大多数加拿大人很少需要与税务机关打交道，而且对大多数人来说，这正是他们所希望的。绝大多数情况下，加拿大人每年春天提交纳税申报表，收到退税或补缴税款后，便会将税务问题抛诸脑后，直到来年报税季到来。
然而，在很多情况下，事情并非总是如此顺利，加拿大税务局（CRA）需要联系纳税人，索取补充信息或确认申报表中所列的扣除额或抵免额。由于我们的税收制度是纳税人自行申报的，而且几乎所有申报表都是通过电子方式提交的（无需提交收据或其他文件），因此CRA需要就税务事宜与部分纳税人进行后续沟通也就不足为奇了。
对于这类纳税人来说，难题在于：看似来自加拿大税务局 (CRA) 的信件或未经请求的电话，其真实性可能存疑，但也可能是一个旨在诈骗纳税人的骗局。来自税务机关的合法通信不容忽视，但点击欺诈性短信或电子邮件中的链接，或通过电话向诈骗分子提供个人财务信息（更糟糕的是，汇款），都可能给纳税人带来灾难性的后果。雪上加霜的是，诈骗分子的手段也越来越高明。诈骗分子打来的欺诈电话可能会在接收者的来电显示上显示一个合法的 CRA 电话号码，使接收者误以为该电话确实来自税务局。此外，据 CRA 称，一些欺诈性短信现在甚至会盗用加拿大政府社交媒体账户上的图片，以使诈骗信息看起来更加可信。
加拿大税务局 (CRA) 深知这些问题，因为税务欺诈和诈骗已十分猖獗，以至于有时 CRA 员工在处理与纳税人之间的合法事务时，都难以让接听者相信来电的真实性。为了解决这个问题，CRA 已在其网站上发布了相关信息，指导纳税人如何（以及如何避免）做出正确的判断。CRA 的目标有两个：首先，当然是帮助纳税人避免成为此类欺诈的又一个受害者；其次，是防止纳税人将 CRA 的合法来电误认为是钓鱼或诈骗而置之不理。
为了帮助纳税人核实联系是否来自加拿大税务局 (CRA)，该机构采取了一系列策略和安全措施。首先，CRA 的首次联系通常以信函或电话的形式进行。CRA 不会发送或接收包含机密个人税务信息的电子邮件或短信，也不会通过社交媒体就此类事宜与纳税人沟通。如果 CRA 需要联系尚未注册“我的账户”服务的纳税人，则会通过普通邮件寄送信函或致电联系。已注册“我的账户”的纳税人可能会收到 CRA 的电子邮件，告知其在线 CRA 账户中有待查看的通知。纳税人登录“我的账户”后，即可在 CRA 网站上访问来自该机构的任何信函或电子通讯。“我的账户”与 CRA 的所有在线服务一样，现在需要用户 ID、密码和多重身份验证。
如果加拿大税务局主动打电话给个人纳税人，很难确定电话里陌生的声音是否真的是加拿大税务局的员工（要知道，来电显示已经不再是确定来电是否真的来自税务局的有效手段）。
税务局建议，如果纳税人希望确认来电是否确实来自加拿大税务局 (CRA) 的员工（接到此类电话时，这始终是最佳方法），则应采取以下步骤来确保情况确实如此。
挂断电话。然后拨打加拿大税务局 (CRA) 电话 1-800-959-8281，核实通话中提供的信息是否真实。务必在向来电者提供任何信息之前完成此操作。
纳税人经常会通过加拿大税务局 (CRA) 的个人或企业税务咨询热线联系税务局，这些热线由呼叫中心客服人员接听。每条电话服务都提供 自动回拨服务 ——当等待时间达到一定阈值时，纳税人可以选择接收回拨，而无需继续等待。如果纳税人选择回拨，他们会收到一个随机生成的四位数确认号码。回拨电话的税务局客服人员会重复这个号码，以便纳税人确认来电者是税务局的员工。
最后，如果有人自称是加拿大税务局 (CRA) 的工作人员，并采取以下某些行动，纳税人应立即挂断电话或删除短信或电子邮件：
- 来电者无法提供其在加拿大税务局工作的证据，例如姓名和办公地点；
- 来电者向纳税人施压，要求其立即采取行动，使用攻击性语言，或发出逮捕、驱逐出境或派遣执法人员的威胁；
- 来电者索要纳税人不会在纳税申报表中填写的信息——例如，信用卡号码；或者
- 来电者建议纳税人申请福利，或者主动提出代表纳税人申请福利。
任何未经请求且声称来自加拿大税务局 (CRA) 的电子邮件或短信都应立即删除，切勿点击任何链接。CRA 只会在以下情况下通过电子邮件联系纳税人：通知其在线 CRA 账户中有可查看的内容（该账户需要使用 ID、密码和多重身份验证登录）。此外，如果纳税人在之前与 CRA 工作人员的电话或会面中提出要求，CRA 也会通过电子邮件发送表格或出版物。有关如何确认此类电子邮件真实性的信息，请访问 CRA 网站“ 加拿大税务局联系您时会发生什么 - Canada.ca”。
最后，加拿大税务局代表绝不会
- 要求纳税人立即通过下列任一方式支付款项：
- Interac电子转账
- 加密货币（比特币）
- 预付信用卡
- 来自 iTunes、亚马逊或其他零售商的礼品卡；
- 向纳税人收取与客服中心工作人员通话的费用；
- 在公共场所安排会面，向纳税人收取款项；
- 留下威胁纳税人的语音留言，或包含纳税人的个人或财务信息；
- 发送电子邮件或短信，附上纳税人退税链接。
诈骗和欺诈及其作案者已存在数百年之久，但沟通方式和理财方式的改变使得此类欺骗行为更容易得逞。如今，大多数纳税人已经习惯并乐于在线处理大部分个人和财务事务，即时回复任何信息也已成为常态。而人工智能等新兴技术，更给未来带来了新的威胁。
在这种情况下，对于收到声称来自加拿大税务局 (CRA) 的未经请求的通信的纳税人来说，最好的保护措施就是……暂时什么都不做。立即回复而不花时间评估和核实通信的真实性，正是诈骗分子所期待并从中获利的。（此外，任何要求纳税人立即就税务事宜采取行动的通信几乎肯定是欺诈性的——如果加拿大税务局联系纳税人索取信息、文件或付款，他们会在通信中提供合理的回复期限，并明确规定回复的截止日期。）纳税人最好的保护措施是仔细核实 任何 与税务或个人财务相关的未经请求的联系的真实性。这样做不再仅仅是谨慎之举，而是势在必行。
有关如何避免成为税务诈骗受害者的更多信息，请访问 加拿大税务局 (CRA) 网站“加拿大税务局 (CRA) 信息安全和隐私”页面。
