CRA seems to want to claw back GST credit payments and carbon climate

[New_Resident]

I informed I went away from Canada but returned on June 11, and did not leave after that through 2023, informed Turbotax my residency for tax purposes did not changed, given I was out vacationing and was not less than 182 days from Canada, and have also residential ties here such as a mobile phone, credit , debit card and bank account.

Despite all of the above and CRA accepting netfile, and giving express NOA, with Notice of Assessment for March 14, looking at my benefits portion of CRA account, they are saying I must pay back GST / HST credit and carbon climate payment from 2023, should I wait until CRA does formal Notice of Assessment ?

[mauliz0001]

Wait and see! Once you have Netfiled your tax report, I don’t see any point in trying to fix it after the fact. I suggest you just wait for your NOA and act accordingly. Don’t worry 

[TurboTaxGinette]

Yes, it is always recommended to wait for your Notice of Assessment received after the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has assessed your return as you indicated, on March 14th. If there are any questions at that time it will be best to contact the CRA at 1-800-959-8281.

Thank you for choosing TurboTax.

[New_Resident]

Seems issue is solved, or at least in process of being solved. CRA informed me any dates entered when doing tax income filing will be considered like you severed residential ties to Canada and therefore that is where the issue arose.

TurboTax never mentioned this, simply asked did you leave Canada , but not clarified vacation trips are excluded otherwise it upsets everything and now have to prove it was just a vacation, wished TurboTax did better job to understand those questions. What is worse, you have to mail clarification cannot refile or electronically modify anything, so it takes months to fix issue.

[TurboTaxGinette]

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We will mention it to our development team.

Thank you for choosing TurboTax.

[Spiritual]

Hi,

Just wondering if you solved this issue by contacting CRA? I am having the same issue and all of a sudden I started getting notices that I owe them money! I would really appreciate if you could share what steps did you take to solve your issue.

Thank you

[New_Resident]

Oh I understand you, I also got concerned. Turbo tax did not do a good job when explaining what entering dates means, despite that I chose that "residency status was not affected" and puts you in a ton of problems.

So you have to call CRA, which takes more than an hour or close to that if you are lucky, they transfer you to someone who specialize itself in residency status, I explained that dates entered there are only of a temporary travel, but that I never meant to leave the country or not return.

They told me clarification was needed to be mailed in, no way to electronically fix misunderstanding, and means it takes month for CRA to act on letter sent. It was over a month ago, so do not recall which form was used, best is to call CRA to also let them know.

[Spiritual]

Hi,

Thank you so much for a quick reply. I am waiting to get in touch with CRA. Just called them. Hopefully it will help. Thanks again!

[TurboTaxBrenda]

A mistake unfortunately many people make is when it asks if you left the country - you say "YES". This question is not asking if you went on vacation out of the country- Therefore if you did leave the country to go on a vacation and returned you should answer "NO" to the question- did you leave the country?

Thank you for choosing TurboTax.

[New_Resident]

Problem is that is not clarified anywhere simply says "Did you leave country ?", and despite sending letter to CRA over 2 months ago, I got now a "notice of collection" I hope it does mean anything bad, but just really annoying all the problems this gets you to.

No only do you not get tax benefits, but on top of that, shows I am owing many previous benefits that they are clawing back.

Will wait and see, however very frustrated with TurboTax not being crystal clear on this point.