Yup. The CRA screwed this up big time. They told people he criteria was gross income, not net. Now thousands of Canadians are stressed about their financial situation at Christmas, solely because they took the government’s advice. https://twitter.com/paulvieira/status/1340140933275410432

Summary of what happened. A new program comes out, where, in the bill itself, the definition of “income” is left ambiguous.

Canadians naturally want to know if they qualify. Do they meet the $5,000 test? Does income mean “gross” or “net”?

The Finance Minister goes on national television and tells Canadians the test is based on REVENUE. Not profit, but revenue. Pretty unambiguous that the test is based on gross income, not net.

Some of them contact their MP, who says the same thing.

They go to the web, looking for info, and there is none.

So they call the CRA and get explicitly told that the test is based on gross income, not net.

In short: The Finance Minister, their local MP and a CRA agent all indicate the test is based on gross income.

Now the government’s spokespeople are all “you silly idjits, we don’t know where you got the idea that it’s gross income, these tests are always based on net. How stupid could you be to believe ‘gross’? But, don’t worry, when you lay back the money we won’t charge a penalty!”

Mistakes happen, doubly so when a program needs to be rushed. I get it. But the government shouldn’t penalize Canadians for mistakes the *government* made, and their continued insistence that small business owners were the ones at fault is wrong on so many levels.

And let’s be clear about this: had the government made this mistake for a program for big corporations, they’d do an about face in a nanosecond, knowing those corporate tax lawyers would take the gov’t to the woodshed.

But small businesses don’t have an army of attorneys.