TAXPAYERS’ OMBUDSMAN

The Office of the Taxpayers’ Ombudsman (OTO) works to enhance the Canada Revenue Agency’s (CRA) accountability in its service to, and treatment of, taxpayers through independent and impartial reviews of service-related complaints and systemic issues.

They can be contacted at www.canada.ca/en/taxpayers-ombudsman.html.

Taxpayer Bill of Rights

As a taxpayer, you have eight service rights, outlined in the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, which govern your relationship with the CRA. The eight service rights include:

• the right to be treated professionally, courteously, and fairly (Article 5);
• the right to complete, accurate, clear, and timely information from the CRA (Article 6);
• the right to lodge a service complaint and to be provided with an explanation of the CRA findings (Article 9);
• the right to have the costs of compliance taken into account when tax legislation is administered (Article 10);
• the right to expect the CRA to be accountable (Article 11);
• the right to expect the CRA to publish service standards and report annually (Article 13);
• the right to expect the CRA to warn you about questionable tax schemes in a timely manner (Article 14); and
• the right to be represented by a person of your choice (Article 15).

The Taxpayers’ Ombudsman will review complaints where any of these service rights appear not to have been respected by the CRA.