the Tax act gets more and more complicated, these call centre staff are just trained in general knowledge. I am not surprised they are giving insufficient responses.

[Victoria Watcher]

More than two years after paying out $4.99 million in an allegedly bogus refund, the Canada Revenue Agency is stuck in Federal Court trying to figure out where the money went and how to get it back.

 

The seven-figure refund was issued through the CRA’s automated processes in the spring of 2023 to Distribution Carflex Inc., a cash-strapped body shop in the Laurentians region of Quebec.

 

According to internal records obtained by the CBC’s the fifth estate and Radio-Canada, the $4.99-million transaction went through automatically, as it fell just short of a $5-million threshold for manual review in this type of tax refund.

 

 

https://www.cbc.ca/n...efund-9.6952217

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 27 October 2025 - 09:54 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

The new year will bring new tax responsibilities for Canadians, both provincially and federally, affecting income taxes, vacancy taxes and other taxes.

 

After a full year of a slowed economy and tariffs, the provincial and federal governments are tackling tax responsibilities on multiple fronts, removing some for the new year and increasing others.

 

[...]

 

“British Columbians are in for a mixed bag of tax changes in the new year,” said Carson Binda, B.C. director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation in an email.

 

The federal government is lowering the lowest income tax rate from 15 per cent to 14 per cent, which the government estimates would save $190 for the average taxpayer.

 

Payroll taxes will see an increase, however. Workers making $85,000 or more will pay $262 more in payroll taxes in 2026.

 

[...]

 

As part of the B.C government’s Budget 2025 commitments, the speculation and vacancy tax will be increasing.

 

Canadian citizens and permanent residents will be charged one per cent, up from point-five per cent. Foreign buyers will be charged three per cent, up from two per cent. However, federally, the Underused Housing Tax will remain eliminated.

 

[...]

 

Federally, taxpayers will also see changes to the luxury tax, alcohol taxes, Canada Pension Plan, and emploment insurance. The Canadian Taxpayer Federation’s report can be found here.

 

 

 

 

https://cheknews.ca/...ration-1296328/

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 22 December 2025 - 12:13 AM.