When you file taxes as a family, you might miss out on credits and other benefits due to lack of awareness. This means potentially leaving a significant amount of unclaimed money in Canada that you could have accessed.
Luckily, you can recover the funds you may have lost by not filing your taxes properly or forgetting to claim benefits you may have been eligible for.
Here are some ways to find unclaimed money in Canada with your income tax return this year.
Key Points
- Various services are available that will review your previous tax returns to see if there are any credits or benefits you missed.
- Alternatively, logging in to your CRA account is a simple way to see if you have any unclaimed cheques waiting to be cashed.
- If you have a spouse/common-law partner or children in your household, there may be several unclaimed family tax credits you may be eligible for.
How To Recover Unclaimed Money In Canada From The CRA
Although the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) oversees Canada’s tax system, filing your income taxes is your responsibility. If you’re unfamiliar with tax terminology, you might be missing out on unclaimed money from the CRA. Consider these steps to recover your unclaimed funds:
Check For Unclaimed Cheques
Every year, the CRA disperses millions of tax refunds and benefit payments across the country, by cheque or direct deposit. However, the CRA says that more than $1 billion in cheques have gone uncashed by Canadian taxpayers throughout the years due to changes of address or other common reasons that prevent delivery.
You can easily check for and claim possible uncashed cheques by:
- Logging into (or signing up for) CRA My Account
- Choosing “Uncashed Cheques” on the My Account “Overview” page
- If you have any unclaimed money, you simply have to complete and submit the online form that’s displayed in your My Account.
To avoid missing out on any uncashed cheques, simply apply for direct deposit. This will ensure all cheques are directly deposited into your bank account on time.
Check For Missing Credits And Benefits
If you don’t have a CRA My Account, you can always manually review your old tax returns to see if you’ve missed any credits or benefits that you were actually eligible for. A good tax accountant or consultant should be able to help you find missing tax benefits too.
Use Family Tax Recovery
Family Tax Recovery is a team of accountants that specializes in tax returns, tax filings, and tax reviews. They perform in-depth analyses of past tax returns and use tax codes to track down missed credits and benefits that eligible taxpayers haven’t claimed.
Unlike most other tax firms in Canada, Family Tax Recovery starts the refund process for free. They only charge fees after they find unclaimed tax money and are certain that it’s been delivered to your bank account or received as a CRA credit. Once you officially get your refund or CRA credit, Family Tax Recovery will take a 33% share of any money they’ve recovered as a fee for their service.
How Does It Work?
Using Family Tax Recovery is pretty simple. Just go to their website and follow their instructions:
- Provide Your Contact Info. To apply, you must give them personal details like your name, phone number(s), address and Social Insurance Number (SIN).
- Fill Out A Refund Request Form. Next, you’ll need to fill out their “refund maximization” form. Generally, tax refunds are larger for married couples with children who have been filing their tax returns for the past 10 years.
- Sign The Authorization Form. Once your SIN and refund have been validated, you’ll get access to your Personal Page, which will have any updates to your file.
- Get A Refund Specialist. After you sign up, Family Tax Recovery assigns you a tax refund expert. Most reviews lead to tax refunds of a few hundred to a few thousand dollars.
Unclaimed Money In Canada: Types Of Family Tax Credits You May Have Missed
If you’re part of a Canadian household, you may qualify for the tax benefits, whether credits or deductions below.
What’s the difference? Tax credits reduce the amount of tax you owe, dollar for dollar, while deductions lower your taxable income, which in turn reduces the tax you owe based on your tax rate.
Keep in mind that other conditions could apply, so contact the CRA for more information if you are unsure:
Canada Child Benefit
This non-taxable CRA benefit helps eligible families cover the cost of raising children under 18. Children with disabilities will receive an extra amount for the Child Disability Benefit.
It’s paid once a child is registered (just after birth) and stops when they turn 18. Spouses/common-law partners must file their tax returns together to get the CBB yearly.
