Fact Sheet
March 2007
CRA announces business resumption plan
Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) Commissioner Michel Dorais today announced the Agency's timeline to bring services back on line.
“We have begun to bring some of our systems into production,” reported Mr. Dorais. “We expect to have all of our taxpayer services, including EFILE, NETFILE, Change My Address and return processing back into full service no later than on Thursday March 15th, 2007.”
The CRA is bringing back its temporary employees tomorrow morning to begin processing all outstanding files.
The security of taxpayer information is paramount for the CRA. The security and privacy of taxpayer data was protected and was never at risk during this preventive suspension of online services. A malfunctioning software patch is the cause of this service interruption.
CRA appreciates the patience and understanding of taxpayers during this interruption and is making every effort to restore full services as soon as possible.
Please check the CRA Web site at www.cra.gc.ca/update on a regular basis to see which services are available.
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For media information
The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) announced today that computer systems involved with the processing of tax returns for individuals are back online.

Tax processing had been halted on March 6, 2007, due to a computer glitch. The source of the problem had been traced back to software maintenance performed on March 4.

In an update on the CRA website, dated March 14, Michel Dorais, Commissioner of the Agency, stated that all of the databases had been restored and CRA employees are processing the backlog of returns and payments.

Tax processing for businesses had not been affected by the computer shutdown.

In his statement, Dorais thanked taxpayers "for their patience and understanding" during the service outage. He also stated that "the integrity and safety of personal data was never at risk".

The CRA suggests that it would work quickly to process the resulting backlog of tax returns.