CRA Call Centre Audit 2025: What Taxpayers & Businesses Should Know

Introduction

In October 2025, the Office of the Auditor General of Canada (OAG) released its audit of the CRA’s call-centre operations. The findings reveal serious deficiencies — long wait times, incorrect advice, and a system that emphasizes speed over accuracy. For both individual taxpayers and business owners, this raises important compliance and risk-management questions. Below we summarise the key findings, explore the risks, and provide practical tips for professionals navigating CRA interactions.

Key Findings of the Audit

Some of the major issues identified by the audit include:

• The CRA’s eight contact centres received over 32 million calls in the 2024-25 fiscal year but only about 10 million calls were answered by live agents.

• The service standard requires 65% of calls to be answered within 15 minutes; only 18% met this requirement in 2024-25, and by June 2025 the figure dropped to just 5%. Average wait times exceeded 30 minutes.

• Accuracy of responses was alarmingly low. The audit found:

  • Only about 17% of individual tax inquiries were answered correctly.

  • Only about 54% of business-tax or taxable-benefit questions were answered correctly.

• Agent performance metrics focus heavily on speed and courtesy, not correctness. Less than 9% of performance evaluation tied to accuracy.

• Contract and system-management weaknesses: the telephony contract value grew from minimum CAD $50 million to CAD $190 million, yet performance did not improve proportionately.

These results paint a troubling picture: taxpayers and businesses using the CRA’s phone line may be at risk of receiving inaccurate or incomplete advice, which may affect their tax compliance, enterprise planning, and exposure to reassessments or penalties.

Why It Matters for Tax-Compliance & Business Planning

Here are some of the practical implications:

1. Mis-advice risk – When accuracy is only achieved in 17% of cases, reliance on verbal guidance from CRA agents becomes risky. A wrong answer may result in wrong filing, missed deadlines, unclaimed credits, or increased liability.

2. Documented advice wins – Because phone advice is not reliably correct, written guidance, secure channel communications, and documented interactions become invaluable evidence if a dispute arises.

3. Wait-time and access issues – Long waits and high abandonment rates may push taxpayers into decisions without proper clarity. Businesses may need to budget for alternative advice channels (tax professionals).

4. Contract and system transparency – For businesses dealing with CRA (especially large file reviews, audits), awareness of underlying system weaknesses may prompt earlier documentation, second-opinion protocols, and pre-emptive risk assessments.

5. Sound planning becomes more important – When the tax-authority-help channel is weak, taxpayers must rely more on professional advice, self-service verification, and robust record-keeping.

Practical Tips for Taxpayers & Businesses

Here are actionable steps you can take:

• Don’t rely solely on a phone agent’s answer.
  If the matter involves significant dollars or legal complexity, ask for the answer in writing or submit a secure CRA portal question.

• Document your interactions.
  Note the date, time, agent ID, the advice given, your understanding, and any conflicting information. This will help if you later face reassessment.

• Use written correspondence or secure channels for key issues.
  For business-tax matters, credits, or complex scenarios (e.g., cross-border), a written trail is far stronger than verbal assurance.

• Review your record-keeping systems.
  Since access to CRA help may be unreliable, ensure you have full documentation of your deductions, income, credits, and business transactions.

• Make the “worst-case” assumption.
  If you cannot get clear confirmation from CRA over the phone, assume the safest treatment (for example, higher tax or conservative interpretation) until you receive documented guidance.

• Stay updated with CRA improvement plans.
  The CRA responded to the audit with a “100-Day Service Improvement Plan” and is working on system upgrades and staffing.
  You may still experience delays, but awareness of this helps set expectations.

Conclusion

While the CRA remains Canada’s primary tax-authority channel, the 2025 Auditor General’s report shows that service levels are well below expectations — with long waits, low accuracy and weak oversight. For taxpayers and businesses, these conditions require extra caution: rely on documented advice, keep thorough records, and consider professional support as part of your tax-risk strategy.

Disclaimer

This blog post is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal or tax advice. Individual circumstances differ, always consult your professional adviser.