OTO received highest number of complaints about CRA in three years, report says

Canada Revenue Agency headquarters in Ottawa. Photo by HYUNGCHEOL PARK/Postmedia files

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The Office of the Taxpayers’ Ombudsperson (OTO) received the highest number of complaints in three years, according to its latest annual report released this week.

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The OTO, which is responsible for reviewing service-related complaints about the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), said it saw a 27 per cent surge in complaints in the 2025-2026 tax year compared with the previous year. Complaints included processing delays with income tax forms, excessive call wait times and inaccurate or unclear information from agents.

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Jamie Golombek, managing director, tax and estate planning, at Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC), said this is exactly in line with what CIBC has been hearing from clients, advisers and accountants.

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“The level of frustration has reached nearly an all-time high that I can remember, other than perhaps during COVID,” Golombek said. “The taxpayer is the customer and taxes are a major line item for most families in Canada. To be able to deal with that in an open, transparent and fair manner, I think, is of critical importance,” he added.

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“The government needs to step up and either hire the right people, more people or just work on a plan to be able to get back to Canadians faster,” he said.

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The CRA took nearly a year (up to 50 weeks) to process complex return adjustments, well surpassing its own service standard of 20 weeks, which was introduced in the 2024-2025 fiscal year. Earlier this month, the OTO said it would launch a systematic examination to identify the root causes behind these delays and ombudsperson François Boileau said he hopes his office will have its findings ready by the end of the year.

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Boileau said the 50-week process times are unacceptable, adding that when taxpayers don’t know what is happening with their files, they call the CRA, which can help clog up the contact centres.

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“It’s a vicious circle, in a way,” Boileau said. “The pressure on the CRA is immense.”

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Boileau said more public awareness of his office may have increased the number of complaints it has received in the past year as well.

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Other common areas of concern included collection actions allegedly not considering taxpayers’ individual circumstances, delays experienced with the CRA’s Service Feedback Program and difficulty accessing CRA accounts, according to the report.

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Boileau offered seven recommendations in the report for the CRA to improve its services, such as allowing Canadians to request a callback without calling a contact centre first, improving the Check CRA processing times tool and progress tracker in CRA accounts and meeting the needs of vulnerable populations in its artificial intelligence strategy.

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“The CRA welcomes the recommendations in the Ombudsperson’s annual report as an opportunity to continue improving transparency and service delivery,” said Nina Ioussoupova, a spokesperson for the agency, in an email to Financial Post.