We find two sources of 2020 data from Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) publications that allow us to update CVITP trends on the numbers of individuals assisted, returns filed, volunteers employed and host organizations offering free tax clinics.

In this article, we show and briefly discuss: (1) the dramatic decline in individuals assisted; (2) the continuing modest upward trend in the average number of returns filed per client; (3) a modest decline in the number of volunteers registered, which may mask a collapse in the number of volunteers who were actually employed in providing services in virtual clinics; (4) a modest increase in the number of host organizations registered which may similarly mask a collapse in the number of host organizations which actually offered services through virtual clinics; and (5) a continued decline in the average number of volunteers employed per host organization.  This last trend may be an early sign of future capacity constraints within the CVITP.

Like all federal government departments and agencies, each year the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) produces a report for Parliament after the end of the fiscal year.  This report details what the CRA has done with the money Parliament has budgeted for its operations.  This is the only report that parliamentarians and the Canadian public will see that shows what the CRA has done in the last fiscal year to meet its mandate.

This year is no different.  On December 7, 2020, the CRA published online its Departmental Results Report for fiscal year 2019-2020.  In this article, we review what the CRA has to say in the report about the results it is getting with the CVITP and its work on encouraging previous non-filers to file a return in order to access benefits to which they are entitled.  We show that there is remarkably little information.

Although the CVITP was created in 1971, fifty years later it remains next to impossible to tell what the CVITP has achieved in relation to its objective of assisting individuals and families of low and modest incomes to submit their returns and thereby become eligible for a number of benefits and credits introduced by federal, provincial and territorial legislatures aimed at reducing poverty.  The little information that is included suggests a massive failure this year; yet, there is no analysis showing the implications of this failure and how the CRA plans to avoid a similar result in the forthcoming tax season.

This is especially disappointing given that the federal government’s 2018 Poverty Reduction Strategy highlighted the role that the CVITP is supposed to be playing in contributing to reducing poverty across Canada.  We conclude with an observation: if the rest of the information contained in the CRA’s report is anything like what the CRA has included for the CVITP and its non-filer initiative, then Canadians should be seriously concerned about the bases on which parliamentarians are making decisions allocating billions of dollars from the federal budget to finance the CRA’s annual operations.

In a series of articles, we trace the evolution of the CVITP, using information from Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) reports and plans for Parliament. Our articles tell you about the clients served by the CVITP tax clinics, the returns that have been filed at the these clinics, the CVITP volunteers who have helped clients to file their returns and the organizations which have hosted CVITP tax clinics.

Learn why we reach the conclusion that “the CRA’s reporting on the CVITP has been weak to date and gives Parliament too little information.”

Interested? Start with the introduction to “The Evolution of the CVITP”.