Please note that the information provided herein is not legal advice and is provided for informational and educational purposes only. If you need legal advice with respect to Canada Income Tax, you should seek professional assistance (e.g. make a post on Dynamic Lawyers). We have tax lawyers registered on Dynamic Lawyers who can offer information, advice, and assistance with respect to your Canadian income tax issues, questions, and concerns.
A well-kept Canada Income Tax secret of the Canada Revenue Agency are Taxation Operation Manuals or TOMs for short. The CRA prints TOMs for its employees’ use. TOMs cover all aspects of the operation of the Department, from purely internal matters such as Management Information Systems and Personnel Procedures, to maters that have an impact on taxpayers, such as Audit Techniques and Assessing Procedures.
Essentially, TOMs contain policies and procedures for applying and enforcing the Canada Income Tax Act. Under the Access to Information Act, the CRA makes large portions of TOMs available to the public. TOMs are not small. They occupy about 200 loose-leaf binders and fill up a couple of walls of a small reading room. It is not indexed, although a table of contents appears at the front of each binder. The TOMs which are publicly accessible are a censored version: pages or individual paragraphs will be blank.
What is left is, however, still very useful. For example, the TOMs will contain detailed instructions for auditors as to how to go about auditing particular kinds of businesses. There are TOMs about Audit Directorate (which includes General Guidelines for Auditors), Special Investigations, Audit Support, Audit Applications Guide, Audit Research (which includes Audit Techniques Guidelines), Tax Avoidance, Computer Selected Assisted Audit Selection System, etc.
All in all, a very good Canada Income Tax resource.
The TOMs can only be viewed in ‘reading rooms’ maintained at each District Taxation Office. The reading rooms are open to the public, Monday through Friday, from 8:15 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The closest District Taxation Office with TOMs is located at: Toronto Centre Tax Services Office, 1 Front Street West, Toronto, Ontario M5J 2X6. I just walked in, told them I wanted to see the TOMs and then was taken to a reading room. It doesn’t appear as though any Tax Office in Toronto other than the downtown Tax Office has the TOMs (i.e. no TOMs at North York or Scarborough).
They may be willing to make photocopies for a few pages (within reason). Larger requests will have to be formally made under the Federal Access to Information Act in Ottawa (fees are: $5 for a request, $0.25/page for photocopying, etc.). From what I’ve read and my conversations with CRA employees, not many people know about or use the TOMs (e.g. from 2001 to 2008, less than 40 people have signed in at the downtown Toronto Tax Office).
An on-line posting on March 28, 2008 provided the following index information with respect to all TOMs:
Appeals Branch
Appeals Officer – Taxation
CPP/EI Appeals Officers
Management Appeals Division
Support Staff – Tax
Assessment and Collections Branch
Abbreviations and Messages
Accounting Data Capture
Assessor
Automated Trust System
Business Window Information
CAL Keying Instructions
Cancellation Examination
Child Tax Benefits – Eligibility (CTB)
Child Tax Credit Prepayment
Children’s Special Allowances Manual (CSA)
Client Services
Collections
Common Operator Information Files (COIF) System
Confidence Validities
Confidence Validity Guidelines
Confidentiality
Control Clerk – Control
Coordinator Display Manual (T1 Keying)
Coordinator Manual (T1 Keying)
CORPAC Control
CORPAC Error Correction – Ottawa Taxation Centre
Correspondence by Paragraph Selections
Correspondence Referral Unit (CRU)
CPP-EI Rulings Program Administration Policies and Procedures
Direct Data Entry – Other Transcripts
Disposition of Taxable Canadian Property and/or Other Properties by
Non-Residents
Document Control
Electronic Filing (E-File) for T1 Returns
Electronic Letter Creation System (ELCSs)
Electronic Revenue Accounting (ERA) System Overview
Electronic Statement of Account (ESA)
Enforcement Action for Returns and Information
ERA Event and Transcript Preparation
ERA Interest Calculation General Procedures
ERA Procedures for Managers
ERA Statistics
Error Correction Instructions for Electronic Returns
Error Inspection – Error Clues
Error Inspection Control
Error Inspection of T2 Returns
Error Inspection Work Instructions
Exhibits
Explanation Codes and Messages
Explanation Codes used on Reassessment
Family Order and Agreements Enforcement Assistance and the Refund Set-
Off Programs
Family Orders and Agreements (FOA) Enforcement and Refund Set-Off
Program
Family Orders and Agreements Enforcement (FOA)
Farmer’s and Fishermen’s Program
FIP Keying Procedures
General Information
General Ledger Goods and Services Tax Credit
Goods and Services Harmonized Sales Tax (GST/HST) Credit
Identification Keying Instructions
Individual T1 Identification Master Update
Initial Assessing and Reassessing of T2 Returns
Initial Assessing of T1, Rejects, SAS, DOA and Prior Year
Installment Program
Installments and Installment Interest
Key Verification
Matching
Matching Programs
Non-Resident Tax
Notice Production
On-line Taxpayer Correspondence Systems (OTCS)
Operators and Coordinators Work Instructions
Penalties
Pension Reform
Policy
Preliminary Reassessment
Processing Instructions
Processing Leads and Liaison with the Minister du Revenue du Québec
Processing Payments on Filing
Quality Review
Reassessing T2 Returns
Reassessment Messages and Cancel Codes
Reassessment Processing Instructions
Recording and Flagging Procedures
Referrals
Refund Set-Offs
Refunds Enquiries
Registered Plans or Retirement Savings (RRSP, RRIF, RPP and DPSP)
Registered Retirement Savings Plan
Remission Orders
Resolution of Error Conditions
Resource Officers Instructions
Review Procedures
Reviewer
Reviewer Instructions
SAS-TCA Control Instructions
SAS-TCA Assessing
Seasonal Tax Assistance Centres
Selection Instructions of Returns
Sorting and Numbering
Source Deductions
Special Elections and Returns – TSO
Specialized Processing
Subsidiary Ledger Unit
Subsidiary Ledgers
Supervisor
Supplementary Instructions
T1 Accounting Data Capture
T1 Accounting Error Correction
T1 Accounting Related Guidelines
T1 Accounting Systems
T1 Mismatch
T1 Processing Review Program
T1 Records
T2 Identification Manual
T2 Interest Calculation
T2 Mismatch and Combines
T3 Initial Assessing, Adjustments and Correspondence Manual
T3 Records
T3 Returns
Tax Calculation Procedures
Taxable Benefits
TCA Processing
Team Leader Procedures
Technical Interpretations and Referrals to Other Sections
Topical Index
Tracing Refunds
Unemployment Insurance Coverage
Work Instructions
Years Not On TAPMA
Preparation of the Auditor’s Report
Compliance Programs Branch
Audit Applications Guide
Audit Programs
Audit Techniques
Audit Techniques (Handbook)
Audit Techniques Guidelines Related to the Oil and Gas (Exploration,
Development and Production)
Audit Techniques Guidelines Related to the Oil and Gas (Marketing)
Audit Techniques Guidelines Related to the Oil and Gas Industry (Refining)
Business Equity Valuations Section and Real Estate Appraisal Section
Computer-Assisted Audit Selection System (CAAS)
Non-Resident Correspondence
Preparation of the Auditor’s Report
Reviewers Instructions
Special Investigations
Supervisor Instructions
Tax Avoidance
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