There comes a time in every volunteer’s work where they need to get on the phone with the client and call the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) CVITP Helpline. The Helpline is, in principle, a really good innovation which delivers expert advice efficiently. But more frequently than we would like, we have an experience which reminds us just how incredibly difficult it can be for some clients in communicating with the CRA. The barriers to client identification can be onerous, even for a client who is very well prepared going into the call.
Too often, the call’s success depends on the CRA agent who takes the call. The CRA agent first needs to ascertain that the client is indeed who they say they are. To do this, the CRA agent will ask for information on the client’s file which the client should know. Some CRA agents appear to detect from the way they answer that the client is likely to have problems with some of these questions. So, the CRA agent goes out of their way to permit the call to proceed. But this is not always the case.
Where the client fails to convince the CRA agent of their identity, the CRA agent will terminate the call. Often this results in the client being scared away from calling the CRA again. The client may also lose faith in the competence of the volunteer, thereby damaging the reputation of the host organization.
Our article outlines a proposal which builds on the security mechanisms the CRA currently uses for the CVITP. In addition to explaining a simple procedure which could be used to avoid the release of client information under fraudulent circumstances, we give a few considerations which should be taken into account when assessing our proposal.
Ultimately, we believe the CRA needs to place more trust in the rigorous security and confidentiality procedures it already has in place for the CVITP. Adopting our proposal, or something very much like it, would go some way toward reducing client stress and increasing the efficient use of CRA and CVITP volunteer resources.
I want to point out a highly useful feature of Autofill My Return (AFR) for CVITP returns. I was unfamiliar with it until this tax season.
To use it the volunteer MUST have a Repl-ID number.
The common way to use AFR is to download a client’s tax slips for a given year (after 2016). To do that, you get the AFR authorization for that client – valid for the rest of the current day.
However, that authorization can ALSO be used to apply Represent a Client in your OWN MyCRA file. You log on to your MyCRA file as usual, and as you have sought Represent a Client, you are then given the screen: Enter SIN.
If you enter the client’s SIN, you have full access to the client’s CRA database.
In particular, this is useful in three ways:
1) You can immediately see which returns are outstanding for this client (back 10 years) instead of having to call the CRA CVITP phone number for that information. For clients with a poor knowledge of their tax-return situation, you can immediately learn if they should be filing previous-year returns.
You can also see all the T slips for that client for every year back 10 years.
2) For returns prior to 2017 {not eligible for Efile), the website allows you to print out all those slips so you can prepare the return accurately for paper submission to Sudbury. Again, this is instead of having to call the CRA CVITP phone number for that information, and then writing/scribbling down the contents of who knows how many slips.
3) For returns from 2017 on (eligible for Efile) you can see how many T slips there are, and if there are only a handful (not worth the effort to use Efile) you can again print them out for the return. If there are enough to merit the use of Efile, you can go ahead and do so, knowing which slips should be downloaded.
For those returns where you have correct and complete identification, you therefore have basically no need to call CRA – you can get all the information you need for every return back 10 years, quickly, accurately and at any time of the day, from your MyCRA account.
The only reason to call CRA, then, is when there are indeed identification issues – resulting in a T815, “data submitted does not match CRA records.” That is where there is a problem with either the birth date, the SIN and/or the client’s name according to CRA. Since the first two are likely correct (assuming it is a valid SIN), the problem is probably with how the client’s name was entered in a previous return.
Only then do you have to follow the CRA procedure of having the client beside you, reaching an agent, having the client’s ID confirmed, and then finding / writing down the correct information.
Doug, we fully agree with you that RepID is a great innovation for the reasons you described. Being able to access a client’s T slips prior to 2017, when Autofill My Return was introduced, eliminates the need to get on the phone with a CRA agent to get this information. We will have a bit more to say about Autofill My Return and RepID in two forthcoming articles but thanks for highlighting this now for everyone.