KITCHENER -- You may be owed hundreds -- or even thousands -- of dollars from the Canadian government.
A new section on the Canada Revenue Agency's website allows taxpayers to view and collect unpaid cheques.
In other words, money owed to you that has never been cashed.
The CRA says the new tool was part of soft launch but it wasn’t widely known until it was discovered by a Twitter user.
Now some taxpayers are finding out that they’re owed big bucks.
“It was just such a nice surprise,” says Katie Taylor.
She found out she’s owed $889 in CRA cheques dating back to 2015.
“I knew I must’ve missed a cheque here and there but I never knew how to go and check for it. So I checked my account and was pleasantly surprised to see a lot of money.”
There a lot of unclaimed money according to CRA spokesperson Adam Blondin.
“Over the last 20 years, approximately $1 billion in tax cheques issued by the Canada Revenue Agency have gone uncashed.”
The CRA says there are a lot of reasons why the money has not been paid out. The taxpayer could have moved or misplaced their cheque, or maybe just forgot about it like Taylor.
“This is money that belongs to Canadians,” says Blondin. “We want to make sure that it gets back into their pockets.”
Ashley Gallant checked the website after seeing a post on the TikTok app.
“I saw someone who’d done this and went on their CRA account and found money. So I thought I’d give it a try. I logged in and I was excited to find $180 from 2012.”
So naturally she shared the good news on social media.
“Some of these people I haven’t talked to in years,” she says. “Some were like ‘thank you so much, I’m crying because I found almost $900 that I didn’t know I had.’”
To search for unclaimed cheques log into your CRA account by clicking on “My Account.” Under “related services” look for “uncashed cheques.” Users have to fill out a form before any cheques can be issued.
