3 CRA Benefits Most Canadians Can Grab in 2024

Do you know that there are many Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) benefits you can claim in 2024? It’s true. Most of the common ones, like Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) contributions, are well known. However, there are other benefits you can claim that aren’t so well publicized. In many cases, they aren’t calculated for you automatically by the CRA. So, you have to identify them and manually claim them.

In this article I will explore three such benefits you can claim in 2024.

Canada Workers Benefit

The Canada Workers Benefit (CWB) is a benefit available to all “low-income” Canadians. The threshold varies between $35,000 and $43,000 — it’s decided at a provincial level in some provinces. The Federal level is $43,000 — if you don’t live in Alberta, Quebec, or Nunavut, you are eligible at this level and below.

The payment schedule for the CWB is a little peculiar. You get two quarterly payments combined in a single lump sum that covers a half year, while the remaining two payments are paid quarterly and cover a quarter. The maximum amount is $1,428 per year for single Canadians and $2,461 for families. Be sure to claim this benefit if you are eligible for it, as it can save you a decent amount of money. For a single Canadian, the CWB and GST/HST cheques combined can be worth up to $1,924 per year.

GST/HST cheques

GST/HST cheques are quarterly payments you get from the Canada Revenue Agency if your income falls below a certain threshold ($52,500 for this tax year). You can get a certain amount as a single individual and even more if you are part of a family with children. The maximum amount you can get from GST/HST cheques as a single individual is $496 per year. You can get $650 per year if you are married with children.

Dividend tax credit

The dividend tax credit is a tax credit applied to dividends. The way it works is, you take the amount of dividends, increase them by 38%, and apply a 15% tax credit to that amount. The savings can be incredible.

Let’s imagine, for argument’s sake, that you held $10,000 worth of Fortis (TSX:FTS) shares at the start of last year in a taxable account.

In the scenario we’re going to consider, you held the shares early enough to get the fourth quarter payment, paying $53 per share. The amount of dividends you would have received is shown in the table below:

As you can see, you get $446 in dividends per year. If you had a 30% marginal tax rate and there were no dividend tax credits, you’d be left with $133.8 in taxes owing. Now, let’s look at how much you’d actually pay. Your grossed-up amount would be $615. The 15% tax credit on that would be $92.32. The pre-credit tax would be $184.5. Subtract the dividend credit from that and you’re left with just $92.18 in taxes owing — a tax savings of 31%!