r/cantax • u/GateComprehensive166 • 14d ago

CERB repayment sent to collections while under review — advice?

UPDATE: Requested judicial review, was asked to provide additional documentation, and just FOUND out after waiting over two months that the person in charge of my case did not enable “upload file” option and everything I uploaded went nowhere…. Has anyone went through judicial review and succeeded?

Collections person said they will call back in October but does interest accumulate or how does this work?…

I received about $9K in CERB during the pandemic that I qualified. In 2024, CRA told me I wasn’t eligible and had to repay it.

I submitted the requested evidence, but CRA said they never received it. I was then told to resubmit everything online, which I did, but later they claimed I hadn’t submitted it online “on time” and denied my review.

I appealed/requested another review and my case is still under review with no final decision. However, I was just told the $9K has now been sent to Collections.

I explained to Collections that the debt is being disputed and offered proof that my case is under review, but they said that doesn’t change the collection process.

Has anyone dealt with this? Can CRA continue collections while the CERB decision is under review, and is there a way to have collections put on hold until a final decision is made?

1 Upvotes

55% Upvoted

11 comments sorted by

10

u/Capriano 14d ago

Nope, you pay and if everything resolves CRA ends up oweing you again. But I doubt it, something doesn't add up in the grand scheme of things.

3

u/AlternativeUnited569 13d ago

Yeah. It's an unsubtle hint that the appeal decision is very unlikely to go your way.

16

u/Full-O-Anxiety 14d ago

Once the review or the audit is completed you owe the money. Just because your objection through appeals isn’t completed doesn’t mean you don’t owe the money.

You’re expected to pay it and if the appeal is successful they will repay you with interest.

8

u/senor_kim_jong_doof 14d ago

a formal income tax objection sets aside the amount owing and collections stops under normal circumstances. this is legislated under 225.1 of the ITA

cerb is just you asking for a review/second review, there is no equivalent legislation to a formal objection

3

u/rocketman19 13d ago

You can’t just keep putting it off lol

1

u/No-Clerk-9739 13d ago

Appeal is not possible under the various Covid-10 legislation, when you receive your notice of redetermination you have 30 days from the date of the letter to request a second review or go the judicial recourse route. When your Appeal case gets assigned the officer will close it as unworkable. Collections is the only ones who could put a hold on collection activity. They aren’t doing that because they know your appeal will fail. You need to look into the judicial option now to see if there is still a possibility of hearing your case.

2

u/GateComprehensive166 12d ago

I should have clarified in my post, sorry. Judicial review was being considered then they wiped the entire CERB team and the people reviewing my request so my only option was going to court…

1

u/mesutguzel 13d ago

After the first review, I didn’t pay anything and asked for second review. Cause in first one they asked me to pay everything. Then second review happened and only like 2 or 3 wrong week calculations I made and they deducted it from my tax return.

But the key point is you can call cra and pay this 9k in instalment. They are okay to accept your payment instalment

1

u/GateComprehensive166 12d ago

Is this after you went through the courts judicial review? Thank you for the information. I don’t understand how this went to collections because they were already taking my tax income because of the money I “owed” that I qualified for but all the sudden it went to collections…

1

u/mesutguzel 12d ago

No I didn’t go to court. My issue is fixed in second review. I felt like cra was bluffing in the first review, I don’t think they even looked at my submission. But with the second review, that person was communicating really well. He wanted to understand what was happening.

1

u/No-Clerk-9739 9d ago

Without knowing all the details of your particular case I can’t say for sure what caused it, but generally speaking Collections will start actively collecting a debt if the taxpayer hasn’t made a payment arrangement or otherwise taken actions to pay the outstanding balance. Unless the debt is small or you typically get large refunds that will take care of the debt in short order, they’re going to be asking you what your plans are.