CRA wins one, loses one as government pursues pandemic benefits it deems questionable
More than 1,000 cases related to past COVID-19 benefits are now winding their way through Federal Court as taxpayers wage battle with the Canada Revenue Agency in the hopes of being able to hang on to their benefits as the government continues to try to claw them back from Canadians whom it determines were ineligible.
Many of the cases heard to date hinge on eligibility and whether the taxpayer can prove they qualified for the benefits in light of sometimes questionable evidence.
Two new COVID-19 benefit cases, decided earlier in July, give us a glimpse into the types of claims that are being reviewed and, consequently, denied. Each case involved the Canada Recovery Benefit (CRB).
The CRB was introduced in late September 2020, at the end of the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) program, and was designed to offer financial support to eligible Canadians affected by COVID-19. To be eligible for the CRB for a given two-week period, an individual must have earned at least $5,000 of (self-)employment income in 2019, 2020 or in the 12 months prior to the date of their first CRB application.
CRB benefits are most commonly selected for review when it’s unclear that the taxpayer earned at least $5,000 of income in a prior qualifying period. Each of the two recent cases involved taxpayers asked to prove they earned enough income.
The first case dealt with a taxpayer who had applied for the CRB for eight two-week periods, from December 2020 through May 2021. The taxpayer was contacted in August 2021 by a CRA agent who asked for proof that he had earned $5,000 prior to the first benefit period.
In response, the taxpayer submitted a cheque dated May 26, 2020, in the amount of $5,085 that he claimed to have earned as income as
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