Back in the Philippines, we were told so many times that if we have a child or children, they are entitled to Child Care Benefit (CCB) per child. What if a couple do not have one or is single, what are they entitled for?
Okay, so if you have children, you must see to it that you fill up a form for CCB and mail them (This I cannot deal too much because you all know that we are only family of 2 so read about this if you have a child/ren). This will automatically entitles a couple with their combined Goods and Service Tax / Harmonized Sales Tax (GST/HST) credit so no need to fill up a form. I am sharing this based on my fellow PNPs experience who received their CCB and GST/HST at the same time.
What is a GST/HST Credit? It is a tax-free quarterly payment that helps individuals and families with low or modest incomes offset all or part of the GST or HST that they pay. In New Brunswick, we always pay 15% of HST on top of our bill. The 15% composes 5% of Federal GST and the remaining 10% is the provincial component. Read this NB HST because the tax per province varies.
Going back to benefits for couples and single individuals. What I did? I asked my friend google about GST/HST newcomer and guess what, google redirected me to Canada Revenue Canada (CRA) where a form is provided for us, newcomers, to fill up and mail to CRA. Still, unconvinced, LOL, I also called CRA to make sure that what I understand based on the link above is true and the customer service concurred to all what is in the website. The mailing address is provided in the form. Download the fillable/saveable pdf file then just fill it out, print, sign and viola, seal and mail to CRA. This is FORM RC151.
We mailed ours last September and after 3 months we finally received our check from CRA. The form will ask for your 2015 income so you just need to convert your income from whatever country you are coming from to Canadian Dollar. Your income in 2015 will be the basis for the computation of your GST/HST credit. For a couple you will received only 1 check for the both of you and I quote:
If you have a spouse or common-law partner, only one of you can receive the credit. The credit will be paid to the person whose return is assessed first. The amount will be the same, regardless of who (in the couple) receives it.
In the form, I gave the details for me and my husband. I also write there the details of our bank account in the form (so CRA can deposit it directly to our account) but according to customer service, when I inquired if they received our application, CRA will just send a check and the computation of our GST/HST credit. The credit is not as big as CCB but is still is a benefit for any permanent residents and citizen here in the Maple Leaf Country. Amazing right? Below is the check we received.
For newcomers, the GST/HST credit is computed retroactively and is based on when you landed here in Canada. The check we received is for 2 quarters but I will not share the computation for privacy purposes and for CRA as well. It also varies depending on your income so I believe the amount we received now will change next year considering that we came from a third world country where the Philippine Peso is so low compared to that of the Canadian Dollar. Let's wait and see next year.
For now, let's continue to learn and integrate on the Canadian way so always read and be informed. This will bring us far in every dream that we want to achieve.
