You could be owed money from CRA payments you didn't know about — Here's how to check

Did you know you might have money sitting with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) that you never even knew was yours?

According to the feds, the CRA sends out millions of government payments each year — and some cheques go uncashed for years. These payments might be from tax refunds, credits or benefits you're eligible for, but for one reason or another, they were never cashed.

In fact, even if you currently get your government payments via direct deposit, you could still have uncashed cheques from before you enrolled — they are not automatically deposited when you first sign up for direct deposit.

The good news is that government-issued cheques never expire, so even if you find one from decades ago, you can still cash it. But what if you never find it, or it's too damaged to deposit? Or worse, you don't even know it's lost to begin with?

Luckily, the CRA's online portal has a little-known section where you can easily check if there's money owed to you from uncashed cheques, making it simpler than ever to find out if there's cash waiting with your name on it. First introduced in 2020, this tool lets you quickly see if there's money owed to you — whether it's from six months ago or as far back as the '90s.

To check for uncashed cheques, all you have to do is log in to your CRA My Account and click on the "Uncashed cheques" section on the right-hand side of the main "Overview" page. If you find unclaimed funds, you can download, print, fill out and send back the pre-filled form on that page to have your cheque reissued or deposited into your bank account.

For those not registered online — or for business or trust cheques or anything less than six months old — calling the CRA is another way to explore this.

Whether it's a small windfall or a bigger surprise, it's worth taking a few minutes to see if any of this unclaimed money is yours. If you've ever received government payments, benefits or tax refunds, there might be a cheque with your name on it waiting to be cashed.

After all, it's your money — don't let it sit around in government coffers when it could be in your pocket!

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