CRB - Canada Recovery Benefit - Details & Discussion

[tjthemanto]

Opens on Monday, October 12.

https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-age...y-benefit.html

Canada Recovery Benefit (CRB)

Opening October 12

The Canada Recovery Benefit (CRB) gives income support to employed and self-employed individuals who are directly affected by COVID-19 and are not entitled to Employment Insurance (EI) benefits. The CRB is administered by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA).
If you are eligible for the CRB, you can receive $1,000 ($900 after taxes withheld) for a 2-week period.
If your situation continues past 2 weeks, you will need to apply again. You may apply up to a total of 13 eligibility periods (26 weeks) between September 27, 2020 and September 25, 2021.
Sections

• Who can apply: Canada Recovery Benefit (CRB)
  Eligibility criteria for the CRB
• How much you can get: Canada Recovery Benefit (CRB)
  Payment amounts and the impact on your taxes
• Periods you can apply for: Canada Recovery Benefit (CRB)
  How the eligibility periods work and when they start
• How to apply: Canada Recovery Benefit (CRB)
  When and how to apply for the CRB
• Keep getting your payments: Canada Recovery Benefit (CRB)
  Be sure you’re still eligible and re-apply
• Return a payment: Canada Recovery Benefit (CRB)
  How to return or repay the CRB
• Contact us about CRB: Canada Recovery Benefit (CRB)
  If you have questions about the CRB

[tjthemanto]

CRB - Application opens tomorrow!

Monday - October 12 - Thanksgiving Monday.

[tjthemanto]

Canada Recovery Benefit applications, glitch and mistakes in the system.

Eligible people are getting Already Applied Errors, even though they never have applied.

[padyofurniture]

I'll miss out on collecting this. I make about $75/wk more than the 50% reduction in wages.

[tjthemanto]

I'll miss out on collecting this. I make about $75/wk more than the 50% reduction in wages.

But if you make less than $ 38,000/year are you still allowed to apply? Not sure.

Seems to be some confusion with this program.

[lizzie bargain]

Yes you can apply-but if you earn more than 38,000 in 2020( excluding the CRB) then you have to pay 50 cents back on every dollar received over 38,000 come tax time. I just looked at it for this week and I did not earn 50% less than usual so no benefit earned.

[tjthemanto]

Yes you can apply-but if you earn more than 38,000 in 2020( excluding the CRB) then you have to pay 50 cents back on every dollar received over 38,000 come tax time. I just looked at it for this week and I did not earn 50% less than usual so no benefit earned.

👍

[tjthemanto]

One good thing is they are at least cutting 10%
Withholding tax on CRB. So there will be less tax shock next year!

CERB recipients might be in for a shock next year as no tax was cut on CERB payments, and CERB payments are taxable.

At least 20% of CERB payments you should keep aside for next year tax payments just to be on the safe side.

[tjthemanto]

CRB- Second period application opened yesterday.

Apply for it if you're eligible.

[giorgiodi]

If I apply for a December CRB period and I receive the money in January 2021, that amount will be considered as 2020 or 2021 income?

[crafter]

not an expert but should be in 2021 when you actually receive it.

If I apply for a December CRB period and I receive the money in January 2021, that amount will be considered as 2020 or 2021 income?

[Anna Michele]

If I apply for a December CRB period and I receive the money in January 2021, that amount will be considered as 2020 or 2021 income?

Good question all I know is I don't want to deal with any of this next year I will need to see the effect these "benefits" have had on my income tax before carrying over to another year. When it was CERB I didn't put aside enough taxes I think its gonna bite me

Sent from my SM-A705W using Tapatalk

[tjthemanto]

If I apply for a December CRB period and I receive the money in January 2021, that amount will be considered as 2020 or 2021 income?

I think the government will provide a T4 type of slip in February, 2021 for all these CERB and CRB benefits, which will show you what should be included for 2020 calendar year.

I know for other payments like OAS/GIS and CPP you get T4 type slips in February for previous year. This should be no different.

[tjthemanto]

Todays Toronto Star Article. CERB is going to be a gong show come 2021 taxation year.

Lot of frauds. Lot of genuine people also misled -
Having to pay back etc.

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✕

‘Mayhem and confusion’ at the CRA: agents are instructed to rush through retroactive CERB applications, employee tells the Star

DECEMBER 23, 2020

In a year marked by “mayhem and confusion” over CERB eligibility, a Canadian Revenue Agency agent has told the Star that there may be a second pool of recipients who will likely have to repay some or all of their benefits because their applications were rushed to meet the program’s end-of-year deadline.

The agent, who the Star is not identifying to protect their employment, said employees in charge of reviewing retroactive Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) applications flagged by the system as potentially not eligible have been instructed to rush through the validation of these applications.

This is because the current legislation allowing the transfer of these funds expires at the end of 2020. Applications have to be approved by Dec. 23 in order for the funds to be paid out in time, the agent said.

A spokesperson for the CRA confirmed that CERB payments cannot be issued after Dec. 31, 2020. The application window for retroactive CERB applications closed Dec. 2.

