Now that personal tax season is here you will need to start gathering up all your tax slips to report your income and deductions for 2020. With a lot of institutions and businesses going paperless you will need to determine what tax slips may be coming by e-mail or that you need to sign into your account to download versus arriving in the mail.
Over the past year there have been many important benefit and assistance programs rolled out by the federal government to help individuals and businesses overcome the financial impacts of the pandemic. The Alberta provincial government has also taken action to support individuals and businesses, and has introduced several programs to benefit Alberta residents impacted by COVID-19. The following are a few of the most important Alberta COVID related benefits available, and information on how those eligible can apply.
Did You Work from Home in 2010 Due to COVID-19?
For the 2020 personal tax year, Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has created two new policies to go along with the existing Detailed Method of claiming home office expenses by an employee. These new policies make it easier for employees who were required to work from home due to COVID-19 in 2020 to claim a deduction for home office expenses on their 2020 personal tax returns.
The Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) is a new temporary measure to assist individuals facing a loss of work. The Benefit is available from March 15, 2020, to September 26, 2020. You can apply no later than December 2, 2020 for payments retroactive to within that period. Eligible applicants can receive a taxable benefit of $2,000 every four weeks for up to 28 weeks and is intended to support workers who have lost their income due to COVID-19 (NOTE – maximum eligibility was originally set at 16 weeks, however, in June this was previously extended for 8 additional weeks, and then on August 20, the program was further extended for an additional four week period up to September 26, 2020).
On January 26, 2021 the federal government announced a new loan program intended to provide support for businesses that have been the hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. This new program is called the Highly Affected Sectors Credit Availability Program (HASCAP), and offers a low interest loan to businesses that meet certain criteria.
On December 29, 2020 the federal government updated the Canada Summer Jobs (CSJ) website for the 2021 program. Applications for 2021 summer jobs are now open and will remain open until January 29, 2021 unless otherwise extended.