The Liberal government’s groceries benefit and one-time GST top-up announced in January will begin landing in Canadians’ bank accounts in June and July.
Earlier this year, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced the Canada Groceries and Essentials Benefit, which he said will boost what families and individuals receive through their GST rebate over the next five years.
The GST rebate is a tax-free payment targeted to low- and modest-income Canadians. Beginning in July, that quarterly rebate will increase by 25 per cent — and will stay at that higher level for the next five years.
The ongoing 25 per cent boost means a family of four that qualified for a maximum benefit of about $1,100 will get up to $1,400 annually going forward, while an individual that qualified for a maximum of around $540 will get about $700 a year instead.
Beginning in July, the GST rebate will be renamed the Canada Groceries and Essentials Benefit and should appear that way on bank statements.
Another part of the government’s affordability announcement in January is the Liberal government’s promise it would also give Canadians a one-time 50 per cent top-up to the GST rebate they received from July 2025 to June 2026.
That one-time top up will arrive on June 5.
The one-time boost will raise the $1,100 maximum a family of four received from July of last year until June of this year to $1,890 and increases the $540 an individual got to $950.
“We are offering this one-time payment to help with affordability and relieve some of that pressure for those who need it most,” Wayne Long, the secretary of state for the Canada Revenue Agency, said in a statement on Friday.
The income cutoff rate varies from year to year, depending on inflation, but in order to be eligible at all, you must be a Canadian resident for tax purposes and at least 19 years old.
For the 2024 tax year, which is what current payouts are based on, a single person with no kids who has an adjusted net income (income minus eligible deductions) of $56,181 or less will receive the GST rebate.
A married or common-law couple with two kids can receive the rebate if their family income is $66,841 or less.
The government estimates some 12 million people receive the GST rebate.
