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. Accommodating all these preferences would be a challenge for any government service responsible for collecting taxes.

In a vast country like Canada, maintaining brick and mortar locations where citizens could go to make a payment is not viable, especially in rural and remote locations where the number of taxpayers is few. And accommodating payments by credit card or PayPal via a website or mobile app requires a massive development effort and incurs acquiring costs.

The Canada Revenue Agency, responsible for collecting federal taxes from all Canadians, faces all these challenges.

Solution

Understanding 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

Payment Source implemented a two-pronged solution:

Utilize the vast post office network to enable Canadians in every corner of the country to pay their taxes in-person
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.

Payment Source implemented all these new payment options while requiring only a minimal effort from the CRA and without the CRA incurring any 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 5,000 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 desktop to pay with all the major credit cards, PayPal and Interac e-Transfer®. 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!”

The CRA now prints the post office payment QR code directly on remittance vouchers; thereby enabling Canadians to visit any post office with their voucher and make an immediate payment via cash or debit. And Payment Source is likewise exploring new methods of payment to offer Canadians even more choice.

PaySimply Case Study