How are Your Tax Dollars Being Spent? We're Going Into Overtime :CCRA SOTW

> Before reading further there are two things you need to know. One,
> every fiscal year the CCRA sets a goal of how much they want to
> collect. Two, a tax debt that is written off as uncollectible is
> struck off the books and so counts towards this yearly collection
> goal.
> 
> Now on to our tax tale.
> 
> No doubt many Canadians are surprised to learn that, yes indeed, the
> CCRA does write off all manner of tax debts. And it is VERY common. In
> fact when the CCRA fiscal year end draws nigh the front office bigwigs
> even push and ask for debts to be deleted. I have seen instances where
> tax debts recommended for a short deferral in collection action or a
> partial write off have been rejected because management wanted that
> production so goals could be met. ' Write the whole damn thing off
> they would cry!' And write if off they did. But here's where the
> problem arises.
> 
> Writing off a tax debt takes a lot of work, a lot of investigation, a
> lot of time, a lot of concentration and of course good writing skills.
> So demanding is this task that all tax collectors abhor it. So, once
> they identify an uncollectible account, instead of buckling down and
> doing the job, most just bury the debt and forget about it.
> 
> What was a poor promotion minded manager to do?
> 
> It took a while but finally it was decided that, to entice collectors
> to complete their work, overtime should be offered. And it was. Four
> hours on weekdays and eight hours on Saturdays. Problem was was that
> tax collectors now refuse to write off tax debts during regular office
> hours. Hoarding them for overtime. I was told Toronto Core had such a
> problem that for several months they had double time Sundays trying to
> clear their arrears. And so today the CCRA must budget many additional
> millions just to writeoff delinquent tax debts.
> 
> And I must admit that this practice seems strange to me. Here a group
> of people are hired to do a job and then, when they all but refuse,
> they are bribed with overtime to get them to do the job they were
> hired for. In the real world people who don't do their job have to
> find new ones.
> 
> Just how many tax debts are being written off? Well, there are
> thousands and thousands of tax collectors. Sure, not all will take the
> overtime, but others might work anywhere from four to twenty hours.
> More if possible. Meaning many thousands of tax debts and hundreds of
> millions of dollars are being deleted. Every year. Not so good at
> collecting as you thought I guess.
> 
> Finally, and I hate to leave you on a cliché, but this is only the tip
> of the iceberg. Next week's ' How are Your Tax Dollars Being Spent?'
> story is even better.

FYI