George Arsenijevic

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George Arsenijevic Deputy Assistant
Commissioner Assessment Client Services Branch
Leveraging Information Technology
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The CRA at a Glance

• In 2004, CRA
• Collected 300 billion in revenue
• Redistributed 12 billion in credits and benefits
  to over 10 million Canadians
• Processed 31 million returns (T1, T2, T3)
• Answered 30 million public enquiries
• Processed 34 million payments
• Administered over 50 agreements with other
  government departments and agencies for joint
  program delivery
• Had 33,000 permanent employees and up to 10,000
  term employees at over 50 service sites
  

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Good Service Contributes to Other Goals

• Research has shown clients who receive good
  service from government have a more positive
  overall view of their government
• Service is also part of CRAs compliance strategy
• Education and prevention via outreach
• Clear information and guides help perople
  understand their obligations and voluntarily
  comply
• Simplification of forms and built in edits in
  electronic filing help avoid errors
• Promoting GST Credits for 19 year olds gets them
  filing early
• Proactive service is important in getting the
  right benefit to the right person at the right
  time

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A Word on Service Channels

• On-Line
• Telephone
• Mail
• In person

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Service Model
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CRAs goals for e-commerce

• Keeping up with modern business practices
• Irresistible self-service
• Improve services
• Maintain/improve compliance capacity
• Cost efficiencies

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CRAs Experience to date

• CRA has been a world leader in getting services
  on-line, first with transactions (EFILE) and now
  with well organised information
• CRA is driving up volumes of electronic volumes,
  year after year
• CRA has the most heavily used website with over
  23 M visits last year, and 24.5 M visits as of
  October this year

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CRAs Experience to date (contd)

• Transaction times have been significantly reduces
  with quality improvements
• More data is available for compliance programs
• Some cost efficiencies have been realised.
• CRA has led on behalf of GoC
• Development of My Account concept
• Authentication Management Services for secure
  transactions on-line
• Third Party Privilege Management so others can be
  authorised to work on your behalf, securely.

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Some History (individuals)

• 1990 EFILE Pilot
• 1993 EFILE goes National
• 1995 TELEFILE and EDI EFILE
• 1995 CRA Website is created
• 1999 NETFILE Pilot
• 2000 NETFILE
• 2002 EFILE On-Line
• 2003 My Account
• 2004 On-Line EFILE registration T1/T2
• 2005 My Account on Secure Channel

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Building Blocks

• EFILE
• builds on paper processing infrastructure no
  receipts risk scoring suitability screening
• TELEFILE
• builds on EFILE experience first step in dealing
  with self preparers electronically telephone
  access code
• NETFILE
• combines EFILE and TELEFILE experiences

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Building Blocks (contd)

• Business Applications, e.g. T2, GST/HST, T4, BRO
• Uses experiences from individuals-based
  applications to provide more complex business
  applications
• My Account
• Applies lessons learned from filing to other
  business lines, such as
• Address Change On-Line
• Change My Return

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Lessons Learned

• Technology
• Dont need to rebuild legacy systems
• Lever or Enabler?
• Organizational capacity/readiness
• Client Feedback
• Private Sector - Leveraging Third Parties
• Importance of a thorough Cost Benefit Analysis

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Challenges

• Increasing e-commerce takeup
• Privacy vs usability/efficiency
• Adding service channels while maintaining all
  existing channels
• Common Service Platforms
• Re-engineering back-end business processes

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On-Line Services are not for All

• Filed by tax professionals 2003 2004 2005 (as of
  Nov)
• EFILE 6.7M 7.3M 7.8M
• Computer-printed 3.4M 3.2M 2.9M
• Hand prepared 0.16M 0.2M 0.2M
• Self-prepared
• NETFILE 2.4M 3.05M 3.5M
• TELEFILE 0.64M 0.66M 0.62M
• Computer-printed 3.1M 2.8M 2.5M
• Hand prepared 6.3M 6.09M 5.78M
• Total 23M 23.3M 23.3M

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Strategies to build On-Line Traffic

• Trade Shows
• Print and Electronic Media
• Direct and Targeted Marketing
• Volunteer Program
• Expand Services
• Product Design

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The new face of www.cra.gc.ca
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Electronic Services Available

• Business
• Click-to-Talk (Smartlinks)
• Business Registration Online
• Corporation Internet Filing
• GST/HST NETFILE
• Electronic Payments for Business
• Services for Payroll
• Online Requests for Business
• Electronic Mailing Lists
• Individuals
• Smartlinks
• NETFILE
• EFILE
• TELEFILE
• My Account

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My Account
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On-Line Statistics 2005

• Electronic Population
• T1 EFILE 7,806,310
• T1 NETFILE 3,484,048
• T1 TELEFILE 616,423
• Total T1 11,906,781 24,500,000
• GST NETFILE 250,000 3,000,000
• GST TELEFILE 459,000 3,000,000
• T2 Internet Filing 93,416 1,400,000
• T4 Internet Filing 81,049 1,100,000
• Business Registration 35,554 417,000
• Payments 4,868,178 34,000,000

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Some Future Initiatives

• My Business Account
• Third Party Privilege Management
• Internet File Transfer
• Benefits
• Child and Family Benefits On-Line
• Notice Information On-Line
• Online Marital Status Update

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My Business Account
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Third Party Privilege Management
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Internet File Transfer - January 2006

• Internet File Transfer (XML) will be available
  for the following information returns
• T1204
• T3
• T4A, T4A-NR, T4E, T4RIF, T4RSP
• T5, T5008, T5007, T5018
• NR4, and
• RRSP Contribution Receipt.  

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George Arsenijevic Deputy Assistant
Commissioner Assessment Client Services Branch
QUESTIONS and COMMENTS