Repaying CERB

This recent article on clawbacks of CERB demonstrates the difficulties taxpayers face in dealing with the CRA on their own:

““I was working at Little Ceasars (sic), Subway, Firehouse Subs, but I was reduced to only a shift or two a week or laid off permanently,” Beaumont said. In her mind, she was eligible to receive CERB, so she collected $19,000 through the pandemic.

““They make the rules and we have to follow them,” Kim said. “There’s no fighting with the CRA.””

Beaumont said a CRA agent reached out to her in September 2023 saying that she would have to pay back the full $19,000. She claims the agent failed to return dozens of phone calls over a month-long span, and only after leaving an angry voicemail did she receive a call back, saying to call the main number and try to find another agent.

“I spoke with a second agent who did a second review of my case at the end of January, and only near the end of February did I find out I was still ineligible,” Beaumont said. Throughout this process, Beaumont said the CRA is taking her GST payments, her Trillium Benefit and Climate Action Benefit as a way to pay back what she owes for CERB.

CTV News also heard from Tricia Clark who couldn’t understand how her 81-year-old father owed the federal government tens of thousands of dollars in CERB payments, when she claims he had no access to a computer to even apply.

“How could they allow an 81-year-old man to apply for CERB?” she said during a phone interview with CTV News. “He doesn’t know how to use a computer.”

She said her dad, Ralph Ceicko, lost the ability to take care of himself in 2018 and relied on the help of a live-in caregiver for a number of years.

Ceicko was placed in a nursing home in Sudbury, Ont. after neighbours reported issues with the caregiver to police and Clark was forced to move back to Ontario from Calgary to tend to her father.

She would soon learn that the caregiver had allegedly applied for CERB on Ceicko’s behalf and because Clark had no proof to show the caregiver deposited the government cheques and withdrew the money for herself, the CRA told Clark she’s on the hook to pay back the $21,000.

“We’ve only been able to pay back $2,500. Any GST money or tax refund goes straight to the CRA,” Clark said. She says at this time, she can only afford to pay the nursing home fees, which she claims have risen since he first joined the home. She’s not sure how they’ll be able to pay off the remaining $18,500 owed to the CRA.

“We just don’t have the money.””

“When businesses started temporarily shutting down at the beginning of the pandemic, Kim and Bryan Steeves of Okanagan Falls, B.C. weren’t too worried. Bryan, 67, was briefly laid off, so he applied for Employment Insurance (EI), doing so for eight weeks between May and June. However, when they attempted to apply again, the CRA said they had exhausted all their CERB benefits.Bryan eventually returned to work in August 2020. Three months later, they received a letter from the CRA saying they owed them $8,000 since they were not entitled to the CERB benefit. Instead of fighting it, they decided to pay it off in one lump sum.

“They make the rules and we have to follow them,” Kim said. “There’s no fighting with the CRA.”

The last quote from Kim Steeves is an unfortunate belief of many taxpayers. The CRA is constrained by legislation and that legislation is often misinterpreted or assumptions are made by the officer hearing the case that are inaccurate and have an unfavourable effect on the taxpayer. No one should have to face the CRA at appeals or the tax court without a tax professional on their side. We at ZheroTax understand the other side of the table because we are former CRA auditors, appeals and rulings officers who have chosen to get on the side of taxpayers in conflict with the CRA and apply our knowledge and experience to resolve these issues in the most favourable way possible to the taxpayer, including getting the tax assessment vacated. In addition, our business model always includes a contingency offer, so you know that we won’t take your case unless we believe we will win it. If you have a problem with the CRA get in touch for a free consultation and we’ll give you an honest assessment of the probability of winning your appeal and offer to do so on contingency if it is.