November 06, 2024 01:10 (IST)
Follow us:
facebook-white sharing button
twitter-white sharing button
instagram-white sharing button
youtube-white sharing button
Union Minister HD Kumaraswamy booked for threatening cop probing into mining case | Supreme Court upholds validity of Uttar Pradesh Madrasa Education Act | Not all private properties are community resources that govt can take over: Supreme Court | Pakistan's Lahore has become world's most polluted city with an AQI of 1900 on Sunday | Indian Army 'successfully completes' patrolling to a key point in Ladakh's Depsang region
Canada Revenue Agency withholds tax refunds, other benefits of Canadians awaiting review of their eligibility status
Canada
Representative image/credit: Pixabay

Canada Revenue Agency withholds tax refunds, other benefits of Canadians awaiting review of their eligibility status

| @indiablooms | 16 May 2023, 12:00 am

Ottawa/IBNS: Canadians waiting for a decision of a review of their eligibility status regarding pandemic benefits, after having received these by mistake, might see their tax refunds or other benefits being reportedly withheld by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA).

Over one million notices have been sent to ineligible Canadians for receiving the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB).

In its efforts to recover the money, CRA uses a process called offsetting to automatically use money from tax refunds and some benefits to settle a person’s debt with the government.

According to the CRA approximately $237 million of COVID-19 benefit debt has been collected through offsetting.

A number of Canadians eligible to receive CERB say that while waiting for a final decision, the CRA has withheld their tax refunds or other government benefits.

When asked how long these reviews typically take, the CRA said while a majority of cases are completed within a short timeframe, some files with more complex issues may take a longer time to review.

Earlier this month the Office of the Taxpayers’ Ombudsperson announced that it is monitoring complaints from people who have been receiving collection letters from the CRA despite having repaid the pandemic benefits to the government.

The federal government has 36 months, according to law, from the time benefits are paid to confirm if the payment was proper.

$4.6 billion in pandemic benefits was reported in December by the auditor general, including other programs such as the wage subsidy and the caregiver benefit which went to ineligible recipients.

(Reporting by Asha Bajaj)

Support Our Journalism

We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism

IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.

Support objective journalism for a small contribution.
Related Images
Xi Jinping, Putin in Russia 22 Mar 2023, 02:56 pm
Related Videos