The tax-filing deadline passed on May 1, and the Canada Revenue Agency hasn’t yet managed to reach a deal with 35,000 striking workers. While other members of the Public Service Alliance of Canada are headed back to work after almost two weeks on the picket, CRA employees continue to hold the line over a host of issues.
“Parties met throughout the day and late into the night, with talks resuming early tomorrow morning,” the Union of Taxation Employees, the PSAC segment representing CRA workers, wrote in a press release on Monday. “We do not have an agreement.”
CRA has not committed to enshrining work-from-home guidelines in its agreement with workers, the union wrote in a longer press release, also sent out on Monday. Issues over wage increases — the union is asking for 22.5 per centover three years — and job security also remain unresolved. Parallel issues were in play for other PSAC workers, but their federal employers agreed to a deal, the union wrote.
As those workers headed to their next scheduled shift, CRA employees returned to the picket line — and their reps to the bargaining table. “We will not be providing further details at this time,” union spokesperson Susan Duncan wrote in an email to TVO Today on Tuesday. “The negotiations are under embargo.”
Despite the upheaval, “the CRA would like to remind Canadians that the tax filing deadline has not changed,” spokesperson Adam Blondin wrote in an email to TVO Today. “Canadians are encouraged to take all the necessary steps to ensure their return is filed and any balance owing is paid by May 1, 2023.”
The vast majority of tax returns are filed electronically and will be automatically processed by the system, “without additional delay,” Blondin wrote, adding that, if you need to make adjustments, you can do so using ReFile or Change my return. By press time he had not responded to a followup question about whether tax refunds would also be issued on expected timelines.
On its website, the agency provides a detailed list of services that may be disrupted and what to expect. One notable issue is tax helplines, which now have wait times in the hours.
These helplines are particularly important for lower-income filers who can’t afford to pay tax preparers or accountants, says University of Ottawa professor of tax law Vern Krishna. “The lower income are being hit very hard through this process,” he says. He’s also concerned about the impacts for those in disputes with the CRA and those waiting on benefits.
Out of about 20 million Canadian filers, he says, there’s a big portion who need to interact with the CRA during tax season and now cannot. “I don’t know what one would say without overstating it,” he says. “It’s an unmitigated disaster the full impact of which will be felt as we go along.”
This TVO Today reporter filed on time and is anticipating a refund — according to the CRA’s online assessment, it’ll be issued on May 4. When asked about the likelihood of the refund actually being issued on that timeline, Krishna paused and then said, “If I were you, I wouldn’t go out and spend it.”