Current Events > Outrage after Justin Trudeau demands 400K Canadians PAY BACK MONEY! Should they?

(+) Yeah! (+)

The Canada Revenue Agency sent out 441,000 letters warning people that they may have to return up to 12,000 worth of Benefit Money because they were INELIGIBLE to have received it!!

CERB was designed to help those who lost their job or had severely reduced income because of COVID-19 and those who earned 5000 or more in income would be eligible for the program.It lasted for roughly 6 months with now an extended EI program.

These letters were sent out because they were unable to confirm employment and/or self employment income of at least 5000 in 2019 or in the 12 months prior to the date of their application, one of the key criteria of the CERB program.

8.9 million Canadians applied for CERB, which means 5% of them received the letter and were ineligible for the money and could be forced to repay it.

However, those who don't repay it will not be charged any tax on late payments but they are expected to pay it back

Many argue it was the governments fault for how the 5000 is calculated which says the $2000 monthly benefit was only for those with a minimum of $5000 of NET income but these people suggested it was GROSS income.

Although when the program was first introduced, the government site didn't state that it was net income until 2 weeks later when it first launched

Not everyone who received the letter will be required to repay it as they are encouraged to complete their 2020 tax returns to help the CRA correctly identify the benefits they are entitled

One of those who got the letter was 21 y/o Alex Coucopoulos who got the letter as he is a University of Ottawa student who owes 12,000. He lost his part time job and summer co-op position but he thought if he made more than 5000 he would qualify but that was gross income, not net income and is now asked to repay it back.

He doesn't deny that he shouldn't have received the money as he should have applied for the student benefit instead, but had asked if could repay the difference he would have gotten from the student benefit if he applied to that and was denied.

The Canadian Tax Federation says the government needs to crack down on fraud benefiters such as those who INTENTIONALLY QUIT to get the money but says it's unfair to have to ask people who were confused on this program to repay these amounts so close to Christmas.

Should these people be forced to pay back the money since they calculated gross income rather than net income to get the benefits that they shouldn't have gotten?

https://i.imgur.com/gz0WExf.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/bEQOA7w.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/JgQ0GXD.jpg
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Welp

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Idk
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I could see the US pulling some BS like this but not from the land of maple syrup.

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Wii_Shaker posted...

I could see the US pulling some BS like this but not from the land of maple syrup.

IIRC, there was actually a provision in the last stimulus (American stimulus, the $1200 one) that said if you get the money, but weren't eligible, then you aren't required to pay it back.

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400k canadians? Isn't that like 70% of the population of canada?

/s

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As much money as those governments waste, I think they should let the tax payers get a refund on their failed system's inadequacies.