Canada Revenue Agency Administrative Consolidation the Integration of Customs and Taxation Canada
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Canada Revenue Agency Administrative Consolidation The Integration of Customs and Taxation Canada A Brief History Before the 1994 administrative consolidation, Revenue Canada, Taxation administered direct taxes and Revenue Canada, Customs and Excise administered indirect taxes. Customs and Taxation are long-standing programs. Revenue Canada Taxation and Revenue Canada, Customs and Excise reported to the same government Minister. But, they were managed as two separate departments. GST (Goods and Services Tax), the largest component of the Excise program, was introduced in 1990. In 1994, the two departments were merged by legislation into one department – Revenue Canada. Administrative consolidation brought together the 14,000 full-time equivalents in Customs and Excise and the 25,000 in Taxation into. The Customs and Excise department had consisted of 9,000 full-time equivalents in Customs and 5,000 in Excise. In 1999, the Department of Revenue Canada became the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency (CCRA). The overall objectives of administrative consolidation in 1994 and becoming an Agency in 1999 were to focus on the following areas: • Service improvements – one-stop shopping; single-window access to services; single business registration number • Operational efficiencies – integration of common corporate and program functions; savings reinvested in program enhancements and re-engineering initiatives • Streamlined operations – elimination of overlap and duplication; business process improvements; common, shared databases for client information • Enhanced compliance – improved targeting of non-compliance, based on the theory that the same people and companies would be non-compliant across customs, GST, and tax • Federal-provincial relations – the opportunities of a combined administration for income tax and commodity taxes presented a strategic advantage for federal-provincial consultations From early 1992 to the time that we became the CCRA in 1999, it can be said that the integration of direct tax and indirect tax operations was complete. In 2003, the CCRA spilt into two agencies: Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) and the Customs Border Services Agency, each reporting to different government Ministers. The administration of direct (Income tax) and indirect (Goods and Services Tax, also known as the GST) taxes is the responsibility of the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). Customs joined Security Department Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Canada, Canada’s lead department for public safety. The reason for splitting tax and customs in 2003 was to respond to the security demands posed by the escalated global terrorist threats. Benefits from Administrative Consolidation A 1996 Auditor General of Canada report concluded that: • Administrative consolidation has established a solid foundation for streamlined operations. Combining the two departments has eliminated major duplication of functions 1 Canada Revenue Agency Administrative Consolidation The Integration of Customs and Taxation in both headquarters and field operations. Introduction of the single business number is expected to reduce the paperwork and time required for collecting, accessing and processing information. • The business number has created new possibilities for integrating information and services in Revenue Canada, the federal government and the provinces. A number of these possibilities are already being explored. • The Business Number and Business Window are providing simplified and more accessible service to Revenue Canada's business clients. The Public Accounts of Canada shows that tax collection cost (cost per one dollar in tax revenue collected) reduced from 2.06 cents in 1994 to approximately 1.6 cents in 1998. This cost increased in 2001 as the result of a one-time cost of transition from department to agency and has declined toward 2 cents in each year thereafter. Today, we view administrative consolidation, with its prime features such as Business Number and Single Window, as fundamental enablers. On this foundation, we have added Standardized Accounting and Business Intelligence/Decision Support and many improvements to our tax programs that have had a net result in increased voluntary compliance and improved ability to detect fraud and tax evasion. The Integration Process The key steps • Establish a legal foundation to proceed • Ensuring a strong management and accountability framework • Managing the merging of 3 very different cultures – taxation, customs, and excise The five top critical success factors: • Clear overall vision and principles to guide the process • Commitment and involvement of senior management • Good communication with stakeholders and employees at all levels • Establishment of committee made up of representatives of both direct tax and indirect tax to work together on specific projects • Good project management Securing government and senior management commitment The government started with the need to improve services to Canadians, which for customs and tax involved looking for ways to reduce the compliance burden for businesses and simplify their dealings with the government. In 1992, two years in advance of the eventual passage of the legislation creating the new consolidated organization, the government implemented a series of important changes: • February 1992, the budget announced the move to a single registration number for business (Business Number); • September 1992, the Minister announced a six-point plan for Customs; • October 1992, a single individual was appointed as Deputy Minister of both Customs and Excise, and Taxation; • November 1992, the Minister announced an eight-point plan for GST and Taxation 2 Canada Revenue Agency Administrative Consolidation The Integration of Customs and Taxation Early in the consolidation process, senior management articulated a unifying vision of what Revenue Canada would be like with the two departments combined into one. The vision contained many elements, some general and others more specific. For example, it envisioned Revenue Canada as a single entity that would conduct business in new ways and treat clients as clients of the whole Department. It also saw improved service for clients through the greater use of technology and through access to all programs by "single windows". Change management strategies or initiatives Senior managers made consolidation a priority. They worked together to decide on the significant consolidation matters. Initially, the 16 senior managers from headquarters formed a special committee that met periodically. The regional heads were not initially on this committee because of their number; it would have been unwieldy to operate the committee with an additional 23 heads of all the Customs, Excise and Taxation regional offices. When the new organizational structure was finalized in 1994, all 18 heads of the headquarters branches and regional offices became the new senior management committee of Revenue Canada. This committee went on to deal with any outstanding administrative consolidation matters. The senior management committee, however, could not run the process of administrative consolidation alone. Help came from two sources: a secretariat and project teams. The secretariat ran the day-to-day affairs and co-ordinated and monitored progress for the committee: it prepared documents, reviewed project reports, gave information to the senior management committee and asked the committee to make decisions. The project teams conducted the detailed work necessary to consolidate the Department. Senior management demonstrated ownership and involvement through their regular attendance at employee briefings and through promotion of administrative consolidation in speeches, memoranda and articles in departmental newsletters. The Auditor General reported that CRA employees who they interviewed were convinced that their senior management was committed to a consolidated Revenue Canada. Senior management made it a priority to keep staff informed. Besides providing information, management wanted feedback from employees. Branch and regional heads appointed administrative consolidation co-ordinators to help information flow between the branch or region and those working on consolidation projects at headquarters. Senior management set up a telephone line so that staff could call for information and provide feedback. However, few calls were received through this channel as more questions and feedback were conveyed directly to the project teams. Following the information sessions, managers discussed issues raised with their staff and sent in their comments on the issues to project teams as well. External Consultations Through extensive consultation, clients and stakeholder were informed about benefits of administrative consolidation. Revenue Canada (CRA) operates on a philosophy of voluntary compliance and open communication with its clients. This philosophy was clearly reflected in documents developed for the consolidation of the Department. For example, communication with clients was one of Revenue Canada's guiding principles for consolidation, and formed a major part 3 Canada Revenue Agency Administrative Consolidation The Integration of Customs and Taxation of its communications and consultation strategy. The strategy defined its target audiences; specified that messages were to be tailored to the interests of the audience; and required the continued use of existing formal and informal relationships with client groups. This strategy was distributed to managers to use