On April 19, 2023, the Public Service Alliance of Canada Union of Taxation Employees (“PSAC – UTE”) has declared a general strike starting April 19th, at 12:01 am EST. And currently, 39,000 Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) employees are on strike.
We want to reassure our clients that despite the strike, our firm will continue to meet the April 30 personal tax filing deadline and other corporate tax filing deadlines. We encourage all our clients to pay their tax and instalments on time as there is a 9% annual (compounded daily) interest charge on overdue taxes and penalties.
In its most recent update, CRA has indicated that there are no plans to extend filing deadlines and will continue to accept all tax returns. All digital tax returns will continue to be processed automatically. However, the strike may result in processing delays for some income tax and benefit returns, especially those filed by paper. Additionally, you may experience increased wait times when contacting CRA.
Note that the strike may also affect the wait times for certain services and programs such as processing of EI, OAS, and CPP benefits. A list of service disruptions can be found here: Service Canada Service Disruptions
We will continue to monitor the situation and let you know if there are any further updates.
