Payment Source Enables New Ways To Pay Taxes

Problem

Enabling New Ways to Pay Your Taxes

Canadians make over 35 million tax payments to the Receiver General every year. With that many payments it’s not surprising that there are Canadians with many different preferences for how they’d like to pay.

While one segment of the population is looking for a traditional ‘in-person’ experience, another is wondering why they can’t pay directly from their phone, or from their PayPal account. The challenge for the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) was how to accommodate these preferences.

Maintaining bricks and mortar office locations coast-to-coast where citizens could go to make a payment was not viable, especially in rural and remote locations where the number of taxpayers was few. And accommodating payments by credit card or PayPal via a mobile would require both app development work and incur acquiring costs. (Not to mention challenges associated with transaction data and settlement).

For the CRA, implementing a financially inclusive tax collection solution for all Canadians was proving to be difficult.

Solution

Upon hearing of the CRA’s situation, Payment Source recognized it possessed a unique set of attributes ideally suited to helping serve taxpayers:

A wholly Canadian company offering local solutions
A fintech with over ten years of payments experience and a dedicated development team
A partnership with Canada Post Corporation enabling payment/collections at almost 6,000 post offices

Working with the CRA, Payment Source implemented a two-pronged solution:

First, utilize the vast post office network as tax payment locations to enable Canadians in every corner of the country to pay their taxes in-person
Second, build an online / mobile service PaySimply.ca to enable Canadians to pay their taxes anywhere, anytime -- the way they want to pay -- using all the major credit cards (Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Union Pay) or their PayPal account.

For the CRA, ensuring Canadians benefited from these new payment options required minimal effort and no additional transaction costs.

Canada Post utilized Payment Source’s award winning Loadhub technology platform which was available at all post offices to accept in-person payments. And Payment Source developed and launched its online tax payment service in a matter of months using its in-house development team. In both payment scenarios (in-person or online) funds are sent to the CRA via EFT and accompanied by a data rich EDI file containing all the information necessary to process the payment. And in both cases, taxpayers enjoy a simple, secure and convenient experience that meets their needs.

Results

Since launch, Canadians have visited over 3,000 post offices in every province and territory, and in urban and remote locations alike, to pay their taxes. And others have used their mobile or computer to pay with all the major credit cards and PayPal. In the first full tax season of service, over $50M in payments were collected.

In their own words, Canadians have affirmed what choice means to them:

“This was so helpful as I am not close to a bank in this small Newfoundland Village. Thank you for considering alternative payment methods”

“Very simple and straightforward. Nice to be able to pay with my credit card rather than drain my account immediately. Thank you!”

Having seen the value of utilizing the post office network, the CRA has started printing the post office payment QR code directly on remittance vouchers. A move that will enable millions of Canadians the option to visit any post office with their voucher and make an immediate payment. And Payment Source is likewise exploring new methods of payment to offer Canadians even more choice.

PaySimply Case Study