Canada Revenue Agency To Implement Automatic Tax Filing System Next Year

The Canada Revenue Agency has shared it will implement a new automatic tax filing system that will help vulnerable Canadians get their benefits. This change will be implemented from next year, after consultations with stakeholders and community organizations.

Liberals have claimed that the move toward automatic tax filing is one of the several budget measures that are meant to help Canadians with the cost of living. Experts have stated that many Canadians miss out on the benefits while filing their taxes and are advocating for an automatic filing system. Now, from 2024, a new automatic system will be implemented to help vulnerable Canadians who don’t file their taxes get their benefits.

The benefits are meant to include Canada Child Benefit, as well as the recent top-up to the Canada Housing Benefit and the temporary doubling of the GST tax credit. The promise of automatic tax filing was first made in 2020.

Canadians are typically not required to file tax returns every year unless they owe money. However, the federal government wants the Canada Revenue Agency to deliver income-tested benefits to individuals. A 2020 study found that around 10 to 12 percent of Canadians don’t file their taxes and that the estimated value of benefits lost to working-age non-filers was $1.7 billion in 2015.

The budget also stated that over two million Canadians will be eligible to use “File My Return,” by 2025, which was first set up in 2018 but was only open for a few people.

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