CFIB says business owners left waiting for answers by CRA call centres

The Canadian Federation of Independent Business is giving call centres at the Canada Revenue Agency a “D” grade for quality of service and information.

The grade, down from a C- in last year’s edition of the report card, was based on 200 secret shopper calls to the CRA’s business inquiries line.

Extended wait times to speak to agents are the main reason for the poor grade.

The CFIB says the longer wait times are caused in part because frontline agents are allowed to answer fewer questions. That means the call has to be referred to a senior agent, which makes the wait longer.

The business group says on average, callers are waiting 15 minutes to speak to a frontline agent. The wait can be up to an hour or longer to reach a senior agent.

As well, the CFIB says the information members are getting from the CRA is less accurate than in the past, with many agents only providing partial responses to questions.

Sometimes, the answers are wrong.

“A quarter of CRA agents were unaware of the new Capital Cost Allowances that had been in place for more than six months and told callers to claim just 25 per cent of costs in the first year, not the 100 per cent they are entitled to,” Corinne Pohlmann, the CFIB’s senior vice-president of national affairs, said in a news release.

“This kind of misinformation is not just a waste of time for business owners, but may also cost them a significant amount of money that could otherwise be reinvested in the business or its employees.”

The organization is making a few recommendations, including raising standards for response times, to ensure 80 per cent of calls are received within 15 minutes.

Also, it wants to make sure 80 per cent of questions are resolved within 20 minutes.

The CFIB is also calling on the CRA to keep its agents more up to date on policy changes.