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OTTAWA — The Canada Revenue Agency is seeing major delays in processing claims amid a massive consolidation effort, with some taxpayer-requested assessments taking longer than a year, according to accountants and CRA employees who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The CRA acknowledged in a written response it is “taking longer than usual” to process taxpayer-requested assessments, due in part to an “unusual increase” in the volume of requests. It said delays can also arise from a lack of documents provided, or if assessments encounter technical complications.

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“We recognize that is an inconvenience to taxpayers,” the agency said. “We have put in place a plan, which includes significant additional resources, to return to processing these adjustment requests in normal timeframes.”

The agency claims it is “on average” meeting its service standards. But more than a dozen tax consultants and CRA employees said delays often take longer than six months to process, with some assessments taking as long as 18 months. Taxpayer-requested re-assessments for businesses are also seeing months-long delays in some cases.