Being that for the purposes of the Privacy Act, The audit function within CRA is considered an “investigative body” for purposes of the Privacy Act; therefore, information can be received from external government agencies to assist in the administration and enforcement of the ITA and the ETA.
Therefore it is only reasonable to conclude that Audits are conducted to detect not only errors, but to discover taxable income. By the very nature of the audit training process it is no wonder that taxpayers are often seen as “Tax Cheats.”
This section of the TAS Tax Library will grow considerably and is designed for those interested in knowing what not to do, so that they avoid problems with CRA.
Being that accountants are not trained in “Audit Ready Bookkeeping.” This tax library document contains information to allow anyone to figure out what needs to be done to be audit ready and not experience an audit nightmare.
The Tax Bible for auditors is called the “Audit Manual.” The Audit Manual contains information
The Audit Manual includes information from TOMs 10, 13, and 14, the GST/HST, Rebates Manuals, Communiqués, Directives, Memoranda, and Policy Statements.
The Audit Manual was written specifically for audit staff involved in the audits of income tax and goods and services tax/harmonized sales tax for small and medium-sized businesses.
The Audit Manual is a single source of reference for audit policies, procedures, and technical application guidelines about audit issues.
The Audit Manual is updated frequently and is referred to by CRA as an “evergreen” document… I don’t get the connection to the point that the document is continually being updated.
The contents of the Audit Manual reflect the national policy on operations, procedures,and technical applications as authorized by the GST/HST Strategic Integration Section within the GST/HST Directorate together with the Policy Section within the Small and Medium Enterprises Directorate and replaces locally developed audit manuals.
The Audit Manual includes:
Examples of audit check lists and working papers
Specific audit techniques
Sample letters
Technical information to apply legislation administered by the CRA sector profiles that describe business operations references to court cases.
Much of the sensitive material in the audit manual is referred to as “Protected.” What that means is that CRA considers the information to be kept private from the public. That being said, they have to disclose the information under the privacy act.
In addition to the Audit Manual, the CRA Electronic Library provides other internal documents and a full range of public information bases. This makes it possible for auditors to access information from many sources in one place. The electronic library is a source for data mining and slip matching.
The Compliance Programs Reference Material includes:
Small and Medium Enterprises Research Audit Program (SME RAP) (formerly known as the Core Audit Program)
Corporations Tax Act Manual (Ontario)
Large Business Audit Manual
Excise Tax, N15, and Air Travellers Security Charge Audit Manual
Enforcement and Disclosures Manual *
Investigations Manual *
International
Provincial Income Allocation Audit Reference Manual
Provincial Sales Tax Administration Reform (PSTAR)
Real Estate Appraisal Manual
Scientific Research and Experimental Development (SR&ED)
Technical Applications and Valuations
Tax Avoidance Manual
The Investigations Manual is being converted to the Enforcement and Disclosures Manual. This is a protected document. We do have an older copy received under an ATIP (Access to Information Program) however it is now a few years old and we know there are changes. Therefore we will be requesting a current copy.