The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) recorded its highest level of complaints in three years during fiscal 2025-2026, with many service users receiving information that was incomplete, inaccurate, or unclear, according to an annual report from the Office of the Taxpayers’ Ombudsperson (OTO).
The number of complaints surged by 27% year-over-year, reaching 3,558 compared to 2,796 in 2024-2025. Taxpayers reported persistent difficulties with processing delays, reaching an agent, average wait times, and the Service Feedback Program.
Accuracy of CRA contact centre agents under scrutiny
The report outlined five key areas of concern, with the most prominent being the quality of information provided by contact centre agents. “Many taxpayers who succeeded in reaching the CRA reported receiving information that was incomplete, inaccurate, or unclear,” the report stated. Others were “unable to access assistance due to excessive wait times or difficulties entering the call queue.”
This issue was highlighted earlier in October 2025, when the Auditor General of Canada released a report on contact centre service quality. It found that CRA responses to auditors’ questions about individual taxes were accurate only 17% of the time. The report also noted that “only 9% of the total performance evaluation score of an agent was based on accuracy and completeness, whereas 45% was tied to schedule adherence and call handling time.”
Wait times and call redirection
On wait times, the OTO report noted that the CRA has a policy to redirect callers to automated services when average wait times exceed 30 minutes. From April 1, 2024, to March 31, 2025, the CRA redirected approximately 8.6 million calls. One anonymous complainant told the OTO: “I keep calling the CRA’s main inquiry line but the message I get is that all agents are helping other callers and I can only use the automated FAQ service.”
The damning assessment comes months after Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne asked the CRA in September 2025 to implement a 100-day plan to strengthen service, improve access, and reduce delays. When the CRA announced the plan, it revealed that from June 30 to July 4, 2025, it only answered 35% of unique callers.
Processing delays exceed service standards
Another top concern was delays in processing income tax and benefit returns beyond the CRA’s published service standards. The report noted: “A major contributing factor was that the CRA was taking up to 50 weeks to process complex T1 adjustments, well above its service standard of 20 weeks.”
This is not the first time CRA contact centres have faced criticism. The Auditor General’s October 2025 report also highlighted that schedule adherence—how closely an agent follows their preset schedule—was weighted heavily in performance evaluations, while accuracy was given minimal weight.
