Budget 2005 affects on CRA

If you are wondering how the recent federal budget will affect Canada Revenue Agency and the Canadian tax regime, CRA has published a message from Minister of National Revenue John McCallum and two supporting documents on Expenditure Review Initiatives and Tax Legislation Changes.

Items of note include:
- additional funding to enhance CRA's work on compliance initiatives, including international tax compliance and tobacco enforcement
- additional funding for new jobs at the Agency.

The Agency's Expenditure Review Initiatives identifies where the CRA intends to save money and approximately how much over the next five years. The largest savings will be in reducing the cost of its corporate services operating costs, for a savings of $215 million over five years.

Other areas highlighted for savings including almost $80 million streamlining tax return processing; $20 million phasing-out counter service for cash payments; reducing client services delivery costs through the consolidation of call centres and the rationalization of counter services for enquiries for a savings of $44 million, and more.

For more information, see:
http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/agency/budget2005/initiatives-04e.html