Each year, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) reports on the number of income tax and benefit returns submitted during that year’s tax season. Invariably, the number of returns exceeds the number of tax filers. A tax filer may submit more than one personal return, usually because they are filing not only for the current tax year but also for one or more previous tax years in which they failed to file a return.
Here is what we know about the evolution of the numbers of returns submitted by CVITP clinics.
DP = Departmental Plan (published at the beginning of the fiscal year)
DRR = Departmental Results Report (published after the fiscal year is over); replaces the ARP
What do the numbers tell us?
The percentage change in the number of returns filed over the previous year appears to be consistently strong between 2013 and 2015. The CRA’s shift from manual to the electronic collection of CVITP data in the 2015 tax year probably explains the significant increase in 2015 over 2014; it is possible there was undercounting in 2012, 2013 and 2014. After 2015, growth drops off before picking up again somewhat in 2018.
The average returns filed per individual bears this out, with increases in the numbers over the same period. Similarly, the percentage of overall returns filed, while small, has consistently increased over time. This suggests that the CVITP is making gains in getting its clients to submit returns for previous tax years for which they had not filed.
What is missing from the numbers?
We want to know how well the CVITP is doing over time in helping low-income Canadians to access credits and benefits. While submission of the returns is a necessary first step to accessing these credits and benefits, the numbers tell us nothing about the amounts that were generated through these submissions.
We know the CRA has this information. For example, the CRA also reports on the results of its efforts in encouraging past non-filers to file. In its Departmental Results Report for fiscal year 18/19, the CRA went beyond reporting just on the numbers of non-filers it contacted to detail the amount of money in credits and benefits generated for those non-filers who subsequently filed.
The amounts paid out for all the returns filed do not tell us the full story. Ultimately, it is the situation of individuals we want to know about and what the income tax and return benefit system is doing to help them stay out of or reduce income-based poverty.
Still, if the CRA were to start by providing information, in aggregate form, on credits and benefits generated for all the CVITP returns it processes, this would be an excellent first step toward demonstrating the importance of the CVITP in helping low-income Canadians access and remain current with federal and provincial credits and benefits, some of which are specifically designed to raise and keep Canadians out of income-based poverty.
Some cautionary notes about the numbers
As mentioned in Part One on “Clients”, up until and including the 2018 tax year, the CRA tracked its performance based on the number of returns processed by the CVITP, not on the number of individuals assisted. This explains why there are figures available each tax year for the returns, at least up until 2018.
Even so, there are issues with some of these numbers.
2012, 2013 and 2014 Tax Years: In order to provide the percentage of returns filed, we need to know the number of overall returns filed. But the CRA does not publish data showing the numbers prior to 2015. Similarly, to provide the average returns filed per individual we need to know the number of individuals assisted by the CVITP. But the CRA has not provided data on individuals assisted prior to 2015.
2017 Tax Year: Footnote 6 on Page 41 of the DRR 17/18 fiscal year indicates that the number of returns filed grew by 4.1% over the previous year. However, the only way to generate 4.1% is to use the planned target for the number of returns filed that year–800,000–rather than the number of returns that were actually filed.
2019 Tax Year: Whereas DPs for previous years included a target for the number of returns to be filed under the CVITP (e.g. DP 18/19 indicated 800,000), DP 19/20 changes its performance indicator from the number of returns filed to the number of individuals assisted so no target is given for the number of returns filed.
Here is what it looks like when we put together the data we have on the number of individuals assisted and the returns filed:
Read the next section, entitled The Evolution of the CVITP – Volunteers, in which we look at what the CRA has published about the volunteers working on the CVITP.