Canada's new automated tax filing system to launch next year

The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) is moving forward with plans to expand its automated tax filing process, ensuring that low-income Canadians receive the benefits they're entitled to.

During a press conference on Friday, Oct. 10, Prime Minister Mark Carney said that starting in the 2026 tax year, the CRA will automatically file taxes for millions of Canadians.

"To start, we're going to launch what we're calling automatic federal benefits to more than 5.5 million low-income Canadians," he stated.

Carney explained that millions of low-income Canadians don't file their taxes either because they lack the resources to do so or because they believe their income is too low to matter.

"And that means too often that the people who most need benefits often don't get them," he explained, adding that they could be missing out on benefits such as the GST/HST tax credit, the Canada Child Benefit, the Canada Worker's Benefit, the Canada Disability Benefit, and the Disability Tax Benefit.

The automated and free process will make filing taxes much easier for Canadians. Those eligible for automatic tax filing will only need to provide a few details and confirm their information in a pre-filled tax form from the CRA.

"And then they'll receive all the benefits to which they are entitled," said Carney.

A release from the Department of Finance Canada states that starting in 2026, the CRA will prepare pre-filled tax returns online for approximately one million lower-income individuals with simple tax situations. The CRA plans to scale up this initiative to 5.5 million people for the 2028 tax year.

In the 2024 fall economic statement, the feds said that its pilot program has seen "initial success," adding that it's time to modernize the way Canadians file their taxes.

"This program will pay out hundreds of millions of dollars in benefits in the next few years that would otherwise be left unclaimed, helping our most vulnerable get the support that they need," said Carney.