Canadians Who Claimed COVID-19 Benefits Will Get Mail From The CRA About Their Payments

If you’ve claimed COVID-19 benefits in Canada, you should expect mail from the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) in the coming days.

As of Monday, January 11, the government agency began sending out T4A slips to Canadians who have claimed support benefits during the pandemic.

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The purpose of the documents, per CBC News, is to remind people that all COVID-19 support payments are taxable and thus must be reported on an individual’s tax returns.

While thousands of Canadians have already been contacted by the CRA about repayments, these slips are reportedly being issued as statements of income instead.

Similar to T4 statements provided by employers ahead of tax time, the T4A form confirms how much money a person has received directly from the government, in this case via COVID-19 benefits.

This includes the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB), the Canada Emergency Student Benefit (CESB), the Canada Recovery Benefit (CRB), the Canada Recovery Sickness Benefit (CRSB) and the Canada Recovery Caregiving Benefit (CRCB).

While tax was withheld at source for some benefits, like the CRB, this doesn’t mean that claimants won’t owe any money come tax time.

After all sources of income have been calculated, including deductions and credits, some people may realize that they still owe an amount to the CRA.

For this reason, tax experts continue to urge Canadians to keep some money aside ahead of April 2021.