Chris Treftlin
It is that time of year. What time is that you ask? Well tax filing time of course. I have written about various tax credits in the past. The most utilized in the Disability Tax Credit, also known as T2201 because of the form that the Canadian Revenue Agency (CRA) needs to process it. There are others. I encourage you to visit our website shineathome.ca and go to the articles page. There you will get the details. Better still if you use a good tax preparer ask them to walk you through what is available.
In this article I will walk you through how to get ALL of the information you will need to maximize your benefits and tax entitlements. That is correct, I said entitlements. Under the tax code of Canada, as a taxpayer you have entitlements. To the CRA’s credit (sorry for the pun), there is an online tool that takes only a few minutes that will outline all the potential benefits that could be available to you.
It is called “Benefits Finder”
And by logging into the website and taking a short survey, you will be given a list of government programs and tax credit options that I guarantee you did not realize were even a possibility. No need to worry about providing personal information like social insurance number, name, or address. That is because the survey does not want that information. Just answer the questions that reflect your situation.
Here is how you get the information. First, go to your search engine of preference Bing, Yahoo, Google, and type in “Benefits Finder Canada”. The results will populate, and the first option should be:
https://www.canada.ca/en/services/benefits/finder.html
Now, click on the link and watch the magic start to happen. Here you make the selection “Go to Benefits Finder”. What happens next is a short survey. Select your province, COVID Status, age, and income estimate. Then the survey asks if you want to provide a little more information. Please, please say “yes”. By doing so you allow the website survey to do a better job for you. Again, the whole survey took me less than 5 minutes.
Once you submit the survey a list is generated of various provincial and federal benefits that you could be entitled to. There is that word again. I did the survey for a fictional man in his 80’s, widowed, and living in his home with a moderate income. The results came back with a list of 25 different benefits. They included Assistive Devices Program, Home and Vehicle Modification Program, Ontario Drug Benefits Program: Reduced Co-payments for Low-income Seniors, Senior Homeowner’s Property Tax Grant, and there is more.
Now is where the rubber hits the road. You need to do some homework here. Click on the listed link that you are interested in reviewing and see if it applies to your situation. One program that few people know about is the rebate on HST for private homecare services when the client also has homecare services coordinated by Ontario Health at Home – https://ontariohealthathome.ca/
This link reviews the benefit. So, here if you get visits from a government funded program. Youn can also get the HST back from a private provider. Making the care more affordable and perhaps allowing a senior to remain in their home longer.
BTW, our focus is for seniors. However, this program works for all taxpayers.
There you have it. Some really good information for you to start reducing your expenses. Remember you are entitled to them.
Good luck, and good hunting!
