Canada Revenue Agency’s (CRA) recently released Departmental Results Report for fiscal year 21/22 allows us to complete the 2022 update for the evolution of the CVITP. We have divided this subject into three short articles. The first focuses on the results from delivering CVITP service to clients. It includes all the data with accompanying commentary on individuals assisted, returns filed and value generated. The second focuses on the CVITP infrastructure needed to provide this service. It also provides all the data with accompanying commentary on host organizations and volunteers. The third is a new feature which provides some simple measures of CVITP productivity.
Short on time? Here are the key developments:
NO INCREASE IN CVITP SERVICE IN 2022
- While the CRA calls the number for individuals assisted in the 2022 tax season an approximation, it is roughly the same as in the 2021 tax season; in other words, there has been no increase in service. The 2021 tax season saw a partial rebound in numbers after the sharp decline in 2020 but it was still well below the numbers reached in 2016 and far from the peak in 2019.
- The trend for returns filed largely mirrors that of individuals assisted.
- While the CVITP was making progress in filing more of its clients’ prior year returns up until and including the 2020 tax season, its performance in this area declined in 2022.
- For the first time, the CRA has reported in its Departmental Result Report on value of the refund and benefits generated through the CVITP. This is a very welcome development, and we hope that the CRA continues this practice in the future. As the main rationale for offering a CVITP clinic is not to help individuals pay income tax but to help them maintain access to many poverty-reducing benefits, this figure provides tangible evidence of the real value generated for CVITP clients.
NUMBER OF HOST ORGANIZATIONS REBOUNDS BUT NUMBER OF VOLUNTEERS CONTINUES TO DECLINE
- The number of host organizations offering CVITP service has largely rebounded in the 2022 tax season following the precipitous decline due to COVID health restrictions.
- The trend in volunteers has been in decline since it peaked in the 2019 tax season. The small rebound in the CRA count for 2022 is, we believe, misleading. This is due to an unusual interpretation which the CRA makes in whom it classifies as a volunteer. In partially correcting for this with an adjusted estimate, we show that the small rebound in 2022 is illusory and that the number of volunteers continues to decline.
PRODUCTIVITY REBOUNDS FOR VOLUNTEERS BUT NOT FOR HOST ORGANIZATIONS
- Averages of individuals assisted and returns filed per volunteer fully rebound to the peaks achieved in the 2017 tax season.
- Averages of individuals assisted and returns filed per host organization are only 70% and 71% respectively of the peaks achieved in the 2017 tax season.
For further analysis, charts with trends, tables with data and their sources, see: