The Canada Recovery Sickness Benefit provides $500 ($450 after taxes withheld) per week for up to a maximum of six weeks, for workers who:
- are unable to work for at least 50% of the week because they contracted COVID-19
- are self-isolated for reasons related to COVID-19
- have underlying conditions, are undergoing treatments or have contracted other sicknesses that, in the opinion of a medical practitioner, nurse practitioner, person in authority, government or public health authority, would make them more susceptible to COVID-19.
This benefit is available until May 7, 2022.
https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/benefits/recovery-sickness-benefit.html
The Canada Worker Lockdown Benefit provides $300 a week to eligible workers who are unable to work due to a temporary local lockdown anytime between October 24, 2021 and May 7, 2022.
The benefit is only available when a COVID-19 lockdown order is designated for your region.
https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/benefits/worker-lockdown-benefit.html
The CRA recently provided an important update to its My Account (MyA) services. Starting in February 2022, the CRA will require taxpayers to provide their email address to use MyA as an additional security measure to protect taxpayers’ personal information. When the changes are made, taxpayers will be prompted for their email address upon logging in to MyA if there is not one already on file. If an email address is not provided, the taxpayer will lose their access to MyA. The CRA is suggesting that taxpayers provide their email addresses before February to avoid delays.
Taxpayers should keep in mind that by providing their email addresses before February 2022, they will no longer receive paper correspondence from the CRA. Instead, they will be sent an email notification whenever they have received CRA correspondence which they can then download by logging into their MyA. However, starting in February 2022, all users (including taxpayers who provided their email addresses before February 2022) will be given the option to receive CRA correspondence by mail or an email notification by logging into their MyA and selecting their preferred option.
The federal government recently announced that the automobile income tax deduction limits and expense benefit rates will be increased for 2022. For further details, see Finance Canada’s news release.
Today, the government announced that the repayment deadline for CEBA loans to qualify for partial loan forgiveness is being extended from December 31, 2022, to December 31, 2023, for all eligible borrowers in good standing.
Repayment on or before the new deadline of December 31, 2023, will result in loan forgiveness of up to a third of the value of the loans (up to $20,000).
Outstanding loans would subsequently convert to two-year term loans with interest of five per cent per annum commencing on January 1, 2024, with the loans fully due by December 31, 2025.
The government also announced that the repayment deadline to qualify for partial forgiveness for CEBA-equivalent lending through the Regional Relief and Recovery Fund is extended to December 31, 2023.
The full press release can be viewed at this link.