November 28, 2020

Indirect Support

Although the direct financial support proposed in the preceding article would no doubt be welcomed, it would not be enough, by itself, to make a substantial difference in the access to and quality of service offered at CVITP clinics these organizations host.

Host organizations need support not only to sustain their current CVITP operations but also to make improvements in these operations.  The CRA currently provides some CVITP related services to host organizations.  Some of these it does well, others less so.  There are also other CVITP related services the CRA is currently not providing but which are needed if the host organizations are to be helped to improve their own CVITP service delivery.  We believe the CRA should limit its direct involvement in providing CVITP related services for host organizations and their volunteers to those areas where it has unique expertise.  It should relinquish responsibility for the areas where it does not have any special advantage.

The CVITP related services which the CRA is not best placed to provide as well as some other new services could be delivered in a cost-effective manner by an organization independent from the CRA.  We believe it would be in the CRA’s own interest to facilitate the creation of a year-round self-contained unit.  Such a unit could possibly housed within an existing Canadian nongovernmental organization with national scope, to offer these CVITP related services to host organizations, financed through a service agreement with the CRA.

Below we identify the full range of CVITP related services needed, falling into four separate categories.

1. Current services the CRA should retain

Certification: The CRA certifies all host organizations to run CVITP clinics and all the volunteers to prepare returns.  Managed online, this process is relatively rapid with some 3,500 host organizations and over 19,000 volunteers certified for the 2018 tax season.

Standards: The CRA defines the basic standards that host organizations and volunteers must meet in providing this service (e.g. protecting client confidentiality).  The CRA has at times struggled to adapt standards to changing circumstances.  This was most evident when public health restrictions were introduced to combat COVID-19 and face-to-face CVITP operations had to be suspended.  Host organizations at the local level were best placed to share ideas and establish methods of operation that conformed with local public health guidelines.  The CRA was behind the curve in providing advice and, according to some reports, pitched as best practice what had already been discovered by host organizations.

Tax preparation software: The CRA provides the software, free of charge, to all host organizations to enable their volunteers to prepare and file returns electronically.  It also provides a Helpdesk to handle volunteers’ technical questions related to efiling.  The software and the Helpdesk are both key to the efficient preparation and filing of returns.  (They are also crucial for reducing the CRA’s own costs in processing returns.)

Public database of host organizations: The CRA maintains a freely available online database that clients across Canada can consult to find a host organization in their area which offers CVITP clinics.  However, the information in the database is often inaccurate, underreporting the host organizations which offer these clinics.  (This may be because some host organizations want to ration their CVITP services to reduce demand.)

Expert assistance: Through its Helpdesk, the CRA provides expertise to volunteers with tax related questions. When called, CRA agents are usually quick to respond and very helpful in answering questions.

2. New services the CRA should take on

Feedback:  If the quality of CVITP service is to improve, volunteers need to know what they have been doing right and wrong when filing returns.  Because all CVITP returns submitted electronically are identifiable using the volunteers’ unique Efile numbers, the CRA could provide individual volunteers with electronic feedback such as the total number of returns they submitted, the number of error free returns and their most common errors.  Information on common errors could usefully be transformed into brief technical notes, provided to the relevant volunteers and host organizations, on how to correct these errors.

Paying direct financial support:  Given that the CRA will already have the data on the total number of returns submitted by each host organization, it could also handle the direct payments to the host organizations at the end of the tax season that we have suggested above.

Client analysis:  In another article, we argue the CRA needs to demonstrate that the CVITP is reaching its intended population of low to modest-income individuals.  To do this, the CRA needs to analyze the characteristics of the clients being served by current CVITP clinics, using the income data to which it has exclusive access in client returns.

3. Current services the CRA should spin off

Training: The CRA offers some online tutorials and webinars on specific tax-related topics for CVITP volunteers who will be working with host organizations.  Otherwise, it does not generally offer training at the local level.  Instead, it partners with host organizations, upon invitation, and participates in such trainings, offering primarily tax policy related expertise.  Even then, such input is usually of a generic nature and not tailored specifically to the particular situation of low-income individuals.  The CRA has no special advantage in helping to deliver training.

4. New services the CRA should not take on

Information sharing: This could be facilitated between host organizations at the national, provincial/territorial and local levels.  To begin with, this could be in the form of sharing the many lessons learned about what does and doesn’t work well in hosting clinics, particularly when targeting different client groups.  

Technical materials: The CRA does not prepare any material outlining what is new in the tax code for the current season which applies specifically to the low-income clientele served by the CVITP clinics.  Yet volunteers need this information to better serve their clients.  Such materials could be prepared with input from the CRA.  There is also no sharing among host organizations of training materials they have prepared.  This means that some organizations have to start from scratch in preparing such materials.  There are significant efficiencies to be gained from facilitating this sharing and developing new materials to help with the targeting of underserved populations like previous non-filers.

Volunteer and Host Organization Analysis: No data or analyses are currently provided on the characteristics of volunteers (e.g. regional distribution) nor their level of experience.  This information would prove helpful for host organizations’ recruitment and retention of volunteers. Similarly, no data or analyses are currently provided on the geographic distribution of host organizations and their schedules of operations.  This information would prove helpful in identifying gaps in CVITP services within communities and regions.

Coordination: The CRA does not facilitate host organizations’ efforts to coordinate locally or regionally.  For example, locally there are limited or no efforts to pool volunteers.  This means that a host organization facing a surge in demand may be unable to find the volunteers even though there are volunteers going idle within the local community.  Again, there are currently very limited efforts to help existing host organizations expand their services into underserved areas or to identify and support new host organizations to serve these areas.  Also, as we indicate in another article, in implementing its non-filer benefit letter initiative the CRA has not worked with host organizations to enable non-filers to get their returns done at host organizations’ clinics.

Read our summary and conclusion here.