Zurich Citizens News, 1974-04-11, Page 2PAGE 2
ZURICH CITIZENS NEWS
THURSDAY, APRIL 11, 1974
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The Data Centre in Ottawa.
Early in the new year, the first completed returns arrive back at the
Data Centre. Staffers are on the lookout for the special sticker
identifying a return claiming a refund. These returns are then
separated for priority processing.
MANY HAPPY CO RETURNS
In the keypunch area, all required information on the return is transferred to computer cards for
processing by the computer. Each year the Data Centre employs an extra 2200 keypunch operators
during the filing season to handle more than 10 million returns.
Returns are then separated according to complexity and all enclo-
sures such as T4 slips, receipts and financial statements are stapled
in a specific order to facilitate processing.
What's the most frequently used address in the country? It may not be the
most popular one, but the Taxation Data Centre in Ottawa receives more
than 10 million tax returns a year, most of them between January and May.
But the Data Centre is more than just an address. Perhaps more than any
other part, the Taxation Data Centre plays a central role in the operation
of Canada's taxation system.
The Data Centre houses the huge computer facilities of Revenue Canada,
Taxation — computers that do everything from addressing your person-
alized income tax return to deciding if you have a refund coming. The
department is one of the largest computer users in the country and employs
500 permanent and 5500 temporary staff during the filing season to handle
the avalanche of tax returns.
More than anything else, the Data Centre is the place where it is decided
if you owe more money at the end of the year or have a tax refund coming.
Last year, seven out of ten taxpayers got refunds for a grand total of more
than one billion dollars.
Incidentally, there were more than two million errors found in tax returns
and, when corrections were made, two-thirds of them were in favour of the
taxpayer. It's in your interest then, to file a correct return.
This is it — the computer. The computer is really the heart of the processing system checking taxpayers' figures, matching the returns Errors slow down the whole system and can drive you to distraction.
with previous years returns and pulling together many ether factors like Canada Pension Plan and Unemployment Insurance contributions.
The computer also discovers any errors made by taxpayers and rejects those returns for correction.