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An Individual’s Journey of T1 Filing

Canada Revenue Agence du Revenu

Agency du Canada
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Disclaimer
This document is intended to be shared with other tax administrations and organizations for
information and illustrative purposes only.
This document is considered to be correct at the date of its publication. Nonetheless, the
Canada Revenue Agency’s (CRA) position may continue to evolve, which could impact the
accuracy of the information contained therein. The CRA expressly assumes no responsibility
with respect to actions taken, or not taken, by the reader based on the content of this
document.
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Our Taxpayers 02

Today we are going to talk about 3 different types of filers:

LARA FATIMA NATE

Typical Filer Vulnerable Filer Delinquent Filer
*hasn’t filed in 11 years
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CRA Personas 03

1 2
Personas & associated scenarios are Personas are intended to move the CRA
realistic representations of how a beyond thinking about our taxpayers as
Canadian taxpayer interacts with a CRA just being represented by demographic
product, task, service, or application. data.

Top Tasks Behaviours

Frustrations Context

Wishes Motivations
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Our Service Standards 04

Our service standard for issuing a Notice of Assessment

(NOA) for a T1 return is:

Within 8 weeks of receiving a Within 2 weeks of receiving an We reach these standards 95%
paper return electronic return of the time.

Electronic filing has greatly improved the processing time of a T1 return.

You can now get your NOA right after filing.
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Electronic T1
Returns
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Electronic T1 Return 06
Clean

Clean Return
95% of the time
EFILE / NETFILE / NOA
FMR

Other actions required

Other actions required

EFILE / NETFILE / 5% of the time

NOA
FMR

Error Inspection Special Processing T1 Accounting Taxpayer Contact Cancellation Exam Other Areas
Group
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Lara’s Journey
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Lara’s Journey 08

Lara’s personal attributes

Occupation Age Family Makeup Marital Status

Program Coordinator 40 years old 2 small children Married

Goes through “Clean”

95% of the time

Electronic Return Assessed NOA (Refund)

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Paper T1
Returns
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T1 Pipeline 10

Revenue Processing cheque

attached with return Clean Return
= 50%
Paper T1 Return Mailroom Data Capture (DCAP)

Selection Other actions required

= 50% NOA
(Storage)

Error Inspection Special Processing T1 Accounting Taxpayer Contact Cancellation Exam Other Areas
Group

This icon indicates when the T1 return has to go to control for re-bundling, before it can proceed to the next step in the process.
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Mailroom + Selection 11

Mailroom Selection

Sort attachments, receipts and information slips in The Selection Clerk is responsible to examine the
a specific order with the T1 Return returns prior to being keyed.

Attached cheques are sent to Revenue Processing Information that is reviewed:

with the T1 return. Check identification

Ensure keying fields are legible

*Cheques are also known as Payment on Filing (POF)
Sub code the return
Sort the returns into types

Control Area + T1 DCAP
Control Area
Control area picks up the returns and sorts the
returns in a prescribed manner.
Control area places the Unique Identification
Number (UIN) on the return and sends it to Data
Capture (DCAP).
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T1 DCAP
The Identification and financial data from paper T1
income tax returns are keyed or scanned (2D bar code)
into DCAP in order to provide the system with the data
required to:
Calculate the taxpayer’s tax liability; and
Determine a client’s entitlement to social benefits
payments.
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Notice of Assessment (NOA) 13

NOA

NOA is issued to the NOA includes NOA informs the NOA may have a NOA Provides
taxpayer once the information required taxpayer of any refund cheque contact telephone
return is assessed to prepare changes made on the attached to it, or information for
subsequent year return directly deposited into questions regarding
returns the taxpayer’s bank the assessment
account
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T1 Paper Return 14
Before returns can be assessed, they may require:

Further Verification Complex Calculations TP contact / referral to other

areas for review & action

Some returns require manual processing due to technological limitations. They require an assessor
to preform calculations and issue manual notices. Examples of these types of returns include:

Offline Years (Previous year's tax returns) Multiple Cancels

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Fatima’ Journey
s
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Fatima’s Journey 16

Fatima’s personal attributes

Occupation Age Family Makeup Marital Status

Retired 56 years old 2 children Divorced
(1 disabled)

Paper T1 Return Mailroom Selection (DCAP) Error Inspection DTC NOA (Refund)
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Error Inspection (EI) 17

1 Approximately 50% of paper returns & less than 5% of electronic returns fall into Error
Inspection

50% <5%

Paper Returns Digital Returns

2 Once a return has been entered in the computer 3 The examiner reviews the information in the system, and
system, the Assessing system determines whether any (in the case of paper) compares it to the return, to
“error clue” conditions are present determine the cause of each error clue and how to
correct it.
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Fatima’s Journey

Fatima’s personal attributes

Occupation Age Family Makeup Marital Status

Retired 56 years old 2 children Divorced
(1 disabled)

Paper T1 Return Mailroom Selection (DCAP) Error Inspection DTC NOA (Refund)
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Nate’s Journey
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Nate’s Journey 20

Nate’s personal attributes

Occupation Age Family Makeup Marital Status

Self-Employed 40 years old 1 Child Married

(DCAP)

Paper T1 Returns Mailroom NOA (Manual)

Selection TCA
T1 Adjustments
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Tax Centre Assessments (TCA) 21

1 This workflow involves returns that can’t be assessed automatically or returns that require some
manual processing due to accounting restrictions or due to the urgency of the process required,
can be processed via a TCA
Returns are received in the TCA workflow from either Selection or as a Cancellation from the Online Assessing
System.
This could be because there are:

ERROR

System Error Priority Returns Cancelled more than Offline Years Other system
once by the system (e.g., Nate) limitations

2 To facilitate the calculation of federal and provincial tax, as well as to ensure accuracy, the officer has access
to PC Taxcal software

The number of returns processed by TCA have been consistently <50,000 returns a year. That’s a total of 0.2%
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Nate’s Journey 22

Nate’s personal attributes

Occupation Age Family Makeup Marital Status

Self-Employed 40 years old 1 Child Married

(DCAP)

Paper T1 Returns Mailroom NOA (Manual)

Selection TCA
T1 Adjustments
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Other T1
Areas
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Specialized Processing Group (SPG) 24

Some returns require more time for processing because they

must go through a specialized workflow:

Bankruptcy Related Deceased Some International Voluntary Multiple jurisdictional Lump sum payments
Returns or non-resident disclosure returns over ten years

…Or other unique situations that require more verification

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Cancellation Examination (CE) 25

####
A return may cancel out of the system and will be
identified via a cancel clue number

Manual intervention prior to being returned to the

T1 Pipeline for processing

Errors could include IDENT cancels (e.g., wrong

SIN/date of birth) or assessing cancels (Financial fields)
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Taxpayer Contact Unit 26

1 2 3

Returns are referred to The TPC clerk will contact the Once the case is completed,
Taxpayer Contact (TPC) Unit taxpayer by phone or letter to the case is returned to the
when additional information is request more information. group to be completed.
required to process the return.
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Pre-assessment Review Programs 27

Here are other areas where the return may go to for pre-
assessment review prior to releasing the NOA:

Confidence Validity (CV) Refund Examination Special Assessment Program

(Formerly the Suspicious Activity
Working Group)

CV Review Unit, Refund Examination, & Special Assessment Program are all part of the Collections and Verification Branch
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Q&A 28

Questions?
Comments?