Filed this 2023 return March 28th w/ a balance payable Apr 30, client had no CRA debt of any kind or anything else outstanding - and they scooped her first climate credit - WTF?
I HATE when they do that. Customers ask me - should they pay and expect a refund of whatever it is or will they deduct it from what the customer owes. If I tell them you better pay it then CRA scoops it from their other refund. Then it takes 6 weeks for the customer to recover the duplicate payment. If I tell them no don’t pay, then they end up paying late charges because this time they didn’t bother to take it.
1 Like
That’s what you get for filing a debit early; they scoop from anywhere there’s a credit…even though the debit isn’t due until April 30.
1 Like
In Ontario many low and modest income seniors who own their own homes receive a Seniors Property Tax Grant of up to $500 funded by the Ontario government but administered by the Canada Revenue Agency. It is received as a separate payment, similar to CAIP or GST/HST credits. The grant is paid shortly after the T1 return has been processed.
The client can not receive this payment until their return is filed since the credit is geared to income, and a claim for property taxes paid must be made on the return.
It has ALWAYS been the case since the program began in 2009 the CRA would confiscate this credit if the client owed income tax.
We generally have to check RAC for the actual balance of tax owing when the client is ready to pay their income tax. In many cases they no longer owe anything, and receive a reduced property tax grant.
In the beginning it was terribly annoying… I guess it still is, but you tend to get dumbed down to the ridiculous policies… which just become normal after a while.
I remember a time when it was strange to see people lined up in cars being handed cups of coffee through a window in the side of a building. Now it’s strange seeing people actually walk into a Tim Hortons. 
1 Like
What gets me is that the climate credit wasn’t even payable to ANYBODY until yesterday, and supposedly only to those that filed by March 15th (not this client). So how did the credit even become available to scoop on April 4th, the April 8th assessment date notwithstanding?
1 Like
Ours not to reason why - after all how can we reason with a computer!
1 Like
I had a couple of clients who filed before March 15th and owed an amount less than the CCA, so I told them that CRA would likely scoop the CCR to cover the debt it they waited. CRA did not and sent them the CCR payment and now they have to send CRA the tax balance due.
I sure with CRA would be consistent!
1 Like