Real Tax News: Tax Filing Season 2026 Full of Surprises

When CRA officially opened the electronic floodgates on tax filing season on February 23 this year, it was with a number of pieces of news. Did you know, for example, that the GST/HST Credit has now been officially renamed the Canada Groceries and Essentials Benefit (CGEB)? You get it by filing a tax return and interacting with CRA’s new digital services, which unfortunately still refer to the old name – the GST/HST Credit. It’s just one of those “game changers” that make Real Tax News with Evelyn Jacks and Friends, starting this week for its second season, so valuable to Canadians. 

The Canada Groceries and Essentials Benefit. It’s targeted to help low and middle income earning families pay for the regressive effects of the GST/HST – and now inflationary effects - on their consumer purchases. So that includes singles, students, seniors and low income families in particular.

The government notes in its news released that an eligible family of four could get up to $1,890, and about $1,400 a year for the next four years. Whereas, an eligible single person could receive up to $950 this year, and roughly $700 a year for the next four years.

But who is eligible? You’ll have to dig a little deeper to understand this. Knowledge Bureau has deciphered the Real Tax News in its professional tax research library, EverGreen Explanatory Notes, available with every online certificate course its students take. 

The New Digital Help at CRA. The government notes the following:

There’s a new “GenAI Chatbot” to help answer your tax questions,

• "How do I register for a CRA account?"
• "How do I change my address or direct deposit information?"
• "How do I check the status of my tax refund?"
• "Do I qualify for the GST/HST credit or the Canada Child Benefit?"
• "When will I receive my next benefit or payment from the CRA?"

It states: “The chatbot can help users check expected payment dates for programs like the GST/HST credit, Canada Child Benefit, or tax refunds, and guide them to My Account for full details and history.” There’s that confusion with the CGEB.

SimpleFile. Last year more than 2 million individuals were invited to use SimpleFile, a free, fast, and secure service, to file their returns last tax season. Unfortunately less than 75,000 people did. So this year, an online questionnaire is available to see if you can use it to file your 2025 tax return.

CRA will Soon Automatically File Some Returns. Stay tuned for some time later this year after proposals receive Royal Assent when CRA will conduct a pilot to file tax returns for people who do not owe taxes. By March 2027, it is estimated that 1 million eligible individuals will be invited to review and approve a pre-filled return directly in their CRA account. It will be interesting to see the results of the confusion that will be caused when people file their own return as well, not knowing about their digital CRA account activities. 

The Real Tax News – Tax Filing Accuracy is Really about Retirement Readiness. CRA is already busy receiving and assessing income tax returns from current and past years, as the numbers below point out. Its clients – taxpayers with complex lives - must navigate really complex tax and digital filing changes driven by deadline and threat of penalties by a tax department which is notoriously slow in following up to solve real problems with the way CRA assesses tax returns filed in whatever way CRA insists they do it.

In short, Canadians have never needed more help in managing their relationship with the CRA. At the end of the day, the burden of proof to be accurate in their tax filings still rests with every individual’s return – even if CRA files it for you. 

Then, it’s up to Canadians to use what’s left wisely to be retirement ready; and that’s increasingly difficult in these difficult economic times, and you’ll find out why in this week’s episode of Real Tax News with Evelyn Jacks and Friends.

Here are the most recent tax filing stats:

Returns assessed from February 7, 2026 to February 23, 2026