Appendices

Appendix A:  Glossary

Accounts receivable/debt — amounts claimed by the Province against debtors.

Tax assessments — a written notice from government of an amount owed to the Province. This notice represents monies that should have been remitted or paid to the Province, as well as, any penalty or interest charges imposed by the Province.

Audit and review — an examination of an individual’s or business’ financial records or accounts to ensure that the amounts owed have been collected and remitted, or paid as required. This can vary from the review of grants, tax expenditure and exemptions and compliance with legislation, to the examination of financial records and legal documents.

Billing — the act of notifying an individual or business of an amount owed to the Province.

Collections — remedial actions employed by the Province to effect a payment from an individual or business on an overdue account receivable.

Incremental revenue — monies identified by, or remitted in response to, audit and enforcement activities.

Overdue — an account receivable for which no monies have been remitted and is considered overdue according to the legislation at issue.

Penalty — a fine imposed for an offence against the legislation at issue (most commonly assessed for non-remittance of taxes).

Recoveries — monies recovered in the course of administering accounts receivable.

Remittance — the payment of monies to meet a financial obligation.

Refund — return of monies remitted in error or in excess of an account receivable.

Revenue — all monies received to meet financial obligations or identified as owed to the Province.

Small business — a small business has fewer than 50 employees or is operated by a person who is self-employed without paid help.

Tax expenditure — the reduction in tax revenues that results when government programs or benefits are delivered through the tax system rather than reported as budgetary expenditures. Tax expenditures are usually made by offering special tax rates, exemptions or tax credits to program beneficiaries.

Transaction — the act of processing a cheque or scanable coupon for the purpose of applying payment to an account receivable.

Voluntary compliance — when taxpayers meet their financial obligations without requiring the Province to effect payment.

Appendix B:  Legislation Administered by the Ministry

The Minister of Small Business and Revenue and Minister Responsible for Regulatory Reform is charged with the administration of the following enactments, presented alphabetically.

Assessment Act Assessment Authority Act Corporation Capital Tax Act Esquimalt and Nanaimo Railway Belt Tax Act Home Owner Grant Act Hotel Room Tax Act Income Tax Act Indian Self Government Enabling Act Insurance Premium Tax Act International Financial Activity Act Land Tax Deferment Act Logging Tax Act

Medicare Protection Act ss. 5 (1) (b), 7 (5), 8 (4), 8.1, and 32 Mining Tax Act Motor Fuel Tax Act Petroleum and Natural Gas Act ss. 74–77 Property Transfer Tax Act Sechelt Indian Government District Home Owner Grant Act Social Service Tax Act Taxation (Rural Area) Act Tobacco Tax Act Tourism Accommodation (Assessment Relief) Act

The Minister of Small Business and Revenue and Minister Responsible for Regulatory Reform is charged with the administration of the following enactments, in areas related to revenue management processes only.

Forest Act Forest and Range Practices Act Forest Practices Code of British Columbia Act Forest Stand Management Fund Act Ministry of Forests Act Mineral Land Tax Act Mineral Tax Act

Petroleum and Natural Gas Act Range Act School Act South Moresby Implementation Account Act Wildfire Act

Appendix C:  British Columbia/Canada Revenue Agency
Work Plan Summary

The Ministry of Small Business and Revenue represents British Columbia in its relationship with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) with respect to the taxation statutes CRA administers on behalf of the province. Working with the ministry, CRA identifies and collects personal and corporate income taxes that help support the provision of vital provincial programs such as health care, education and transportation.

The ministry is currently working with CRA to identify opportunities to further develop and strengthen its ongoing partnership and collaborative initiatives with respect to tax administration to ensure that all revenue due to the province is identified and received by the province. This work is supported by a detailed British Columbia Work Plan developed jointly by the ministry and CRA. The work plan identifies both ongoing and one-time initiatives, accountabilities and, where appropriate, timelines and performance measures. A high level summary of key work plan objectives includes:

