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For-profit organizations grow because they meet demand by either capturing it or creating it. Government bureaucracies, on the other hand, tend to expand for entirely different reasons: bureaucratic momentum, politically motivated programs, mandated services and a striking absence of accountability.

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With that in mind, let’s examine the growth of the Canada Revenue Agency. Its headcount was 39,484 for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2016. Fast forward to 2024 and it was 59,155 — a 49.8 per cent increase. Incredible growth. There have been some small reductions in the head count but, overall, it’s not material.

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Has the CRA — a government bureaucracy — grown through bureaucratic momentum? Not sure. How about political incentives? Without a doubt.

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There have been tremendous increases to the CRA’s budget in recent years. For example, its budgeted authority was $13.2 billion for the 2022-23 fiscal year. For the current year, it’s $21.4 billion, which is an $8.2-billion increase, or 62.1 per cent, in three years.

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Why is it political? Well, the stated reasons behind some of the increases have been to go after certain bogeymen: larger companies and international tax matters being two of them.

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“Budget 2023 proposes to provide $1.2 billion over five years, starting in 2023-24, to the Canada Revenue Agency to expand audits of larger entities and non-residents engaged in aggressive tax planning,” the government said in the 2023 federal budget.

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That smells more like a political objective than a business-case objective.

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Have additional mandated services been required to be provided by the CRA? Yes, without a doubt. Especially during the crazy COVID-19 support period when the government was handing out money like opening up a free candy store for kids. Those periods are long gone, but, to be fair, the resulting audits are still ongoing.

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Has there been a lack of meaningful accountability? Yes, despite the self-congratulatory reports that the CRA publishes. The 2024 federal budget proposed to provide $336 million over two years, starting in 2024-25, to the CRA to maintain call centre resources and improve their efficiency. Have you tried calling the CRA recently? It’s almost impossible to get through and an exercise in frustration.

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Why am I analyzing this? With massive increased budgets and head counts, you would logically expect the CRA to improve its service, efficiency and technology. From the front lines, I can tell you that my colleagues across Canada are suffering through one of the worst tax-filing seasons in history. Don’t believe me? I challenge you to start following some of the chatter about this by accountants on LinkedIn.

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The precursor to all this is that the previous two filing seasons have been super frustrating.

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The 2022 filing season was memorable because of the Underused Housing Tax filing debacle. Many Canadians were forced to file new tax returns under the threat of $5,000 penalties. At the last minute, the CRA announced filing extensions for such Canadians, but not until tax preparers wasted significant amounts of time and effort trying to comply for their clients.