According to a CRA representative not authorized to speak publicly on the matter, the agency denies that these application reviews are being rushed. They said the agency wants to strike a balance between getting the money out and properly verifying the applications.

Normally, if an application is flagged by the CRA’s system as potentially not eligible, the applicant is instructed to call the CRA, and an agent will go through the eligibility criteria and request more documents to prove eligibility, according to the agent who spoke to the Star, whose work involves validating eligibility for emergency benefits programs.

The CRA will then review those documents and if the applicant is eligible, an agent will do an attestation of eligibility with the applicant over the phone, said the agent, before approving the application. If based on the new documents the person isn’t eligible, an agent will ask for additional documents, or inform them they aren’t eligible, the agent said.

But with the Dec. 23 deadline fast approaching and so many applications to handle, agents were instructed on Dec. 16 not to review any additional documents sent in by applicants, said the agent.

Instead, as long as additional documents were sent in, the agents were told to simply open the documents to confirm they weren’t blank or irrelevant and then approve the application. The agents were also instructed to complete the attestation, without calling the applicant, said the agent.

In an emailed statement, a CRA spokesperson said the CERB application process was “designed to be attestation-based.”

“This is similar to the approach used in tax filing, where individuals self declare the information they provide when they file their taxes, and the CRA may verify this information at the time of filing,” the statement said.

This is done to “maintain public confidence in Canada’s tax system and ensure that payments are available for people who need them most,” the statement said.

“As part of these efforts, we have asked applicants who needed to provide documents to support their eligibility to ensure the CRA can process their application in time and issue their payment.”

The CRA statement added that information to that effect was also made available on Canada.ca.

Agents who might have gone through between four and 20 applications a day might now go through up to 40 or 50, the agent estimated, adding there are possibly hundreds of agents tasked with reviewing the retroactive applications.
People whose applications are approved in this manner will not receive a letter or a call indicating the circumstances of the approval, said the agent, noting that if an application has been flagged by the system, there is a good chance the person isn’t eligible for all or some of the funds being applied for.

The agent said they understand the need to get through these applications before these funds can no longer be paid out. However, their main concern is that because recipients aren’t being told about the circumstances, this could lead to a large number of people being asked to pay back some or all of the money they received, possibly after they have already paid taxes on it.

The agency likely has three years after 2020 to review all CERB cases, the agent added, predicting there’s “lots to come” in terms of repayment confusion. (This timeline is based on the CRA’s usual statute of limitations to reassess a tax return, which is three years.)

The agent said they have seen the CRA make snap decisions throughout the pandemic, noting the year has been marked by “mayhem and confusion” over eligibility requirements and changing policies, such as the recent confusion over CERB eligibility for self-employed applicants.

But they said this decision seems particularly troublesome because of the big potential for issues down the road.

Recently, around 441,000 CERB recipients received letters from the CRA telling them they may have to repay the benefit. For many self-employed CERB recipients, this letter was the first time they had been told that their eligibility was based on their net income, and not gross, meaning many weren’t eligible after all.

The Star later found that many recipients were given incorrect information by CRA employees, and after the union representing CRA employees confirmed this to iPolitics, the CRA admitted that “communications on this topic were unclear in the first days after the CERB was launched.”

Nevertheless, it appears these individuals will still have to repay their benefits, though the CRA has made it clear there will be no penalties or interest on CERB repayments.

In an interview, Green party Leader Annamie Paul said the CRA agent’s allegations sound like another example of the lack of transparency displayed by the government with regards to the “gross” and “net” self-employment income confusion.

“The government has not been transparent about how it has administered this program,” she said.

Paul said she understands the need to get the benefit out before the legislation no longer permits it, but said she thinks it would be unfair to ask people to repay funds paid out in this manner, since they have no way of knowing the circumstances under which their applications were approved.
“That would be a scandal,” she said.

Paul and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh have been advocating for the government to let the CERB recipients who applied in “good faith” keep the funds.
In an email, Singh also called for transparency regarding this latest development.

“If the government is telling people who are not eligible, that they are eligible — they need to be transparent to those same people who will have to pay it back. If people can’t make ends meet now, not planning to have to repay the amount in a few months’ time will simply create a bad situation for families,” he said.
On Dec. 22, the Taxpayers’ Ombudsperson, François Boileau, issued a statement on the government website addressing the concerns of CERB recipients who may have to pay back their benefits.

“CRA has indicated that for many recipients, validation of eligibility will not be possible until they file their 2020 tax returns,” the statement reads.



Rosa Saba


https://www.thestar.com/business/202...-the-star.html

[Ciel]

Good question all I know is I don't want to deal with any of this next year I will need to see the effect these "benefits" have had on my income tax before carrying over to another year. When it was CERB I didn't put aside enough taxes I think its gonna bite me

Sent from my SM-A705W using Tapatalk

Can you apply any OTB or GST credit from January to help make up the tax portion that you anticipate you will have to pay? Plus there will be those climate action credits for the family that could help unless CRA realizes they are needed to apply towards any sum owing.