CERB repayment demand fraud

CERB repayment demand fraud

Started
December 6, 2020
Victory
This petition made change with 1,670 supporters!

Why this petition matters

Started by Murray Financial Solutions

MP Paul Manly approved petition directly to the House of Commons, need 500 signature please

Another petition for the same cause that has gone viral, please sign this also.

***UPDATE*** is below

CRA Finally Admits They Were Wrong!!! This will be fixed :)

The CERB was available to anybody who had business/self employment income of $5,000 or over as stated on the CERB website. Along with many other eligible people but I am focusing on this part.


The CRB is available to anybody who had NET business/self employment income of $5,000 or over as stated on the CRB website. Along with many other eligible people but I am focusing on this part.


The Canada Revenue Agency has now 9 months later decided to throw the word NET onto the CERB therefor making a TON of business owners no longer eligible for the CERB and are now demanding the money back. The word NET is still not even on the CERB website, it is only on these collection letters they are now sending out.

For example, some of these people are business owners who were forced to close their doors because the government decided they were nonessential. They were forced to close, they still had to pay rent, utilities, insurance, and countless other bills for the business while this happened.
Before you even mention the rent subsidy........ that had to be applied for by the owner of the commercial property. The government would give the owner 50% of the rent, the business owner would give 25% and the owner of the property would lose out on 25%. Out of all the businesses that I represent......... every single one of them were basically told by the property owner to pay 100% of the rent or get out.
When I personally called the CRA out on this, i was told "NET is what was implied and meant all along".

No where was this in writing, no where was this mentioned for the CERB and now they are pulling this, and it is screwing over business owners more than they already have. They cannot do this.............. or can they because you cannot fight the government and ever win......... only time will tell on this one, but I am trying my best to make it happen.

Bill C-13 passed in Parliament for CERB funding, again no mention of NET;

worker means a person who is at least 15 years of age, who is resident in Canada and who, for 2019 or in the 12-month period preceding the day on which they make an application under section 5, has a total income of at least $5,000 — or, if another amount is fixed by regulation, of at least that amount — from the following sources:
(a) employment;
(b) self-employment;

https://www.parl.ca/DocumentViewer/en/43-1/bill/C-13/third-reading/#ID0E01C0AA

I have been in contact with multiple news stations and local papers so far. CTV is the only one to get back to me and they missed including especially important parts of our interview. They pick and chose what to put in and some of it seems out of context. Overall, I am happy that the wheels started turning on this because of the article but not happy with the way the article was written. Other options are being weighed now on how to further pursue this.

CRA call agents were given wrong info on CERB eligibility, union head says

NDP Petition

NDP requests emergency debate over this!!!

Finance Minister of Canada stating $5,000 revenue, not net.

NDP say scrap it

Trudeau says CERB recipients shouldn't worry about repayments right now

Police CERB after the fact? Good luck with that

5 reasons CRA should give up fight

Statement from the Taxpayers’ Ombudsperson

https://www.newhamburgindependent.ca/news-story/10286454-waterloo-region-business-owner-who-saw-cerb-as-a-lifeline-left-in-limbo-during-covid-19-as-repayments-loom/

https://www.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=2105067&jwsource=rdt

https://www.thestar.com/business/2020/12/14/even-the-cras-own-agents-were-confused-about-cerb-eligibility-requirements-self-employed-recipients-say-after-receiving-letters-they-may-have-to-pay-it-all-back.html

https://www.ctvnews.ca/mobile/health/coronavirus/cra-quietly-updated-website-for-cerb-eligibility-weeks-after-applications-opened-1.5232713?fbclid=IwAR1sjhKfv69_QAFpwWEPCzLkFHQauuKMNvcdvH3yv00n3hVsV_XLl5rg140

https://www.caledonenterprise.com/news-story/10286087-self-employed-cerb-recipients-shocked-by-cra-letters-saying-they-may-have-to-pay-it-all-back-i-don-t-know-how-people-are-going-to-survive-/

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canadians-told-to-pay-back-cerb-cra-1.5834950

https://www.thestar.com/business/2020/12/09/self-employed-cerb-recipients-shocked-by-cra-letters-saying-they-may-have-to-pay-it-all-back-i-dont-know-how-people-are-going-to-survive.html

https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/unclear-wording-of-cerb-eligibility-means-some-recipients-asked-to-pay-everything-back-1.5218791

https://www.narcity.com/en-ca/money/repaying-the-cerb-even-more-canadians-may-be-asked-to-pay-before-the-end-of-2020

