Canada Revenue Agency’s blunder this year not its first
Procrastinating Canadians breathed a sigh of relief when the Canada Revenue Agency announced that the tax-filing deadline this year has been pushed back to May 5. That means that those who owe money have a little more time to earn interest on their dollars.
It’s not the first time the CRA has flubbed up.
This year’s blunder arose because of human error. Someone at the CRA inadvertently sent out an email indicating the deadline was May 5. In fact, that was last year’s deadline, which was extended after the Heartbleed bug forced a five-day shutdown of its electronic services.
“Talk about proof of the need to proofread your emails before sending them out,” says H&R Block senior tax analyst Caroline Battista of this year’s mistake. “It’s an extension for the second year in a row, but I would not encourage people to get used to the idea, nor would I encourage people who were procrastinating till April 30 to wait until the 4th of May to get their paper work in order. Use this time instead of waiting till you’re under the gun.”
Go back a few years, and other glitches in the CRA system showed up.
In 2008, a six-day extension was granted because of a software slowdown due to heavy traffic at Netfile, the CRA’s online tax filing service.
That was second year in a row that service was interrupted. In March 2007, a software snag took Netfile offline for nine days.
In 1979, back in the days of paper filing, the CRA had to send out an amendment for tax-payers to fill out following the filing deadline. That was because then prime minster Joe Clark’s minority government’s budget didn’t pass.
When extensions at CRA happen, it can cost the federal body, since it loses out on interest earned on the millions of dollars it’s expecting.
Then there are other costs it has to incur.
“They would have to hold onto people hired for their 1-800 line, who, I assume, by attrition they would get rid of normally at the end of April,” Battista says. “It’s much like tax preparers: if any tax preparers had their holidays planned for May 1, they’re out of luck.”
Battista says it’s a good thing the CRA owned up to its error this year and extended the deadline.
“The CRA is missing out on interest, but rather than just printing a retraction, I think it was a great move from their perspective to remove any doubt for anybody that owes taxes to grant an extension,” Battista says.