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本文所提供的信息仅为一般性信息，可能遗漏许多细节和特殊规定，且仅在发布之日有效，因此不能视为法律或税务建议。如需了解更多信息以及该信息如何适用于您的具体税务或财务状况，请联系我们的办公室。
How to know you’re really hearing from the CRA
Most Canadians rarely have reason to interact with the tax authorities, and for most people, that’s the way they like it. In the vast majority of cases, Canadians file their tax returns each spring, receive their refund or pay any balance of taxes owing, and forget about taxes until filing season rolls around the following year.
In many cases, however, things don’t run that smoothly, and it’s necessary for the Canada Revenue Agency to contact a taxpayer, to request additional information or seek confirmation of a deduction or credit amount claimed on the return. As our tax system is a self-assessing one, and nearly all returns are filed by electronic means (in which no receipts or other documentation are filed) it’s not surprising that the CRA would need to follow up with some taxpayers with respect to tax matters.
The difficulty for such taxpayers is that a communication – a letter or unsolicited telephone call purporting to be from the CRA – might be legitimate, or it might be part of a scam seeking to defraud the taxpayer. A legitimate communication from the tax authorities can’t be ignored, but clicking on a link in a fraudulent text or email, or providing personal financial information to a scammer over the phone (or worse, sending money), could be disastrous for the taxpayer. And, to add to the difficulties, scammers have become more and more sophisticated in their approaches. A fraudulent phone call from a scammer might show a legitimate CRA phone number on the recipient’s call display, leading him or her to conclude that the call is in fact from the Agency. And, according to the CRA, some fraudulent text messages now include images taken from Government of Canada social media accounts to make their scam messages look more legitimate.
The CRA is well aware of these problems, as tax frauds and scams have become so pervasive that on occasion CRA employees who contact taxpayers on genuine CRA business have had difficulty convincing the recipients of such calls that the call is a legitimate one. To address this problem, the Agency has posted information on its website on how (and how not) to make that determination. The Agency’s goal is two-fold: the first, of course, is to help taxpayers avoid becoming yet another victim of such frauds; the second is to prevent situations in which taxpayers ignore legitimate communications from the Agency, having dismissed them as just another phishing or scam attempt.
