Bracing for 'a tax season like no other,' CRA hires private firm to answer Canadians' questions

Preparing for what promises to be an extraordinarily busytax season, thefederal government is taking the unusual step of hiring a private company to answer some Canadians' questions about pandemic benefits a move that has one union warning about privacy concerns.

Officials with the Canada Revenue Agency insist this is a short-term initiative and that employees of the private company will only answer general questions and won't have access to taxpayers' personal information.

"It's nice to say that," said Marc Brire, president of the Union of Taxation Employees, which represents more than 28,000 CRA workers.

"I understand that these people might not have access to the employee CRA system. But what if a taxpayer, thinking they're calling CRA, inadvertently gave confidential information to the employees of the third party? That can certainly happen. So we're concerned with that."

Briresaid he also fears thatinvolving a third party willcreate more confusion for taxpayers who are increasinglybeing targetedbyscam artistsclaiming to represent the federalgovernment.

The CRA said the company taking on the benefit inquiriesis Maximus Canada and that all agents answering the calls will bebased in Canada.

On its website, Maximus Canada states that it already provides health administration services in 10 of 13 Canadian provinces and territories. It's part of a larger global firm that operates in the United States, Australia, Italy, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Sweden and the United Kingdom and generates about $2.5 billion US in revenue worldwide.

New staffersto be trained on CRA materials, procedures

The private sectorstafferswill be trained with Canada Revenue Agency materials and proceduresbut will have to refer account-specific questions to the agency'sin-house agents, CRA said.

"They will only respond to general inquiries from Canadians, and do not have any access to their personal information or CRA accounts," said a CRA spokesperson.

It's not clear how many people are being hired to handle the benefit questions. The CRA saidthe government hasset an "expected service level" and Maxiumus will decidehow many people it needsto meet that standard.

The contract is set to run from Februaryto August.

"There will be no options to extend the period of the contract," said a CRA spokesperson.

Brire saidhe's been toldby CRA officials that the company could hireroughly130 people.

"We don't think it's respectful to our members that worked like crazy to help out the population and now they're being told those jobs will be given to somebody else. We don't think that's appropriate," he said.

Pandemic benefits complicate tax season

Those private sector staffers would be in addition to the roughly2,000 newemployeesCRA is hiring to deal with what the agency has saidwill be "a tax season like no other" in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Many Canadians and businesses have accessed newly-created pandemic benefits, which could complicate tax season.

WATCH | How the pandemic changes 2020 tax returns:

How the pandemic changes 2020 tax returns

4 years ago

Duration 2:03

The COVID-19 pandemic had a big impact on many Canadians bottom line and that will result in changes for tax returns, including a work-from-home credit and paying tax on the CERB. Businesses are hoping the government will provide additional support for them and an extension to the filing deadline.

It's notclear, for example, how many of the approximately 8.9 million applicants for the Canada Emergency Response Benefitrealized the $2,000 per month payments are taxable and set asidemoney to pay those taxes.

The CRA said it has been "aggressively hiring" in-house call agents to help address the many tax questions it anticipates.It said that, by March 2021, itexpects tohave hired and trainedabout 2,000 new agents who will be able to address Canadians' questions about their tax filings.

Call centrehours forindividual inquiries will also be extended as of Feb. 27and the agency is adding a new call-back service it said will allow callersto ask for an automated return call "when wait times reach a certain length."