• A variety of initiatives to ensure the province receives an accurate allocation of the identified tax liability.
• The development of a comprehensive Service Management Framework and associated Service Level Agreements. This work will more accurately reflect British Columbia’s ongoing relationship with CRA, support the effective delivery of British Columbia’s income taxation programs and will include performance measures to determine CRA’s accountability for delivery of these programs.
• Continued collaboration between the ministry and CRA to identify and implement solutions to various administrative, reporting, data management and information sharing issues to support enhanced administration of British Columbia’s taxation programs.
• Completion of a Framework for a Collaborative Relationship Agreement outlining the guiding principles governing the CRA’s administration of the province’s income taxation programs.
• Establishing a process to ensure provincial tax administration priorities and issues are included in the strategic planning process.
• Continued collaborative efforts to address non-compliance with tax obligations to promote fairness and equity by leveling the playing field for the individuals and businesses that are meeting their financial obligations voluntarily.
• Improving customer service by providing simplified, streamlined audit processes through increased concurrent federal and provincial audit activities.

Appendix D:  Ministry Organizational Structure and Key Responsibilities

LINK TO LARGER VERSION

 

Appendix E:  Taxpayer Fairness and Service Code —
Service Standards

Twelve service standards have been identified to monitor the ministry’s progress in meeting the commitments set out in the Taxpayer Fairness and Service Code. This first set of standards focuses on customer transactions, letting customers know what to expect from the ministry when interacting with staff. The established standards focus on the timeliness and accessibility of service. Over time, the ministry will add to and improve its service standards based on consultation with the small business community and feedback from taxpayers.

Prior to determining the ministry’s service standards, research was conducted to review similar work in local and out-of-country jurisdictions. The ministry did not adopt specific service standards from other jurisdictions due to differences in business processes, technology and level of resources applied, but made efforts to include common service aspects. For example, standards were selected for inquiries, registrations, refunds, correspondence, audits and appeals. Based on this research, service standards were developed in partnership with several small business organizations to reflect the standards the small business community felt were most important to them.

The following table lists the service standards and identifies the targets established for each service standard. The 2006/07 targets reflect baseline data available for nine of the twelve service standards, with future years’ targets reflecting the ministry’s commitment to maintaining high levels of service and continuous improvement. Baselines for the remaining three service standards will be established in 2006/07.

The ministry will monitor performance using existing ministry business information systems. A service standard will be considered to ‘be met’ if, over the twelve months of the fiscal year, the performance meets or exceeds the established target.

1	The statement in the service standards dealing with Service BC-Government Agents was provided to inform customers that information about ministry programs is available from Service BC. This was not included in the above list as the ministry is not accountable for service provided by Service BC, but the ministry will ensure they have the information required to fulfill this commitment.
2	A significant increase in account registrations and clearances are anticipated due to the upcoming 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games in Vancouver.
3	The Consumer Taxation Programs Branch (a key contributor to the standard) is currently streamlining its refund process to improve response times. It is anticipated that future targets will be set higher.
4	Based on a Common Information Technology Services standard of 24/7 service, which excludes scheduled downtime for system maintenance on Sundays between 6:00 a.m. and 9:00 a.m.

Appendix F:  Changes to Goals, Objectives, Performance Measures and Targets

Since the publication of the 2005/06–2007/08 Service Plan Update, the ministry has undertaken a review of its goals, objectives and performance measures. The ministry has made changes that better focus the plan on:

• the ministry’s service to the public;
• the key outcomes expected from ministry activities; and
• the few critical aspects of the ministry’s performance of interest to the public, stakeholders and Members of the Legislative Assembly.

These changes are intended to improve service planning and performance reporting, and support increased accountability.

In summary, the ministry has moved from six goals to four. The following table provides the details of the changes made to goal statements and the resulting changes to the objectives aligned with these goals. There has been no significant change in strategic direction.

A summary of changes to the ministry’s performance measures is provided below. Measures were removed from the Service Plan where a better performance measure has been identified and where the measure is focused on internal administrative matters that are primarily of ministry interest. Those measures removed from the Service Plan that continue to be of importance to the ministry will be monitored internally as part of a suite of measures the ministry uses to support decision-making. However, all measures included in the ministry’s 2005/06–2007/08 Service Plan Update will be reported in the ministry’s 2005/06 Service Plan Report.