From April 2020 to June 2022, Masse received more than $41,000 in government benefits — only to later get a letter from the Canada Revenue Agency saying he wasn’t eligible for the money, and that he had to pay it back.

According to the CRA, Masse did not meet the minimum net earnings of $5,000.

“I was stunned. I couldn’t believe it,” said Masse. “I would have never applied for anything that I did not qualify for.”

In early 2024, after months of back and forth, the CRA agreed he was entitled to some of the money. But he remains on the hook for about $27,000.

  • ZombieCyborgFromOuterSpace@piefed.caEnglish
    131·
    1 day ago

    The Canadian Revenue Agency is incredibly incompetent. It’s shameful. This COVID benefits fiasco is only one example.

    My in-laws have had problems with the CRA because they screwed up in their documentation about their taxes. They lost documents that had been sent to them during some office move or something. They have sent mail for 5 years where we’d receive up to 5 letters per week about either them owing money or the CRA owing them money or that everything balanced out, etc. Non stop. It was insane how many letters we received. The absolute waste in paper was incredible.

    Then my in-laws sold a property they had here. And because they are non-residents and they had all these problems with the CRA, the CRA decided to withhold the money from the sale of the property until everything was resolved. That’s several hundreds of thousands of dollars stuck in limbo. It’s been 3-4 years now. And I think after a certain number of years, if it hasn’t been resolved the CRA keeps the money. That’s a lifetime worth of savings that just gets seized because of their incompetence.

    Their notary is going nuts trying to reach the CRA and get some answers, but nobody picks up. It’s wild!