Child Medical Expenses
If you’re a Canadian, you can claim medical expenses that you’ve paid for. The maximum amount you can claim is the lesser of these two amounts: 3% of your net income or $2,635.
Childcare Expense Deduction
If you pay a babysitter or other specialist to care for your child while you go to school or work, you can deduct those expenses from your gross income. Annual limits vary based on your child’s age and, if they have an approved disability, they may get a higher limit. You can also claim advertising or placement agency fees related to finding a specialist.
Provincial Child Fitness Tax Credits
Most provinces and territories have now cancelled their fitness tax credits and children’s art amounts. Currently, there are only three exceptions in Canada:
- Quebec – Eligible Quebec residents are allowed to claim the Tax Credit For Children’s Activities, which allows parents to claim up to $500 in related fees paid per child.
- Manitoba – The Manitoba fitness amount covers up to $500 in eligible fees per family member. The children’s art amount pays up to $500 in fees for children under 16 who are enrolled in an art program, with an extra $500 for disabled children.
- Yukon – Yukon residents can get the same children’s art amount as Manitobans, as well as the Yukon children’s fitness tax credit, which pays up to $1,000 in fees per child under 16, with an additional supplement of $500 for disabled children.
RESP
A Registered Education Savings Plan lets you save for your child’s future by entering a contract with a bank, insurer, or another subscriber. Once you name at least one child as a beneficiary, the CRA registers the contract as an RESP, then sets the contribution limit and available grants for each child.
Contributions are not deductible because you make them after paying income taxes. When the RESP matures, the funds go to your child.
Canada Caregiver Amount
If you or your spouse/common-law partner has a child with a disability or infirmity, you can claim the Canada Caregiver Amount on their behalf, for as many children as you have. If you’re a single parent in a shared custody agreement, only the parent who claims the Eligible Dependent Amount can claim the Canada Caregiver Amount for the same child.
Children’s Special Allowances (CSA)
The children’s special allowances program gives payments to agencies/institutions (federal, provincial, and territorial) that provide childcare, such as children’s aid societies. CSA payments occur monthly and are equal to the Canada Child Benefit (CCB), plus the Child Disability Benefit (CDB), if the child qualifies for the Disability Tax Credit (DTC).
How To Find Benefits You’re Eligible For?
If you’d like to know which tax perks your household is eligible for, you can use the child and family calculator on the Government of Canada website. Remember, the accuracy of the calculator’s results may vary based on the information you provide. Additionally, the CRA will never contact you by text or instant message, so watch out for scams.
Do You Have Any Unclaimed Property?
If you live in (or have ever lived in) BC, Alberta, or Quebec, you may be able to look for forgotten property that has yet to be claimed.
Unclaimed property refers to assets like bank accounts, pension funds, tax refunds, inheritances, stocks, and insurance policy payouts that are managed by a financial institution and have not been claimed for at least 10 years.
Banks will make an attempt to contact the account owners. But without luck, funds from inactive properties like these are eventually transferred to the Bank of Canada, which is operated by the Canadian government. Accounts with less than $1,000 in assets are held for no more than 30 years, and accounts with over $1,000 are held for 100 years.
How Do You Know If You Have Any Unclaimed Property?
You can use the Bank Of Canada search tool to help you find any unclaimed property or money. You simply need to add your name, city and province to the search.
Did You Claim All Your Unclaimed Money In Canada?
If you’re part of an eligible Canadian household, you may be able to access a whole range of tax credits, deductions, and benefits in your name or those of your spouse/common-law partner and children.
In fact, there are plenty of ways to find unclaimed money in Canada from the CRA, such as using services like the Family Tax Recovery, looking in your CRA My Account, or conducting your own research.
Unclaimed Money In Canada FAQs
Can I deduct childcare expenses?
- You or your spouse went to school
- Your spouse has or had a disability
- You were separated
Can I get disability benefits for my child?
- Infirm dependents who are 18 or older
- The caregiver amount
- The disability amount transferred from a dependent
