Richmond organizations that host free tax clinics will be catching a break from the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA).
CRA is investing more $10 million over three years to help non-profit organizations across the country, such as CHIMO and Richmond Multicultural Community Services, that help local residents fill out their taxes.
“We’re very happy to see that CRA is providing a grant to help offset the costs of running the tax clinic,” said Luke Lin, manager of Chimo’s Outreach and Advocacy and Settlement program, adding that Chimo hope to begin offering services to the community by the end of February.
“We believe it will go a long way towards ensuring these tax clinics remain sustainable for the organizations who host them.”
The new grant will help cover expenses such as office stationery, printers, document shredders and more. COVID-19 related costs including personal protective equipment, sanitation supplies and plexiglass dividers will also be covered.
Currently, community organizations that run tax clinics pay for those items out of their own pocket, and with the likely increase in demand for 2020, those costs could become significant, explained the CRA.
According to CRA reports, volunteers and community organizations filed over 467,500 tax returns for individuals across Canada and helped over 407,410 individuals during the 2019 to 2020 program year.
An additional 108,000 tax returns were also filed through virtual free tax clinics since May last year.
“We are so thankful to the community organizations that continue to offer free tax clinics despite the challenges related to COVID-19 that we are facing this tax season,” said Diane Lebouthillier, Minister of National Revenue.
“This grant stems from our People First approach to service and shows the CRA’s continuing support for the Community Volunteer Income Tax Program,” said Lebouthillier.
Organizations planning to apply for the grant must track their tax clinic expenses and the number of tax returns that their volunteers complete starting February 2021.
CRA will start accepting applications in May.
The new pilot project will run for three year.
