Here’s How The Federal Workers' Strike Will Affect Your Taxes This Year
Some services have been closed down fully.
The Canada Revenue Agency Headquarters. Right: A Canadian tax document.
The Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) has gone on strike as of April 19, which means tons of government services have been disrupted.
And that includes services by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), which is pretty important, especially this time of the year.
According to the CRA, there is a long list of services that will be disrupted, although some will still be maintained.
To begin with, you will still be able to file your taxes normally, either via paper or online. Just know that there will likely be delays in processing it. Especially for those that are submitted via paper.
"All paper returns and mail sent to the CRA will be stockpiled for future processing," said the government.
So if you're looking for the speediest possible option for getting your taxes done and return back, doing it online is likely your best bet.
Meanwhile, the list of services partially or even fully disrupted by the strike action is wide. Of course, the strike will mean delays in nearly every service, but some will be hit harder than others.
More specifically, the CRA Individual Enquiries line "will operate on a best effort basis where possible."
Along with that, a bunch of other help and information resources will have a reduced capacity or even be closed down fully.
This includes the Benefits and Individual Tax phone lines, which have a reduced capacity and the Individual Tax phone line which will give priority to people who need to file a tax return to get family or child benefits.
The information resources that are fully closed down are the Business Tax Enquiries phone line, the Debt Management Call Centre, and the ability to speak with a CRA agent online.
Of course, this is just the state of things right now and the CRA does mention that further delays and disruptions might crop up during the strike.
These will be updated as they appear.
As for services that you can expect to continue during the strike action, there are a bunch.
The Canada Child Benefit program will continue normally, with applications and benefit payments still taking place.
Related to this, the Benefit Enquiries phone line will still be available if you have questions or concerns about federal benefits and related programs, you just might have to wait a bit longer to actually speak with someone.
The issuance of benefits such as the GST/HST credit and climate action incentive payment will also still continue through the strike.
So, all in all, best to expect delays when it comes to some services during this PSAC strike.