The federal government has unveiled a new initiative that will impact 5.5 million Canadians by 2028.
On Oct. 10, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced that Budget 2025 will contain a measure allowing low-income Canadians to receive automatic federal benefits from the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA).
Carney said millions of Canadians do not file their taxes, “either because they don’t have the resources to do so, or because they think that their income is too low for it to matter.” He said this means they miss out on benefits like the GST/HST Credit, the Canada Child Benefit, the Canada Disability Benefit, and more.
While Canadians who owe taxes are required to file a return every year with the CRA, many low-income Canadians don’t expect to owe the government any taxes and so they do not file. A 2020 study found that around 10 to 12 percent of Canadians do not file a return, and as such they lost out on an estimated $1.7 billion in cash benefits in 2015….