Taxpayers' Ombudsman recommends CRA take measures to reduce misallocated payments

TORONTO, Sept. 13, 2012 /CNW/ - / Canada's Taxpayers' Ombudsman, Mr. J. Paul Dubé, today called on the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) to improve service to taxpayers whose payments to the CRA are misallocated.

Many taxpayers have multiple accounts with the CRA. For example, they may have personal income tax accounts spanning several years, as well as corporate accounts or goods and services tax/ harmonized sales tax (GST/HST) accounts.

"My office has received many complaints from taxpayers who told us the payments they made to the CRA were 'misallocated' — meaning the payments were not applied to the intended account," said Dubé. "As a result, some were wrongly assessed interest and penalty charges, while others were subjected to CRA collections demands."

In his Special Report entitled "Getting it Right," Mr. Dubé makes a number of recommendations intended to help the CRA reduce payment allocation errors and better educate taxpayers on ways they can avoid making errors when remitting their payments.

For more information about the Office of the Taxpayers' Ombudsman, or to read the Special Report, visit www.oto-boc.gc.ca.

SOURCE: Office of the Taxpayers' Ombudsman