Check It Out: How to fix a problem that doesn’t exist

By Joan Janzen

I’m not sure if it’s true, but I’ve heard semi drivers who transport beer constantly get asked if they give away free samples. This week I’m giving you just one sample of many products the government is trying to sell us.

The recent push for automated tax filing for low-income Canadians is being presented to the public as a winning proposition. The media pointed out it will fulfill one of the Prime Minister’s campaign promises to make life more affordable for Canadians and make a difference in their bank accounts.

You may have heard news reports saying automatically filing taxes of up to 5.5 million low-income Canadians beginning next year will ensure they are getting access to federal benefits they’re entitled to. However, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) is claiming this is not such a good deal for Canadians.

Franco Terrazzano from the CTF was interviewed on Northern Perspective and pointed out the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) can barely do the job that it has now. Even the finance minister acknowledged that the challenges plaguing the CRA are unacceptable.

“Good luck getting government bureaucrats on the phone when the CRA inevitably messes up your tax bill and overbills you,” Franco quipped. According to the Auditor General, the CRA answers approximately 36 percent of the 53.5 million calls it receives per year, and about 30 percent of the time those who did get someone on the phone were given the wrong information.

So, if they are only able to answer 36 percent of calls, it’s fair to conclude the automatic tax filing will require the hiring of more bureaucrats to get the job done — meaning this will only add to the already bloated government that already exists, and which the government is promising will be reduced.

Add to that the fact that the CRA is already one of the largest arms of the government, with well over 52,000 employees and growing. That means there is one employee for every 800 Canadians. In contrast, the U.S. has one IRS employee for every 3,800 Americans.

When asked what problem the government was trying to solve, Franco replied, “They say it will make it easier for people to file taxes who aren’t filing their taxes already, but the solution already exists and it’s outside of government.”

There are free voluntary tax clinics people can go to if you have a modest income and a simple tax situation. There are also many different businesses that offer free tax filing services. Isn’t it more advantageous for the private sector to help low-income Canadians file their taxes, rather than spend tax dollars to pay bureaucrats to do it?

He also pointed out that people who are going through really hard times may be homeless, don’t have a bank account, phone or computer, and the government doesn’t know who they are or have their information. “This isn’t a solution for them,” he concluded.

“When the government gets their foot in the door, they keep cranking up the power over taxpayers,” he said. “If anyone wants to say this is a conspiracy theory, in the last budget it says right in there that the government wants to start exploring expanding the automatic tax filing to middle-class Canadians.”

Franco also asked his listeners, what happens if the CRA has the power over people through automatic tax filing and it comes time for union negotiations for a pay raise? He answered his own question: “The same thing that happened in 2023 when the CRA union went on strike right during tax season.”

Automatic tax filing has been tried in other countries. “In the British experience I’ve heard they’ve thrown it out,” Franco said. “In 2010, six million taxpayers received incorrect returns from Britain’s tax agency when they overbilled taxpayers.”

He continued to inform his listeners how the government gave Canadians until October 9 to send in an email or survey submission about automatic tax filing. Just hours later, on October 10, they made the announcement. “Asking Canadians for their opinion and then ignoring their input makes it look like government consultations are just a sham,” he said. “Canadians have every reason to believe this is going to be a disaster.”

He calls it a conflict of interest for the government to do your tax return. They can’t be both the tax filer and the tax collector.

Not only will the government fix a problem that doesn’t exist, but they will also make an existing problem worse by adding more bureaucrats to the CRA at a time when federal employees have grown by 77 percent in the past ten years.

If you ever wanted to know how to spend massive amounts of money to fix a problem that doesn’t exist, our federal government can show you how it’s done.