Better than also making them have to file taxes, although it should be something that they shouldn’t even have to bother with since they are below poverty already.
Edit - Ah, I get the catch now, this is to make these people file that may otherwise not. Sneaky!
Carney said that Canadians who fail to file a return when they earn under the basic personal amount means Canadians “who most need benefits often don’t get them.”
Those benefits include the GST/HST tax credit, the Canada child benefit, the Canada workers benefit, the Canadian disability benefit and the disability tax credit.
And how does one collect such benefits? Cash at a Service Canada office? Maybe their GST cheques will be sent to their tent city?
Think of how this will play out.
A person living with disabilities who would normally be destitute would already be filing taxes voluntarily to get those benefits. A homeless person with no means of knowing of this won’t just magically receive these benefits.
They do not and they cannot legally derive your living address from your employer. The CRA does not have the powers of the IRS, you have to voluntarily tell them:
your address
your phone number
your bank account info, with consent to deposit
They will happily send mail to your last known address for years.
So once again, I’m asking how this will help the marginalized and vulnerable people this move purports to help, if their not being fully “in the system” is reason they don’t get benefits. More than half of the people my wife works with (the vulnerable and marginalized) do not file cra income tax.
This the same thing as someone else here described, where dental care for sub-poverty folks cannot use the system if they haven’t filed taxes the previous year. The overlap of ppl who need dental care and who haven’t filed taxes in years is high.
Its not really sneaky in a bad way though. When I was earning below living I always made a good amount with my tax refunds, so I think it’ll likely mean a lot of people getting extra money that wouldn’t have otherwise had it. Finally getting money to people that need it most doesn’t sound sneaky to me.
You’re not actually making any money with tax refunds. What’s happening is that you’re paying too much in taxes and then you’re getting the money back up to a year later.
You’d be better off if you got to keep all of the money you were entitled to and only had to pay the taxes you owed. Then you wouldn’t have to wait all that time to get your money back.
Is that ideal scenario possible to achieve? If the amount is going to be wrong, I think that for most people with lower income, it’s better that the government deducts too and refunds the excess rather than deducting too little and making you pay an extra bill every year.
Plus it helps people like me that are terrible at saving money. I purposefully asked my work to take extra taxes off my cheques so that I can get a slightly bigger tax refund.
I’m glad that works for you. For others with similar struggles, they treat the tax refund as a windfall and spend it on something they don’t need instead of putting it into their savings.
It absolutely is possible to achieve. It’s very simple (but politically difficult): we need to simplify the tax code.
The reason rich people pay less taxes is because of all the complicated deductions, exemptions, credits, and rebates. Low income people end up paying more (and getting it refunded) for very dumb reasons, such as seasonal jobs that don’t prorate the tax withholding (so eg they pay as if they earned that money for 12 months when they only worked for 3, causing them to pay taxes as if they earned 4x as much in a year) or simply being charged too much tax due to payroll mistakes.
There is also the issue of lower income people simply being unaware of deductions and tax credits they qualify for (and being more likely to not know about them). This can also be solved with tax code simplification: get rid of those credits and simply charge lower taxes at the lowest brackets (or even raise the minimum bracket higher so they don’t pay any tax at all).
Automatic tax filing! Wooooooo
*for low-income citizens who earn less than the basic personal amount
It’s a start and I’ll take it!
It’s the start of automated census taking.
K.
I’ll still take it. This is a massive improvement over what we had before.
Well i would hope that one day it gets extended to everyone!
Hey, a liberal has to tinker around the edges!
Better than also making them have to file taxes, although it should be something that they shouldn’t even have to bother with since they are below poverty already.
Edit - Ah, I get the catch now, this is to make these people file that may otherwise not. Sneaky!
I don’t think I’d call it a “catch”.
And how does one collect such benefits? Cash at a Service Canada office? Maybe their GST cheques will be sent to their tent city?
Think of how this will play out.
A person living with disabilities who would normally be destitute would already be filing taxes voluntarily to get those benefits. A homeless person with no means of knowing of this won’t just magically receive these benefits.
So what is the benefit of this manoeuvre?
…not all low-income people are homeless?
Again, homeless or not, how will gov.gc.ca know where to send or deposit the money if your details aren’t known to them?
If the gov doesn’t have your returns, it isn’t likely they know where you live.
If you have a SIN and are employed somewhere even part time they likely know.
They do not and they cannot legally derive your living address from your employer. The CRA does not have the powers of the IRS, you have to voluntarily tell them:
They will happily send mail to your last known address for years.
So once again, I’m asking how this will help the marginalized and vulnerable people this move purports to help, if their not being fully “in the system” is reason they don’t get benefits. More than half of the people my wife works with (the vulnerable and marginalized) do not file cra income tax.
This the same thing as someone else here described, where dental care for sub-poverty folks cannot use the system if they haven’t filed taxes the previous year. The overlap of ppl who need dental care and who haven’t filed taxes in years is high.
Its not really sneaky in a bad way though. When I was earning below living I always made a good amount with my tax refunds, so I think it’ll likely mean a lot of people getting extra money that wouldn’t have otherwise had it. Finally getting money to people that need it most doesn’t sound sneaky to me.
Also, having filed a tax return the previous year is a eligibility requirement for the dental care plan, for some reason.
I know someone who can’t go to the dentist because they didn’t bother filling a tax return last year when they were unemployed.
You’re not actually making any money with tax refunds. What’s happening is that you’re paying too much in taxes and then you’re getting the money back up to a year later.
You’d be better off if you got to keep all of the money you were entitled to and only had to pay the taxes you owed. Then you wouldn’t have to wait all that time to get your money back.
Is that ideal scenario possible to achieve? If the amount is going to be wrong, I think that for most people with lower income, it’s better that the government deducts too and refunds the excess rather than deducting too little and making you pay an extra bill every year.
Plus it helps people like me that are terrible at saving money. I purposefully asked my work to take extra taxes off my cheques so that I can get a slightly bigger tax refund.
I’m glad that works for you. For others with similar struggles, they treat the tax refund as a windfall and spend it on something they don’t need instead of putting it into their savings.
This is known as the mental accounting bias.
It absolutely is possible to achieve. It’s very simple (but politically difficult): we need to simplify the tax code.
The reason rich people pay less taxes is because of all the complicated deductions, exemptions, credits, and rebates. Low income people end up paying more (and getting it refunded) for very dumb reasons, such as seasonal jobs that don’t prorate the tax withholding (so eg they pay as if they earned that money for 12 months when they only worked for 3, causing them to pay taxes as if they earned 4x as much in a year) or simply being charged too much tax due to payroll mistakes.
There is also the issue of lower income people simply being unaware of deductions and tax credits they qualify for (and being more likely to not know about them). This can also be solved with tax code simplification: get rid of those credits and simply charge lower taxes at the lowest brackets (or even raise the minimum bracket higher so they don’t pay any tax at all).
Carney finally does something good for once!