The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) makes a major contribution to Canada’s economy and the social well-being of Canadians. We administer taxes for federal, provincial, territorial, and First Nations governments, and also help to advance governments’ social goals through our administration of benefit programs that increase the standard of living of many Canadians. Our reputation as a world-class tax and benefits administration is well-earned and we are proud of our accomplishments over the past year.

During 2010-2011, the CRA continued to focus on ensuring the integrity of Canada’s tax and benefits systems through initiatives designed to promote compliance with tax legislation, to strengthen services for individuals and business to make compliance easier, and to put in place ways that make non‑compliance more difficult. Our work to expand outreach to selected groups of Canadians through electronic means is an important step toward improved voluntary compliance while increased opportunities for taxpayers to interact with the CRA through electronic means is a way that we are strengthening our services. To ensure that individuals were aware of, and could apply or register for, their entitlements to benefits and credits, we ensured that taxpayers had access to information they needed.

To make non-compliance more difficult, we undertook actions to counter aggressive tax planning schemes and underground economic activity. Among our most notable achievements this past year was our timely and efficient implementation of the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) for the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia. The CRA will continue to administer the HST in BC until the transition back to GST in that province. Another noteworthy undertaking during 2010-2011 was our participation in an international tax benchmarking exercise, which saw selected CRA results compared with nine other Western tax administrations. This study revealed that the CRA has in place many of the leading practices in tax administration, and is often in the top ranking for cost effectiveness. I was particularly pleased to see that the CRA’s debt collection function achieved top results. We will carefully review opportunities revealed to further enhance our effectiveness.

As we move forward, we are cognizant of the evolving economic environment; in particular, the government’s priority to restore budgetary balance, in part by asking all federal government departments and agencies to contain costs. We have set in motion a plan to respond quickly and responsibly to this directive in order to maintain our core business while making prudent investments to sustain our operations over the longer term.

In submitting this report to the Minister for tabling to Parliament, I would like to extend my sincere thanks for the dedication, knowledge, and professionalism of the staff of the CRA, qualities that will enable us to continue to deliver quality results that matter to Canadians.

Linda Lizotte-MacPherson
Commissioner and Chief Executive Officer
Canada Revenue Agency