Revenu Québec: Contestation of a bank account seizure

A citizen who contributed $20,000 to his Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) was refused the RRSP deduction. According to Revenu Québec, the citizen had not filed an income tax return the year before. Consequently, money was seized from his bank account.

His income tax return for the previous year was actually being processed by the Canada Revenue Agency, and the RRSP deduction would be granted. Since this information was not yet available to Revenu Québec, the citizen tried to duly inform it of this so that recovery measures would not be initiated, but to no avail.

The citizen’s complaint concerned:

• the seizure of an amount from his bank account ordered by Revenu Québec.

The Québec Ombudsman’s investigation revealed that:

• at the citizen’s request, a Canada Revenue Agency employee had tried unsuccessfully to contact Revenu Québec to confirm that the citizen was eligible for the deduction. The employee therefore authorized the citizen to provide Revenu Québec with his name and phone number so that it could contact him directly;
• the citizen advised Revenu Québec in writing that the Canada Revenue Agency was processing his file and that the RRSP deductions would be granted. He provided the contact information for the CRA employee who could corroborate his statements. Revenu Québec did not respond to this letter before initiating the seizure;
• even though the citizen had replied to all of Revenu Québec’s requests for information (requests to have citizens contact it to inform it of their intentions), Revenu Québec decided to proceed with recovery anyway.

The Québec Ombudsman asked Revenu Québec to:

• fast-track the file so that the amounts seized could be returned to the citizen as quickly as possible.

Revenu Québec agreed to act on the Québec Ombudsman’s request. The citizen’s file was corrected fewer than three weeks later.