CRA Call Centres Answered Only 17% of Tax Questions Correctly, Audit Finds

Only 17% of personal tax inquiries were answered correctly, report shows

The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) call centres offered accurate answers to taxpayers’ questions only 17% of the time between February and May 2025, according to a new report from Auditor General Karen Hogan released on Tuesday.

Hogan’s office made test calls over a four-month period, posing general tax-related questions to assess the quality of responses.

The findings revealed that CRA agents performed significantly better when handling business tax or benefits inquiries, giving correct answers 54% of the time, though the completeness of those answers reached just over 30%.
For individual tax questions, however, both accuracy and completeness dropped sharply to 17%, leading auditors to conclude that the call centres “prioritize scheduling and breaks over providing correct and complete information.”

Calls for Simplifying the Tax Code

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation criticized the results, saying the audit proves that “nobody truly understands Canada’s overly complicated tax system.”

“The Income Tax Act has become so complex that virtually no one can interpret it,”
said federal director Franco Terrazzano.
“Hiring more bureaucrats to give even more wrong answers isn’t a real fix.”

The report also noted that only 18% of incoming calls were answered within the CRA’s 15-minute service standard, with most taxpayers waiting about 31 minutes for a response.

Hogan emphasized that, despite new systems and upgrades, “Canadians are still waiting too long for tax guidance.”

100-Day Improvement Plan

In early September, Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne ordered the CRA to resolve call-centre delays within 100 days, setting a deadline of December 11.
The agency pledged to answer at least 70% of calls by mid-October — a goal that was reportedly surpassed in early October.

According to Assistant Commissioner Melanie Serjak, the CRA extended contracts for about 850 call-centre employees and rehired several hundred more.
The agency also plans to use artificial intelligence to improve taxpayer services, expanding online chat hours and the range of questions handled by its new AI chatbot — “a system similar to ChatGPT,” Serjak said, which will help answer general, non-account-specific questions about personal taxes and benefits.

Speaking to reporters, Champagne said the government was “ahead of the curve” in modernizing the CRA.

“We knew improvements were needed, so we invested in technology, more staff, and better efficiency to deliver quality service for Canadians,” he said.

Industry Response: “Status Quo No Longer Works”

Tax-Filer Empowerment Canada, representing leading tax preparation and software firms, stated that the report confirms “the CRA has struggled to answer calls for years — and the situation isn’t improving.”

“The auditor general has made it clear that the current system fails to meet Canadians’ basic expectations,” the group said,
calling on the government to engage private-sector expertise rather than relying solely on “an agency that can’t fulfill its own mandate.”