Poll of the Day > 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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Aren't they suppose to determine elegability before giving them the money?

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SKARDAVNELNATE posted...

Aren't they suppose to determine elegability before giving them the money?

No. They explicitly did not do that because the goal was to provide funds to those who were in urgent need.

Yes they should pay it back.

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SKARDAVNELNATE posted...

Aren't they suppose to determine illegibility before giving them the money?

Usually? Yes. In this case? No. It was an emergency and they clearly said people only needed to apply. People were idiots and should have made sure they were illegible before asking for free shit.

The government is 100% in the right in this case, and I am gonna guess it's the usual entitled regressives who are voting no to this poll.

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Trudeau is just a fucking awful leader.


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Zeus posted...

Trudeau is just a fucking awful leader.

Why?

This was all passed pretty much without conplaint from opposition parties. Everybody knew how this worked. The people who are getting burned by this are those who were hoping to game the system.

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Blightzkrieg posted...

Why?

This was all passed pretty much without conplaint from opposition parties. Everybody knew how this worked. The people who are getting burned by this are those who were hoping to game the system.

This. Just because lazy, stupid, entitled assholes are trying to get free shit, does not mean they were actually entitled to it.

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Kinda weird that us people with less than $5000 net income can't apply for it :V

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Blightzkrieg posted...

the goal was to provide funds to those who were in urgent need.

Somehow I think the people who didn't make at least 5000 the previous year might have been in need.

The_tall_midget posted...

People were idiots and should have made sure they were illegible before asking for free shit.

In other words: "I don't know what the requirements are. I'll apply and you tell me if I qualify." Like what people normally do.

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SKARDAVNELNATE posted...

In other words: "I don't know what the requirements are. I'll apply and you tell me if I qualify." Like what people normally do.

Uh oh do you owe your neetbucks back

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Lokarin posted...

Kinda weird that us people with less than $5000 net income can't apply for it :V

What? It makes perfect sense, what do you find weird about it? It was to replace INCOME that was lost due to COVID. If you made less than 5K net before Covid, then CERB was far, FAR more than wat you were earning. CERB was not a "throw free money at people who weren't paying their fair share in taxes," it was a lost income replacement.

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The_tall_midget posted...

What? It makes perfect sense, what do you find weird about it? It was to replace INCOME that was lost due to COVID. If you made less than 5K net before Covid, then CERB was far, FAR more than wat you were earning. CERB was not a "throw free money at people who weren't paying their fair share in taxes," it was a lost income replacement.

cuz as a relief there doesn't seem to be an upper limit - millionaires could claim it.

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Lokarin posted...

cuz as a relief there doesn't seem to be an upper limit - millionaires could claim it.

A RELIEF OF LOST INCOME! LOST INCOME, DAMN IT.

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I don't think CERB was the best thing in the world but the rules were really fucking simple and it's about nine months late to start complaining about it

If you owe money back you have nobody to blame but yourself.

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Yes they should have to pay it back. Why should someone making around 4000-5000 a year get 12000 from tax payers? Maybe just give them what they made the year before? You made 4400 in 2019, well you get 4400 CERB money.

If they were commiting fraud then they should pay it back. Unfortunately the government made a big flub and made some mistakes on their official websites that didn't mention it was net income instead of gross income. In that case the government should back off. as it was their own dumb mistake.

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Honour system. Theyll (government) have to take this as a learning lesson.

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Antbregante posted...

If they were commiting fraud then they should pay it back. Unfortunately the government made a big flub and made some mistakes on their official websites that didn't mention it was net income instead of gross income. In that case the government should back off. as it was their own dumb mistake.

The website did indeed mention gross, not net. The "3 simple questions", however, did not.