Excellence in Customer Service Standards

At the Ministry of Small Business and Revenue, we are committed to providing you with efficient, courteous and respectful service. We are pleased to offer the following service excellence standards which we will strive to achieve.

• offer at least 60 provincial sales tax seminars annually throughout all regions of British Columbia
• ensure seminar client satisfaction of at least 90%

• respond to your general email inquiries regarding sales, hotel, fuel or tobacco tax sent to CTBTaxQuestions@gov.bc.ca within two business days of receiving all of the necessary information
• respond to your complex email inquiries and written rulings on sales, hotel, fuel or tobacco tax issues within 20 business days of receiving all of the necessary information. We will contact you if the response will take longer because it is unusually complicated

• register your sales or hotel tax accounts within two business days of receiving all of the necessary information
• respond to your requests to confirm if any sales or hotel taxes are owed by the business you are buying within five business days of receiving all of the necessary information

• process your sales, hotel, fuel or tobacco tax refunds within 30 calendar days of receiving all of the necessary information

• review the audit process and Taxpayer Fairness and Service Code rights before starting an audit at your premises or representative's office
• ensure satisfaction with sales, hotel, fuel, or tobacco tax audit completion time of at least:

• conclude your sales, hotel, fuel, or tobacco tax audit within 15 business days of you agreeing with the audit results
• respond to your concerns with your sales, hotel, fuel or tobacco tax audit results within 20 business days of receiving all of the necessary information
• ensure sales, hotel, fuel, or tobacco tax audit satisfaction of at least 90%

• respond to correspondence sent to the Minister, Deputy Minister and Assistant Deputy Minister within 14 business days of receipt

• receive e-mail anytime and be accessible by telephone from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday (except holidays)
• provide walk-in service, including OneStop Business Registry kiosks, at our public offices in Victoria and Vancouver from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday (except holidays)
• have helpful information about our programs available on our website www.sbr.gov.bc.ca 24 hours a day, every day
• Service BC Centres located throughout British Columbia are also available to provide assistance with our programs. (refer to www.servicebc.gov.bc.ca/services/locations/ for a list of office locations)

• provide a written decision within 30 business days of receiving all of the necessary information

• provide a written decision on issues appealed to the minister within the following average annual response time:

  4.5 months (April 1, 2008 to March 31, 2009)

• contact you or your representative by phone or in writing to discuss the appeal and to provide an opportunity to submit new or additional information to support your position

• provide a decision on your initial IFTA licence application within seven business days of receiving all of the necessary documents and/or payments

These service standards are also described in section 2 of the code booklet.

We request your comments so we can continue to improve and add to our service excellence standards over time:

General:

Minister's office:

Customer Care Centre:

If you have concerns about the service provided by Revenue Services of British Columbia, please contact the Ministry of Small Business and Revenue's Customer Care Centre: