In January 2014, the CRA began consultations on whether to introduce a system that requires tax preparers to be registered with the CRA. Some other countries, including the United States, already have such a requirement.
Although the CRA has not made any broad public announcement, a document issued on November 26, 2014, Reducing Participation in the Underground Economy, says:
“the Registration of Tax Preparers Program, to be implemented in 2016–2017 … will help to improve compliance by working with tax preparers to reduce errors and to identify high-risk tax preparers associated with deliberate non-compliance”.
Note that a form of registration is already effectively required. Any tax preparer who prepares more than 10 individual returns or 10 corporate returns is subject to a penalty if those returns are not filed electronically. And filing electronically requires the preparer to register for the CRA’s “E-File”system. So unless training or qualification requirements are introduced, “Registration of Tax Preparers” will not likely change the current state of affairs very much.
Ongoing information about this new initiative is available on the CRA web site at cra.gc.ca/rtpp.