Taxpayers who filed requests to make changes to their income tax returns may be waiting up to 47 weeks for those changes to be processed by the Canada Revenue Agency, according to a watchdog.
That’s more than double the standard time for the CRA to process what it considers “complex” adjustments to T1 tax returns.
Taxpayers’ ombudsperson François Boileau published a release Thursday announcing that an examination of the CRA is being conducted. This, Boileau says, was done after the office received a “consistently high level of complaints about delays in processing T1 adjustment requests.”
These delays can be especially long for taxpayers if their situation requires more careful review by the CRA.
“We understand that the CRA is under tremendous pressure to deliver its services to the public,” Boileau said in the release.
“But T1 adjustments affect many taxpayers, and delays can cause real issues for those who are seeking redress.”
This also comes after the finance minister put the CRA under the microscope last year and said the agency needs a 100-day plan to fix “unacceptable” services.
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What is a tax adjustment?
A T1 is the standard tax form Canadians must fill out when filing their income tax return to the CRA. The form acts as a summary of a taxpayer’s income, deductions and credits for the given tax year,
The T1 is also how most Canadians will be able to figure out if they owe additional tax or will get a refund.
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If taxpayers need to make a change to their T1 after it’s submitted to the CRA, they need to request an adjustment.
Some common adjustments, according to the CRA, include adding information like another source of income, a deduction or missing expense, or correcting errors on the tax return.
For most common adjustments, the CRA says processing times can take about two weeks if the request is submitted online and eight weeks if by mail.
When adjustments are ‘complex’
When adjustments are more complex, it means the CRA needs to thoroughly review the request or needs more information, which also means processing can take much longer.
“According to the CRA’s own reporting, taxpayers are facing undue delays,” Boileau said in the release.
“Although the CRA’s service standard for complex requests is 20 weeks, as of May 14, 2026, the CRA has been taking up to 47 weeks.”
The CRA says some examples of adjustments that could take as long as 47 weeks to process include having multiple tax returns, a return filed for a tax year beyond the three-year reassessment period, a bankruptcy return, a deceased taxpayer, or a situation where the CRA requests more information or documents from a taxpayer or their authorized representative.
Boileau says the office sent the CRA a request to improve its services, specifically for how these adjustment requests are filed. This includes encouraging taxpayers to file their T1 adjustment requests online so they can be processed more quickly compared with printing the web form and mailing it in.
“The delays we have been seeing with complex T1 adjustment requests touch on several rights under the Taxpayer Bill of Rights,” Boileau said.
“With a systemic examination, we are hoping to get to the root causes of why the CRA is not currently meeting its service standard.”
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