It appears it's time for the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) to find a new slogan. Clearly, their current one: "More Ways to Serve You!" is out of date. As if it's not enough they tell us the amount we pay in taxes, now how we pay those taxes is at issue.

If you show up to a local tax office with a wad of bills to pay your taxes after 2006, you'll be flatly refused. If you show up with a cheque you'll be hit with a 10% fine. Why? Well, apparently taxes must now be paid through a bank.

An Alberta business recently found this out the hard way when it paid its taxes near the end of October. In order to ensure the tax payment was received, the company's Chief Financial Officer (CFO) walked the tax payment of $2,870,400 into a government tax office and left with a receipt.

Less than two weeks later, the business received a bill from CRA amounting to a 10% fine of $287,040.

The fine notes, "Since our records indicate that your payment of $2,870,400 was direct remitted, you have been assessed the penalty for failure to remit at a financial institution in the amount indicated. This amount is due immediately and is hereby requested."

CRA says the rule requiring all payments go through a financial institution has been in place since the early 1990s but enforcement and fines only began in October of this year.

CRA claims this rule must be enforced because they are losing millions each year. They claim savvy businesses are maliciously holding their payments until they are due and then pay CRA directly, knowing their cheque won't be cashed for a few days so they can keep a couple of days worth of interest. Payments made through a bank get deposited directly in the Government of Canada bank account.

DELIVERED EARLY

This certainly was not the case with the Alberta business. The cheque the CFO dropped off at the CRA office was not only delivered early, according to the stamps on the back of his returned cheque, it was cashed and deposited with the Receiver General of Canada on the same day.

The business owner claims his CFO was never told of this impending fine at the time of payment. Obviously, had he been told, he would have turned around and taken his payment to a bank.

Most would assume CRA employees would have the sense to politely inform anyone trying to pay their taxes directly to the CRA of the change in policy. However, it's not clear even CRA employees knew about this change.

A recent news release by the Union of Taxation Officials, in response to an article by Sun Media's Kathleen Harris detailing the recent fine, quotes their national president, Betty Bannon, as saying: "This was news to me that there was a penalty for not paying at a financial institution. What happened to this business person is ridiculous. Not only did he pay the taxes, he paid early."

In a recent CRA news release, the tax collector claims they were merely acting on the recommendations of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Public Accounts, and began an "information and education campaign" in March 2006.

Clearly a fair chunk of the blame for enforcing these ridiculous positions sits squarely on our elected MPs. It's time for Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the Minister of National Revenue, Carol Skelton, and the current chair of the Public Accounts Committee, Shawn Murphy, to take action and reverse this absurdity!

Any fines levied should be reversed and our politicians should be reminded the CRA is supposed to serve taxpayers! If taxpayers want to come in and pay their taxes in cash or in cheque directly to a CRA office, they should be thanked for their contribution, not slapped in the face.