The $500 per person promised by the Legault government to compensate for the high cost of living will probably not reach all those for whom they are intended.
In principle, the 6.4 million Quebec adults who do not earn more than $100,000 a year will each be entitled to $500 to offset the sharp rise in the cost of living, announced the Minister of Finance, Eric Girard, in its budget last week. In fact, tens of thousands of people, especially among the poorest, will not receive this money. Nor will they receive that other lump sum of $275 for single people and $400 for couples promised this fall specifically to the 3.3 million lower-income Quebecers, or several other social transfers, which all require you to file a tax return to qualify.
To questions from Homework on the subject, Revenu Québec replied that it “does not have an overall picture of individuals who do not file their income tax return”. Its own statistics indicate, however, that it received a total of just over 6.7 million in 2019, while the adult population of Quebec alone was approaching 7 million people.
Based on data obtained from Revenu Québec, the Department of Finance and Statistics Canada, the Chair in Taxation and Public Finance at the University of Sherbrooke arrives at similar proportions. It was calculated that the proportion of Quebecers aged 16 and over who submitted a tax return was just under 97% in 2018.
This proportion marks a good progression since the mid-1980s, when this figure was only 75%, explained by email to the Homework the professor and co-director of the Chair, Luc Godbout. This is due in particular to the fact that a growing number of tax assistance and benefit programs have been linked to the filing of income tax returns, whether or not one has income or taxes to pay. In addition to the special payments intended to offset the effect of inflation, we are thinking, for example, of the federal GST credit and its Quebec equivalent, the solidarity credit, the work premium, the Quebec family allowance, Canadian workers’ and children’s allowances, credit for home support, etc.
Pass Go and don’t claim $500
It is not uncommon to see that the people for whom these financial assistance programs would be intended are the very people who do not file tax returns, observed at the Homework Friday Francine Hamel, worker in collective defense of rights at the Cooperative Association of Family Economics of Quebec. “They are of all ages and come from all walks of life. It may be elderly and isolated people, drug addicts, people with criminal records, homeless people… Immigrants and refugees often do better because they are better supported. »
Many community organizations also offer the services of tax volunteers. This is particularly the case at Maison Benoît Labre, an organization that helps homeless people in Montreal. “They are the most vulnerable of the most vulnerable,” explains its general manager, Andréane Desilets. Often struggling with substance abuse or mental health issues, “some haven’t filed taxes for 20 years. And this appears to them a monstrous task”.
“Very disorganized,” others aren’t even on welfare, she says. “These are people who slip through the social safety net” and for whom a curb on the phenomenon of deinstitutionalization in mental health or better funding for community organizations would do more than the $500 from the government, which they will not collect anyway.