Checks from $400 to $600: the aid promised by Legault paid from the end of November

Finance Minister Eric Girard confirmed that starting at the end of November, taxpayers will receive, as promised, $400 to $600 to counter inflation, an amount that many consider insufficient, especially for the most destitute.

• Read also – Increase in the key rate: no question of improving checks by $400 and $600

• Read also – Legault’s 600 PIASTRES, many questions

After an initial tax credit of $275 to $400 at the start of the year for the less well-off, followed by an amount of $500 last spring, 6.5 million taxpayers will be entitled, by the end of December , to another boost from the government to face the increase in the cost of living.

“All those who will be 18 years old on December 31, 2022 will be eligible”, indicated the Minister of Finance, in a press briefing.

Eligible taxpayers (see below) who have filed their 2021 tax return will automatically obtain, by direct deposit or with a check, from $400 to $600, depending on their income.

Those who have not yet submitted their tax report will have until June 30 to do so and receive the amount to which they are entitled, in addition to the potential credit of $500 granted last spring.

Beware of fraudsters!

“It is important to repeat that no action is required on your part,” warned Mr. Girard, recalling that “the government will not send any message, text or telephone” concerning this one-time assistance.

“These messages are attempts at fraud,” recalled the Minister of Finance, who will implement other measures of the CAQ’s “anti-inflation shield” during an economic update on December 8.

For more targeted assistance

For the poorest, “it is obvious that this aid of $600 will be clearly insufficient,” reacted the spokesperson for the Collective for a Quebec without Poverty, Serge Petitclerc.

While he agrees that “$600 help can be a nice boost,” in most cases, the amount will quickly be spent on unpaid bills, rising grocery bills, and buying clothes. of winter.

• Listen to the Montpetit-Déry meeting broadcast live every day at 1 p.m. 55 via QUB-radio :

“Unfair”

Like the Collectif, the three opposition parties find it “unfair” that people earning $100,000 are entitled to $400.

“It is the most disadvantaged who are the first to suffer the effects of the general increase in costs. Not to mention the seniors whose income is not increasing,” commented Frédéric Beauchemin, Liberal Finance Critic.

“A household where two adults earn $100,000 will get $800 and a single mother earning $30,000 will get only $600, whereas she is the one who is hit hard by runaway inflation: it’s not not serious,” lamented his Quebec solidaire counterpart, Haroun Bouazzi.

Parti Québécois MP Pascal Bérubé finds it unworthy that the CAQ continues in the “way of checks” for those earning less than $100,000.

“It’s too broad a measure, sending $800 to families earning $200,000 a year, while some are in dire need,” he criticized.

A new check to counter inflation

• Cost of the measure: $3.5 billion
• Amount of $400 to $600, adjusted according to income
• $600 (maximum amount) for 4.6 million winning individuals $50,000 and less
• The amount of $600 will gradually decrease for incomes above $50,000to settle at $400 from $54,000
• 1.5 million individuals, whose income is between $54,000 and $100,000will receive $400
• For those earning more than $100,000the amount of $400 will gradually decrease to $0 with an income of $104,000 or more.

♦ To determine his eligibility, it will be necessary, as was the case with the $500 announced last March, to refer to his “net” income, that is to say not that after taxes, but all of their earnings, less certain deductions such as those for contributions to an RRSP or a pension plan.