William Watson: Couldn’t we get Amazon or Apple to run the CRA?

financialpost.com:

Dear Prime Minister,

I’m writing because in my experience, if you’re having trouble with an organization, it’s always best to go directly to the person in charge, which is you, though just to be safe I’m cc’ing Mark Carney.

My problem is with the Canada Revenue Agency. (Perhaps you’ve heard that line before.) CRA is one of the 551 agencies, departments and organizations you’re in charge of, last time I looked. Yes, I agree completely: 551 is a lot. If you could get that number down, maybe the ones that remained would run better. Personally, I have trouble managing two or three things at a time, let alone 551.

My problem with CRA isn’t usual. I’m trying to find out why my taxes were last year than my accountant expected. Not by a lot, but by more than a few dollars. Before I found my current accountant, who is also my wife, I did my taxes myself. Though I have three advanced degrees in economics, taught public finance and taxation at university, and do read written English reasonably well, my tax assessments invariably came back with a small adjustment, sometimes up, sometimes down. Maybe if you radically simplified the income tax system, more Canadians could do their own taxes and get them right the first time? Just a suggestion.

I typically shrugged off the small differences between what I filed and what CRA assessed me, but for my accountant getting it right is a matter of professional pride. And she doesn’t want to repeat the error, if error there was, next year.

So she’s been calling CRA to try to find out what accounts for the discrepancy. And she hasn’t been able to get through. Day 1 she called four times. Each time the AI told her to try again later as all agents were busy and the telephone queue was full. Day 2,