To help taxpayers verify that a contact is legitimately from the CRA, the Agency utilizes a number of strategies and security measures. First, any initial contact from the CRA will usually be by way of letter or phone call. The CRA does not send or receive emails or texts containing confidential personal tax information, or communicate with taxpayers on such matters through social media. When the CRA wants to initiate contact with a taxpayer who has not registered for the CRA service My Account, it will send the taxpayer a letter by regular mail, or will contact the taxpayer by phone call. Taxpayers who have registered for My Account may receive an email from the CRA letting them know that there is a communication for them to view in their online CRA account. The taxpayer will then be able to access any letters or electronic communication from the Agency on the CRA website, but only after signing into My Account. My Account, like all of the CRA’s online services, now requires user ID, password, and multi-factor authentication.
Where an unsolicited contact from the CRA to an individual taxpayer is made by telephone, it can be difficult to determine whether that unfamiliar voice on the telephone is in fact a CRA employee (remembering that call display is no longer an effective means of determining whether the call is actually from the Agency).
The Agency suggests that where the taxpayer wishes to verify that the call is in fact from a CRA employee (which is always the best approach when receiving any such phone call), that they take the following steps to ensure that that is the case.
- Tell the caller you would like to first verify their identity.
- Request and make a note of their:
- name,
- phone number, and
- office location.
End the call. Then check that the information provided during the call was legitimate by contacting the CRA at 1-800-959-8281. It is important to do this BEFORE providing any information at all to the caller.
Not infrequently, a taxpayer will contact the CRA through one of its individual or business tax help lines, which are answered by call centre agents. Each of those telephone services offers an automated callback service – when wait times reach a certain threshold, the taxpayer is given the option of receiving a callback rather than continuing to wait on hold. Where the taxpayer chooses the callback option, they are provided with a randomized four-digit confirmation number. The CRA call centre agent who returns the taxpayer’s call will repeat that number, so that the taxpayer can be certain that it is a CRA employee who is calling.
Finally, there are some actions which, if taken by anyone purporting to be from the CRA, should lead the taxpayer to immediately end the telephone call or delete the text or email, including the following:
- the caller does not give proof of working for the CRA, for example, their name and office location;
- the caller pressures the taxpayer to act now, uses aggressive language, or issues threats of arrest, deportation, or sending law enforcement;
- the caller asks for information that the taxpayer would not enter on his or her return – for example, a credit card number; or
- the caller recommends that the taxpayer apply for benefits, or offers to apply for benefits on the taxpayer’s behalf.
Any unsolicited email or text which purports to be from the CRA should be immediately deleted WITHOUT clicking on any links. The only instances in which the CRA will email a taxpayer is to notify them that something is available for them to view in their online CRA account (which requires log-in with ID, password, and multi-factor authentication). The Agency will also email a form or publication where the taxpayer has previously requested it during a call or a meeting with a CRA agent. Information on how to ensure that such an email is legitimate can be found on the Agency’s website at What to expect when the Canada Revenue Agency contacts you – Canada.ca.
Finally, a CRA representative will never
- demand immediate payment from the taxpayer by any of the following methods:
- Interac e-transfer,
- cryptocurrency (Bitcoin),
- prepaid credit cards,
- gift cards from retailers such as iTunes, Amazon, or others;
- ask the taxpayer for a fee to speak with a contact centre agent;
- set up a meeting in a public place to take a payment from the taxpayer;
- leave voicemails that are threatening to the taxpayer, or that include the taxpayer’s personal or financial information; or
- send an email or text message with a link to the taxpayer’s refund.
While scams and frauds and their perpetrators have been around for literally centuries, changes in how we communicate and how we conduct our financial affairs have made it significantly easier to carry out such deceptions. Most taxpayers are now accustomed to and at ease with conducting much of their personal and financial lives online, and replying instantly to any communication has become the norm. And even newer technology, like AI, poses additional threats for the future.
In such an environment, the best protection for a taxpayer who has received an unsolicited communication purporting to be from the CRA is to do … nothing, in the moment. Responding immediately without taking the time to assess and verify the legitimacy of the communication is exactly the response the scammers count on and profit from. (As well, any communication which requires the taxpayer to act immediately with respect to a tax matter is almost certainly fraudulent – if the CRA contacts a taxpayer requesting information or documentation, or payment, a reasonable time period in which to respond will be provided and a date by which that response is required will be specified as part of the communication.) The taxpayer’s best protection is to double check in order to verify the legitimacy of any unsolicited contact received with respect to matters of tax or personal finances. Doing so is no longer just prudent, it’s a necessity.
More information on how to avoid become the victim of a tax scam can be found on the CRA website at Security and privacy of your information with the CRA – Canada.ca.
The information presented is only of a general nature, may omit many details and special rules, is current only as of its published date, and accordingly cannot be regarded as legal or tax advice. Please contact our office for more information on this subject and how it pertains to your specific tax or financial situation.
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