Taxman targets recent immigrants
Ads to be tested on Mandarin, Arabic and Punjabi speakers
PAUL WALDIE
From Wednesday's Globe and Mail
February 13, 2008 at 5:29 AM EST
Few citizens enjoy paying taxes, but the Canada Revenue Agency is hoping new advertising will offer some motivation and maybe even a new slogan: Paying taxes is the "Canadian way of life."
The CRA plans to launch a multimedia campaign this year that focuses on compliance and targets new Canadians in particular, according to a request for tender published yesterday. The campaign is set to run until 2010.
It's part of a new approach to use "communications as a compliance tool," the filing said. It's not clear what the ads will say because the CRA is still fine-tuning some themes.
One series targets new Canadians because the CRA is concerned about non-compliance among recent immigrants. The agency's research indicates "that a certain percentage of new Canadians surveyed do not realize that they may have had to file a tax return, while some didn't know how."
It plans to test the ads on focus groups in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal, and wants to concentrate on Mandarin, Arabic and Punjabi speakers.
"The objective of research with these groups would be to determine how best to inform new Canadians that they are required to file a tax return if they have taxes to pay, and that they must file a tax return to receive benefits to which they are entitled," the document said.
Participants in the focus groups will be asked to discuss reasons why they might not pay taxes and what information they need that would help them file. They will also review several motivational messages the CRA is considering, with themes such as: "duty," "Canadian way of life" and "fear of penalty."
The CRA has been tracking the population growth of new Canadians for some time. In another document, it quoted a Statistics Canada study that "projected that, within 10 years, visible minorities will constitute the majority of the population of Canada's three largest cities."
"Since self-assessment is at the core of our tax system, the CRA must be able to communicate effectively with new Canadians who may be unfamiliar with our tax and benefit systems," the agency added.
There aren't clear figures on how much money the CRA loses from Canadians who don't pay taxes. The agency noted in its most recent annual report that non-compliance is relatively low "though financially significant."
Eyob Naizghi, executive director of Mosaic, a Vancouver-based organization that works with immigrants, said many newcomers are from countries where filing taxes is unheard of. Mr. Naizghi said he emigrated from Africa and had not heard of income tax until he landed in Canada. "A certain proportion [of new arrivals] are not aware that they have to file their income tax," he said. "I guess we would have to expect that."
He noted that Mosaic has worked with the CRA in translating tax forms into various languages.
Victor Wong, executive director of the Toronto-based Chinese Canadian National Council, was surprised that the initiative is targeting new Canadians. "New immigrants are just like long-time immigrants or Canadian born, they know that there is a responsibility to pay taxes," Mr. Wong said.
Mohamed Boudjenane, executive director of the Canadian Arab Federation, also based in Toronto, said his organization has never been told that non-compliance by Arab Canadians was an issue. "I never heard about it, to be honest with you, as an issue, but maybe it is," he said.
He added that the federation has started holding tax clinics staffed by Arab-speaking volunteers to help new immigrants and others file their taxes. Similar clinics have operated for years in other communities.
"Maybe this [ad campaign] will help," Mr. Boudjenane said. "But the new immigrant, what are you going to get from them quite frankly? They are in the low-income scale and sometimes some of them don't even have to pay taxes."
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