Program directory · Canada Revenue Agency
Returns Compliance
- Department
- Canada Revenue Agency
- Program code
- BRA02 (CCRA)
- Core responsibility
- Tax
- In Departmental Plans
- 2018-19 – 2026-27 · New since an earlier plan
What it does
Through a variety of education and validation activities, we encourage individuals, businesses, and trusts to better understand their tax obligations and the consequences of non-compliance. We continually seek ways to proactively educate taxpayers with the goals of facilitating compliance and deterring non-compliance. We enforce registration and complete validations and reviews to ensure that individuals, businesses, and trusts are compliant with their withholding, remitting, reporting, and filing obligations including payroll deductions, GST/HST, other levies, and non-resident taxes.
Source: the department's Program Inventory, via GC InfoBase.
History and lineage
First appears in GC InfoBase's actual spending by program in 2017-18. The data does not record when a program was created; it may be older than its first appearance here, which is limited by the sources (program spending starts in 2010-11, Departmental Plans in 2018-19).
| Program | Relation | Years with data | Actual spending over those years |
|---|---|---|---|
| Returns Compliance | This program | 2017-18 – 2028-29 | $3.44B |
No earlier or later program in the same department has a similar name.
Significant changes in scope and budget
Detected from the data: renames between plans, programs it appears to replace, merge with or split into (matched by name), year-over-year changes in spending of at least 25% and $5M, or in employees of at least 20% and 25 FTEs, linked budget measures, and results indicators added or dropped.
| Year | What changed | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 2019-20 | Renamed from “Returns compliance” to “Returns Compliance”. | GC InfoBase program names by year |
| 2021-22 | Employees (FTEs) 6,320, against 5,058 in 2020-21 (+25%). | FTEs (GC InfoBase) |
| 2025-26 | Indicators added: % of dollar value of filing, remitting, and reporting accurately compliance interventions compared to the CRA's forecast (Business Compliance Programs) | Departmental Results Framework (GC InfoBase) |
Success criteria
The program's indicators from its department's Departmental Results Framework: the target set in each year's plan, and the result reported the following year. Source: GC InfoBase.
Historical: targets against results
Bars: result reported. Dashed line: target.
| Report year | Target | Due | Result | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018-19 | ≥ 100% | 2019 | 106% Results include Remitting and Reporting Accurately for Individuals only. Filing results were not available due to the on-boarding of the new Collections and Verification Workload Management System. | Met |
| 2019-20 | ≥ 100% | 2020 | 98.1% As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, certain program activities were not operational from March 16 to 31 which impacted the CRA's ability to achieve this program target. | Not met |
| 2020-21 | ≥ 100% | 2021 | 23% Since mid-March 2020, most compliance functions were suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic or resumed in a very limited capacity, therefore this target was not met. Additionally, because compliance activities were suspended, program targets were not established. In order to calculate the percentage, the last available targets, established in 2019-20, were used. | Not met |
| 2021-22 | ≥ 100% | 2022 | — Complete results are not available. Results are available for Business Compliance only which was 142%. The Individual Compliance programs are unable to report at this time. As reported throughout 2020–2021, traditional compliance activities within CVB were suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the focus continues to be on the delivery of Emergency Benefits to Canadians. As a result, program… | No result reported |
| 2022-23 | ≥ 100% | 2023 | 141% | Met |
| 2023-24 | ≥ 100% | 2024 | 155% Overall, the Q4 fiscal impact targets were surpassed for 2023-24. This can be attributed to returning to traditional compliance activities and procedural changes which resulted in increased filing compliance under the 'filing pillar'. Also, the increased fiscal impact related to higher than anticipated recoveries per reassessment contributed to the variance under the ‘reporting accurately’ pillar. | Met |
| 2024-25 | ≥ 100% | 2025 | 155.2% | Met |
Current: the 2026-27 plan's targets
Bars: result reported. Dashed line: target.
| Report year | Target | Due | Result | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-27 | ≥ 100% | 2027 | — | Planned |
Bars: result reported. Dashed line: target.
| Report year | Target | Due | Result | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-27 | ≥ 100% | 2027 | — | Planned |
Future goals: targets due after 2026-27
No targets with a later due date.
Spending and employees: planned against actual
Spending
Show the numbers
| Fiscal year | Planned | Actual |
|---|---|---|
| 2017-18 | — | $367M |
| 2018-19 | $301M | $329M |
| 2019-20 | $337M | $334M |
| 2020-21 | $334M | $396M |
| 2021-22 | $363M | $431M |
| 2022-23 | $412M | $499M |
| 2023-24 | $430M | $570M |
| 2024-25 | $458M | $518M |
| 2025-26 | $474M | — |
| 2026-27 | $544M | — |
| 2027-28 | $503M* | — |
| 2028-29 | $504M* | — |
Employees (FTEs)
Show the numbers
| Fiscal year | Planned | Actual |
|---|---|---|
| 2017-18 | 4,711 | 4,931 |
| 2018-19 | 4,972 | 5,262 |
| 2019-20 | 5,531 | 5,287 |
| 2020-21 | 5,635 | 5,058 |
| 2021-22 | 5,684 | 6,320 |
| 2022-23 | 6,233 | 7,136 |
| 2023-24 | 6,255 | 6,954 |
| 2024-25 | 6,230 | 6,682 |
| 2025-26 | 6,453 | — |
| 2026-27 | 6,945 | — |
| 2027-28 | 6,616* | — |
| 2028-29 | 6,594* | — |
Planned spending, plan by plan
Each row is one year's Departmental Plan and its forecast for the next three fiscal years; read a column down to see how the forecast for one year changed. The last row is what was actually spent. Click an amount for its source. Biggest changes in federal spending plans
| Plan | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 | 2023-24 | 2024-25 | 2025-26 | 2026-27 | 2027-28 | 2028-29 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018-19 plan | $300,696,796 | $297,652,584 | $296,446,680 | ||||||||
| 2019-20 plan | $337,219,351 | $335,855,871 | $337,389,141 | ||||||||
| 2020-21 plan | $333,632,599 | $334,550,269 | $332,436,857 | ||||||||
| 2021-22 plan | $363,300,564 | $361,417,428 | $360,799,430 | ||||||||
| 2022-23 plan | $411,801,487 | $380,702,899 | $372,393,691 | ||||||||
| 2023-24 plan | $430,071,029 | $414,021,544 | $410,721,666 | ||||||||
| 2024-25 plan | $458,366,508 | $443,738,847 | $438,248,239 | ||||||||
| 2025-26 plan | $474,245,793 | $461,558,119 | $445,966,326 | ||||||||
| 2026-27 plan | $543,712,438 | $503,202,314 | $503,887,681 | ||||||||
| Actual | $329,231,754 | $333,528,852 | $396,349,255 | $430,731,465 | $499,016,583 | $569,943,346 | $517,895,248 |
Actual spending is from Departmental Results Reports and the Public Accounts, as published in GC InfoBase. FTEs are full-time equivalents.
