Grocery Rebate, GST credit, Climate Action Incentive, Manitoba Carbon Tax Relief Fund
Every household will be receiving some credits or benefits from CRA Canada Revenue Agency in July 2023. Check your bank account in July for credits on July 5 and/or July 15.
Grocery Rebate
This is a new one-time credit announced by the Government of Canada earlier this year. The Grocery Rebate will provide financial support to eligible Canadians and will be issued on July 5 2023 at the same time the GST credits are paid.
You will receive the Grocery Rebate if you were entitled to receive the GST credit for January 2023. To get the Grocery Rebate, you did have to file a tax return for 2021.
It’s possible you may be entitled to the Grocery Rebate but not the July GST credit or vice versa.
The Grocery Rebate is calculated based on your 2021 tax return, but the next quarterly GST credit payment in July 2023 is calculated based on your 2022 tax return.
The Grocery Rebate will be double the amount of your GST credit payment from January 2023. The amount is calculated based on your family situation in January 2023 and your 2021 family net income.
Tax refunds, benefit and credit payments may be applied to pay outstanding balances. So, if you have an outstanding balance with CRA for income tax or GST credit or Canada Child Benefit, the Grocery Rebate may be used to offset the outstanding amount.
GST Credit
The regular GST credit will be paid July 5 2023 based on your 2022 income and family situation. If you (or your spouse) have not yet filed your 2022 taxes, then the GST credit will not be calculated and paid to you until your 2022 taxes are filed and assessed by CRA.
If the amount of the GST Credit is small, you may receive the annual payment as a lump sum instead of a quarterly payment. If your GST credit is less than $50 per quarter, CRA will pay the entire year of GST on July 5.
It is possible to receive GST credit based on the 2022 tax year and not the one-time Grocery Rebate. If you were not eligible to receive GST in the past 12 months based on your income for 2021, but your income is less in 2022 and you now become eligible for the GST credit, you will receive it beginning July 2023. But maybe not the Grocery Rebate if you did not receive the GST credit July 2022 or January 2023.
Climate Action Incentive
The CAI is also paid quarterly. The first payment should have been made April 2023, but most taxpayers did not receive it then as you needed to have your 2022 taxes filed by about March 10 2023. Most people did not file or have CRA assess their taxes by then.
For taxes filed after Mar 10 2023, the payment may have been delayed to May 15 or Jun 15 or will be combined with the July 15 2023 payment, depending on when CRA assessed your taxes. It seems that if CRA assessed your or your spouse’s tax return by the end of a month, CRA will issue the CAI the following 15th of the month. For example, taxes filed and assessed by CRA by April 30, the CAI did get paid May 15 2023. And the CAI is issued even if only one spouse has filed. Since it is not dependent on income, it gets paid as soon as one spouse files their taxes.
Last year was the first full fiscal year that CRA paid the CAI quarterly instead of including it in the tax calculation. For the 2020 and earlier taxes, CRA added it to the refund (or reduced taxes owing). Last July 2022, CRA paid the April 2022 and July 2022 payment on July 15 2022. This year the CAI payment has been made the following month of taxes being filed, so it’s been a bit confusing for all of us as tax professionals and taxpayers as to when the CAI will be paid.
Manitoba Carbon Tax Relief Fund
These Manitoba rebate cheques were issued last February and March 2023 to households with 2021 income under $175,000. The amounts were $275 for an individual or $325 for a couple.
Just recently, the Manitoba government announced that of the over 600,000 cheques issued, more than 43,000 have not been cashed. And almost 15,000 have been returned to them as “undelivered” or “returned to sender”.
Unfortunately, it is more likely for lower income Manitobans to have moved and have not received these cheques. Plus, they are less likely to keep informed of these payments and how to get them. And they are the ones that needed these benefits the most.
The address used for the cheques were the address you had when you filed your 2021 taxes (likely filed March or April 2022).
If you moved in the past year or so and did not arrange to have your mail forwarded, you may not have received the cheque last February or March 2023.
People who believe they’re eligible and haven’t received a cheque need to fill out a Manitoba government form online.
The government website for the Carbon Tax Relief Fund states applications for people who didn’t get their cheque will remain available until July 1, but a government spokesperson says inquires will continue to be reviewed after that date and cheques will still be sent if necessary.
Manitoba Seniors Hearing Aid Program
A reminder that this new grant program opened earlier in June (read our June 2023 article at dawsontrail.ca or annimarkmann.ca. You can find out more by searching for the grant online. If you or a helpful family member cannot access the information online, give our office a call, or drop by; we’ll see how we can help you.
You do need to have a “Proof of Income Statement” from Canada Revenue Agency. We have found out the CRA tips line does not seem to be sending out the correct type of income statement. They have been sending detailed assessments instead of the correct Proof of Income Statement. And the applications have been declined by the Manitoba Government office. We have contacted CRA about the problem, but not sure how quickly they will get it corrected.
You can get the correct Proof of Income Statement online thru your CRA My Account, or by calling CRA’s Inquiry line: 1.800.959.8281. If you phone, you will eventually speak with a CRA agent, but you may be on hold for an hour or more. Just a heads up.
For our clients, we can get the correct Proof of Income Statement for them. We have online access to their CRA account and can print or mail immediately. We do charge a $25 fee for this service for our clients or new clients that need our help.
Anni Markmann is a Personal Income Tax Professional and Certified Financial Planner; living, working, and volunteering in our community. Contact Ste Anne Tax Service at 204.422.6631 (phone or text!) or 36 Dawson Road in Ste Anne (near Co-op) or info@sataxes.ca