Ottawa·NewA local social services organization is welcoming the Liberal government’s plan to roll out an automatic tax filing system for low-income Canadians as part of the federal budget, saying the program should’ve come sooner.The federal government says the new system will help 5.5 million low-income CanadiansJodie Applewaithe · CBC News · Posted: Oct 10, 2025 5:45 PM EDT | Last Updated: 1 hour agoPrime Minister Mark Carney announced the roll out of an automatic tax filing system for low-income Canadians at a news conference in Nepean on Friday. (Félix Desroches/CBC)A local social services organization is welcoming the Liberal government’s plan to roll out an automatic tax filing system for low-income Canadians as part of the federal budget, saying the program should’ve come sooner.Prime Minister Mark Carney announced the measure at a news conference in Nepean on Friday, where he also promised to make the national school food program permanent and extend the Canada Strong Pass.Carney announces long-awaited automatic tax filing, makes school food program permanentHe said the program, which will begin in the 2026 tax year, will help file tax returns for five and a half million low-income Canadians by 2028.”I think this is a great idea and one that is long overdue,” said Peter Tilley, CEO of the Ottawa Mission.A step forward, some sayAdvocates have long been calling for this kind of system. The former Liberal government under Justin Trudeau first announced an automatic tax filing system in the 2020 throne speech, before committing to implement the program in the 2023 budget. But the pilot that followed recycled another program that saw little uptake.Advocates hopeful new auto-tax filing system could help low income families break evenOttawa wants to automatically file taxes for low-income Canadians — and perhaps eventually for everyonePeople who owe taxes are required by law to file returns to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) each year. But thousands of Canadians miss out on benefits by not filing taxes as they do not expect to owe the government anything.Jennifer Robson, an associate professor at Carleton University, said it’s a pattern that’s common among people living on modest incomes.She was an authors of a 2020 study on tax filing that found about 12 per cent of working age Canadians don’t file their taxes, based on 2015 data. Based on further research, Robson said she estimates the CRA has enough information to pre-file about one third of the returns the agency receives in a given year.”This is a good step forward,” she said of the Liberal government’s announcement.”There have been a lot of voices who’ve been calling for change and I think it’s nice to see something actually hard in a commitment that we can point to and look forward to seeing this actually roll out.”Each spring, the Ottawa Mission runs a tax clinic in partnership with the firm H&R Block to file returns for people experiencing homelessness. Peter Tilley, CEO of the Ottawa Mission, says the Liberals’ automatic tax filing system could have a positive impact on many of the clients his organization serves. (Simon Lasalle/Radio-Canada)Tilley said the new system announced by the Carney government could lighten the tax clinic’s case load and have a positive impact on the people the program serves. “With a lot of our clientele, many of them are suffering from substance use issues. Many of them have mental health issues. Many of them are just trying to survive day by day on the streets or between shelters,” Tilley said. “They wouldn’t think of filing taxes — that it’s necessary. “Some of the clients the Ottawa Mission serves also face challenges filing their taxes, Tilley added. They may not have access to the technology or documentation they need to submit their returns.’The devil’s always in the details’Despite his optimism, Tilley is waiting until November to learn more about the automatic filing system from the Carney government’s first federal budget.”The devil’s always in the details, isn’t it?” he said.Robson also has questions about how the system will work.She wonders what income thresholds the government will use to determine who’s eligible for automatic tax filing and how the CRA will obtain some of the data needed for the returns.”Then last but not least, I think there’s still an outstanding question of exactly how automatic this will be,” she said. “Will the onus really be on individuals to participate in a simplified filing process or is this truly going to be more about putting the onus on the tax agency in cases where they already have really good information?” ABOUT THE AUTHORJodie Applewaithe is an associate producer with CBC Ottawa. You can reach her at jodie.applewaithe@cbc.ca
‘Long overdue’ say those who welcome the Liberals’ promised automatic tax filing system
