Key takeaways:
- 25,000 Canadians will be informed regarding the money they’re owed this month.
- Almost 9 million Canadians have an uncashed cheque from the government under their name, the Canada Revenue Agency states.
Canada’s tax agency says about 9 million Canadians are owed some government money, and it will send out reminders to tens of thousands of people this month to let them learn.
The Canada Revenue Agency stated Monday that it has approximately $1.4 billion worth of uncashed cheques, some of which have been owed as far back as 1998. As of May, 8.9 million Canadians had several uncashed cheques tied to their name. The average amount owed is $158, the tax agency stated.
“We want to make foolproof this cash ends up where it belongs. In taxpayers’ pockets!” the tax agency stated.
The tax agency said it would soon announce approximately 25,000 recipients of the Canada child benefit and related local/territorial programs, GST/HST credit, and Alberta Energy Tax Refund if they are owed funds.
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Another set of 25,000 will be informed in November, and another batch in May 2023.
While the tax agency takes billions of dollars in taxes and refunds every year, not all of it makes it into the hands of Canadians who are entitled to it, primarily due to individuals either losing the cheques or changing addresses, meaning they never got it in the first place.
The CRA began working on its backlog of uncashed cheques in February 2020; it stated it had returned $802 million to taxpayers who were owed cash and didn’t know it.
The CRA said Canadians could review if they have uncashed payments by logging in to or signing up for an online CRA account.
Source – CBC News