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/personal-finance/video/some-canadians-asked-to-repay-full-cerb-funds-received-by-year-end~2094823

https://youtu.be/wuS-ayFf2_U

https://www.narcity.com/en-ca/money/cerb-repayments-should-be-scrapped-before-2021-says-green-party-leader

https://youtu.be/tkeRV0yxmlw

https://www.wealthprofessional.ca/news/industry-news/fallout-of-cerbs-rushed-rollout-reaches-self-employed-canadians/336039

https://www.narcity.com/en-ca/news/cerb-dominated-canadian-google-searches-in-2020-people-have-so-many-questions

https://www.vice.com/en/article/z3vzbe/some-self-employed-canadians-need-to-pay-back-all-their-cerb-government-says

https://www.nationalobserver.com/2020/12/10/news/greens-cra-canadians-told-pay-back-cerb

https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2020/12/10/greens-slam-scrooge-like-cra-as-many-canadians-told-to-pay-back-cerb.html

https://globalnews.ca/news/7513742/self-employed-cerb-repayments-tax-fix/

https://castlegarsource.com/news/column-hill-cerb-injustices?fbclid=IwAR0rXjjrdM6Nqdd8beQsVWEym3Gpqi1Bw4_VmwftAcfpGk9E5g5d2j6uWEQ

 

***UPDATE***

Thank you for the support on this so far. Please share this to ALL social media platforms you have available to you.

I now have voice recordings of phone calls with CRA agents confirming and telling Canadians that it is $5,000 gross income and that they were okay to apply for the CERB with under $5,000 net and have nothing to worry about. I have all sorts of documentation and screenshots that validate everything I am trying to do. I have reached out to all the sources below trying to share this information.

I have been in contact with CTV news, CKCO news, Waterloo Region Record, Cambridge Times, New Hamburg Independent, Kitchener Post and Waterloo Chronicle. As of today, Doug Ford's office, Justin Trudeau's office, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, CBC news and the CFIB have been contacted as well.

My hope is this gains enough traction. They have amended the CERB, CRB, CEWS, CEBA and many other benefits that they made available, several times. If this error on their part is made public enough, this will be amended too.

I have heard from many of you from every province of Canada and I feel for all of you over this. I started all of this because I have multiple clients that have been affected by this one-word NET and it is not fair. The CRB was clear on NET, why was the CERB not? I will do everything within my power to have this changed.

The only thing we can do for now is keep sharing this, getting more signatures, and reaching out to whoever in the media or government that you think can help. If you have any ideas or know someone you can contact, please do. Also please contact your MP.

I have heard from quite a few of you that your accountant/bookkeeper/tax preparer have recommended doing a T1 adjustment to your 2019 Income Taxes as a quick fix and removing expenses from your income and that everything will be fine if you do that. I DO NOT recommend this. You cannot receive a letter from the CRA, modify your 2019 income taxes with 24 days to go in 2020 and think that the CRA is just going to be okay with this. If you do choose to go this route, be prepared for an audit and future flagging on your accounts with the CRA or possibly worse.

The work I have put in so far on the petition and contacting everyone I have, the interviews and talking to the many people from every corner of Canada via phone and email that this has affected, has taken up every second of free time that I have and more. I am not doing this for money (my clients that have been affected, have not, nor will they be charged a dime from me for any of this) or for any reason other than I do no think what is happening is right and I will do what I can to right it. I run two businesses and work a p/t midnight shift job, three 10’s a week. I am doing the best I can on this and will continue to do so.

Had a very nice couple call me from Manitoulin Island, Ontario today and we had a great conversation about their situation and what they could do. After referring them to this petition, they donated $20 to the petition and called me back to ask if I received it. Just to clear things up, no money given to the ‘promote this promotion’ link goes to me. This goes to change.org 100% and they distribute the petition to potential supporters.  

There is a private facebook group that has been started today for this, link is;

https://www.facebook.com/groups/cerb.stay.together

Another great group;

https://www.facebook.com/groups/canada.emergency.response.benefit/

 

 

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