EFILE Association of Canada
Formed in 1993, the EAC/ATC is a federally registered non-profit corporation, representing tax practitioners from all regions of Canada to senior management of the Canada Revenue Agency, Federal and Provincial Ministries of Revenue, as well as tax software providers.
Our membership consists of professionals and fully represents the Efile industry: from sole proprietors to large nationwide firms. EAC/ATC members account for over one-third of all EFILED T1s in Canada.
What we do
One of the core functions of the EAC/ATC is to communicate directly with senior management of the CRA on behalf of members. As your conduit to the CRA, we meet regularly with senior managers of the CRA to discuss tax policy and administrative issues that affect all tax practitioners.
Over the years, the EAC/ATC has been successful in requesting changes to the EFILE system to facilitate the operation of a tax practice. Tax practitioners are the front line administrators of Canadian tax policy, and we are recognized as the professional association that senior management of the CRA turns to for industry comment and feedback.
We also produce and distribute our IMPACT Newsletter (published 3 times a year), providing important updates on developments within the tax and EFile service industry. View a sample IMPACT Newsletter in the Library section of our website. Previous editions of the IMPACT Newsletter are archived in the Library section and are available to EAC/ATC members.
Members also receive a copy of the annual EAC/ATC Tax Reference Booklet, a helpful guide for tax practitioners.
The EAC/ATC is governed by a national 15 member Board of Directors elected by the membership of the EAC/ATC at the Annual General Meeting. Members of the Board of Directors serve renewable 3-year terms.
News
The CRA reaches an agreement with Union of Taxation Employees (posted May 4, 2023)
News Release Statement
Last night, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) reached a 4-year tentative agreement with the Public Service Alliance of Canada – Union of Taxation Employees (PSAC-UTE). Upon ratification, this agreement will apply to approximately 39,000 PSAC–UTE employees working at the CRA. Employees represented by PSAC–UTE will return to work this morning.
The tentative agreement includes wage increases of 11.5% over four years, retroactive to 2021, that will cover periods until 2025. The third year also includes an allowance of 0.5%. Employees would also see a number of improvements over the life of the agreement, as well as a one-time payment of $2,500.
The CRA continues to be committed to a modern, hybrid workplace that provides employees, where applicable, with the flexibility to continue to work up to three days from home a week. Outside of the collective agreement, the CRA and PSAC–UTE reached a tentative settlement on telework to the satisfaction of both parties. Both parties agreed to undertake a review of the Directive on virtual work arrangements, and to create a panel to advise the Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner regarding employee concerns.
This agreement addresses all key priorities put forward by the PSAC–UTE. In addition, it includes improved provisions, around leave with pay for family-related responsibilities, for example. It also includes measures to further support employment equity, diversity, and inclusion, such as a new benefit for Indigenous employees who will now have access to paid leave to participate in traditional practices. This new provision represents another important step in our reconciliation journey and supports our ongoing efforts to create healthy workplaces.
The tentative agreement is subject to ratification by PSAC–UTE membership. The PSAC–UTE will present details of the tentative agreement to its members and organize ratification vote sessions in the coming weeks. Once the agreement is approved and ratified, employees will see wage enhancements within agreed to timelines.
The CRA wants to thank members of both bargaining teams for their dedication and hard work during this round of negotiations, and especially these past few weeks. Through long hours of negotiations, the CRA and the PSAC–UTE found ways to compromise and, in doing so, succeeded in reaching a tentative agreement, which is both fair to employees and reasonable for taxpayers.
The CRA has already taken measures to resume its normal operations and to fully restore services that were affected during the labour disruption.
The CRA values the important role its employees play from across the country in delivering services to Canadians.
Changes to the Default Method of Correspondence (postponed to 2024)
Notices of Assessment
The 2021 Federal Budget proposed to amend the Income Tax Act to provide the CRA with the ability to send certain notices of assessment electronically without the taxpayer having to authorize the CRA to do so. This proposal would apply to individuals who file their income tax return electronically (via NETFILE) and those who employ the services of a tax preparer (via EFILE). Taxpayers who file income tax returns with the CRA in paper format would continue to receive a paper version of the notice of assessment directly from the CRA.
This new process will impact tax preparers directly: many may need to print the NOA or E-NOA for their clients, as the option to receive a paper NOA will be removed from the T183 form. Other options include providing a digital (e.g. PDF) copy to your client. Alternatively, your client can retrieve the NOA through the My Account portal. It was presumed by the CRA that tax preparers would assist their clients in setting up My Account for them (during the busy tax season no less).
This new process was expected to be in force by May 2023. We are happy to report that after many meetings on this with the CRA, the implementation of this initiative has been pushed forward to at least 2024 (if not shelved indefinitely).
Multi Factor Authentication (MFA) – Eight hour Passcode Duration Continues
As you are undoubtedly aware, MFA now applies to all Representatives.
In brief, the system requires that you obtain a passcode every time you log in to the RAC portal, in addition to signing in with your username and password. This means you could receive a new passcode multiple times a day from the CRA (6-digit numeric code via SMS text), one for every time you log back into the system.
Alternatively, you will need to refer to the Passcode Grid card to enter your passcode (9-digit alphabetic code). Using the Passcode Grid means that you will not be required to receive a text; it is an alternative method.
When we first discussed the MFA system with the CRA (in January 2020) one of our suggestions to the CRA was that they modify the passcode process so that the first access code you receive to start your workday remains valid for a longer period of time and for unlimited logins to the system during that time period.
We are happy to report that CRA will be implementing our suggestion effective in February 2022 – the MFA passcodes issued at the start of a day remain in effect for 8 hours (you will no longer need to request a new passcode simply because you have logged out of the system).