Free tax help for people with low incomes

It's the time of year many people dread. But for people on low fixed incomes filing annual taxes can be confusing, frustrating and even scary. That fear can lead to many not filing at all. To make the process less intimidating the Canadian Revenue Agency has a list of free tax clinics across the country.

In Calgary, Momentum offers a number of local options in its Tax Filing Support Campaign. Donna McBride is the manager of operations and says Calgarians risk losing out on thousands of dollars in benefits.

"People who live on low incomes often face barriers to filing their taxes," she said. "Whether it's the time to get to a tax filing clinic because they're working or in many cases working more than one job, they have a family, maybe language is a barrier, and maybe fear is a barrier and mistrust."

McBride says the free tax clinics want to break down those barriers and help people to file their taxes because she says it can increase their monthly income by accessing some of the benefits they're entitled to but might not know about.

"Any benefits that people are entitled to that they haven't claimed are retroactive," said McBride. "Some of these benefits, like the GST credit, like the Child Tax Credit, extra benefits beyond that can really make a difference in the monthly lifestyle of a family struggling to get by."

Julia Nicholls is the empowerment manager at Rise Calgary and helps coordinate clients with professionals in its free tax clinic. Nicholls says tax season just started and it already has 100 people on the waiting list to receive free help.

"In the past for our tax clinic we've seen a lot of multi-year filings coming our way so much so that we saw a 64 per cent increase last year multi-year filings," she said. "So a lot of people coming to us to receive that assistance to get benefits and to stay current."

Nicholls says clients also receive financial coaching, knowledge and resources after their tax appointment for anything that they may need and anything that might be relevant to their situations.

This is the second year in a row Julie Broad is using the free services at Rise Calgary to help her file taxes. She's confused by the process and was more than happy with the help she received for her 2020 claim because she learned she was missing out on some benefits.

"What I did find out was to apply for Canada Pension Plan Disability benefits because I am on AISH (Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped) and I have multiple sclerosis," said Broad. "I had no idea that I can apply for this, which will put me in a different tax bracket I guess."

McBride says it's important that people have access to trusted community partners to help with things like income taxes. That's the gap that Momentum is trying to fill, to be that trusted, accessible tax partner.

"If you know somebody who lives on the low income that may not be filing their taxes or might be afraid, help them," she said. "Help them get somewhere where help is readily available and the long term benefits for that person could be really significant."

Learn more about Momentum here: www.momentum.org