Automatic Tax Filing Could See Feds Paying Canadians $8.5 Billion in Unclaimed Benefits Over Five Years: PBO

An automatic income tax filing service being piloted this year could see Ottawa paying over $8.5 billion in unclaimed government benefits to lower-income individuals over the first five years, a report by the Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) estimates. The PBO analysis, published June 13, is based on assumptions about an automatic tax filing service provided by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) that would complete the tax returns for people who didn’t file in a given tax year and for whom the agency has enough information in its records to do so. The fiscal watchdog estimated that if the CRA deploys the service this year, the amount of additional government benefits that could be paid to non-filers through the service could range from $1.6 billion in the 2024–25 fiscal year to $1.8 billion in 2028–29....