Nunavut residents offered more help with filing taxes

Nunavut residents and business owners are now able to meet face-to-face in Iqaluit with Canada Revenue Agency representatives to help sort out thorny tax issues.

That assistance will be offered out a new northern service centre, tucked inside Iqaluit’s Service Canada office.

This new service is part of a larger plan for all three northern territories’ capitals to receive more federal resources and support when it comes to filing taxes.

“With the minister’s support, Canada Revenue Agency has taken into account feedback from northerners, and in response the agency is now open to those three centres,” said Deb Schulte, parliamentary secretary to the minister of national revenue in Iqaluit on Monday afternoon.

At the Service Canada office on Monday, Schulte led the opening on behalf of Diane Lebouthillier, the minister of national revenue, who was in Yellowknife opening that location.

What’s in store at the service centre?

The northern service centre will be available year-round for Nunavut residents.

There will be three full-time CRA employees in Iqaluit, doing outreach, running the Community Volunteer Income Tax Program and liaison officer activities.

Outreach officers will help ensure residents are aware of the benefits and credits to which they are entitled, Schulte says.

As well, there will be a customer service phone line for residents and businesses to discuss their taxes with CRA agents familiar with northern tax issues.

Additionally, Community Volunteer Income Tax Program clinics will be held at the centre, where volunteers file income tax returns for free with residents who have low income and a simple tax situation.

“This is so important for those residents that generally do not do their tax returns and potentially are the more vulnerable residents,” said Schulte.

Dates for these clinics will be scheduled soon, officials say.

“Canadians rely on having their tax-related questions answered quickly and accurately so they can file their taxes each year,” said Schulte.

“Filling out those taxes enables us to get those very important credits and benefits that are essential and what people are entitled to. Most people don’t know about all the benefits that they’re entitled to, and so these service centres are going to really help open up that relationship where it is not just… a negative connotation, it is a benefit as well.”

The creation of the northern service centres is a response to consultations held in Iqaluit, Yellowknife and Whitehorse in the fall of 2018. They were held with small and medium-sized businesses, as well as accountants working in the North.

Response to community concerns

For years, northerners have voiced their concerns that there is not enough support for doing taxes in many remote communities. And the rate of being audited by the CRA is higher in the North than it is elsewhere in Canada.

In response, the CRA has released a summary of potential regulatory changes for those eligible to receive vacation travel allowances. Details will be released “in the coming year.”

Madeleine Redfern, who is the mayor of Iqaluit and the president of the Nunavut Association of Municipalities, said this is a good first step.

“There has often been the desire to have more support by Canada Revenue Agency to ensure that our residents are able to get the assistance to be able to file their taxes,” said Redfern.

“In particular, there are quite a number of people who are not getting the benefits that they are entitled to.”

As examples, she mentioned the child tax benefit for parents, disability benefits and elderly pensions.

“We know that there are high rates of poverty, there are literacy issues. The whole tax system is very daunting and scary for many people because they perceive that it is going to be difficult right from the onset.”

Mayor offers recommendations

Redfern made recommendations to Schulte just before the announcement on Monday.

Doing taxes sometimes can be a very personal endeavour, so it’s important for CRA staff to build relationships, Redfern told Nunatsiaq News.

She advised Schulte and the other CRA officials to reach out to the hamlets and the community economic officers to find out details about the small businesses across Nunavut.

She also thinks the CRA needs to go on community radio to let people know when the team is in town.

As well, it will be important for the CRA reps to be flexible with time, since “there are always challenges around travel,” Redfern said.

It will also be crucial to make sure that there are people at the clinics able to speak the Inuit language in the right dialect, she said.

“There would be tremendous value to seeing Inuit added to the team,” said Redfern.

“Not only because it is a land-claim obligation but also familiarity with the culture. It’s a trust issue.”