May 4, 2026
This is the first article in a four-part series entitled The Evolution of the CVITP – 2025 Update. This article focuses on the impact of the CVITP on the clients it serves, using data published by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). There is a companion piece to this article which provides the data as well as any limitations and interpretations I make of this.
Individuals assisted
The number of clients assisted reached 926,710 in 2025.
At first glance, this looks good. It represents an 8.07% increase over the previous year. It also represents a new peak in number of CVITP clients served, thereby reconfirming the trend established in 2023 wherein the CVITP surpassed the peak set in 2019 for clients served, after suffering a precipitous decline brought about by COVID.
The 8.07% increase surpasses the 5% increase that the CRA said it would aim for in its Departmental Plan for 2025-26. But for every year since 2020 when COVID struck, growth had been in the double digits and never less than 13% per year. So, the CRA was not demonstrating any great ambition by setting and achieving such a low target.
Nevertheless, these figures support the assumption that the growth in the numbers of individuals assisted reflects growing access to CVITP services generally speaking.
A short detour to make an important clarification…
However, this does not necessarily mean that the service is being accessed by more people living in poverty or by a growing proportion of the people living in poverty. This is because the CRA provides no information on the income levels or household structure of the clients served by the CVITP. Nor does it say how the distribution of income levels of CVITP clients compares with the official poverty lines.
Instead, the CRA recommends income ceilings that CVITP host organizations can use to select people for this free service. These income levels were revised upwards this year and generally stand above the official poverty lines.
While most host organizations I have encountered use these recommended ceilings, others do not. Almost uniformly, those that do not tend to adjust the CRA’s income ceilings further upward. My own experience as a volunteer serving four different host organizations also shows that exceptions to the income ceilings are made, albeit infrequently. Therefore, a rise in the number of clients served cannot be presumed to imply that more people or a greater proportion of the people living in poverty are getting access to this service.
The proportion of the population living in poverty changes each year. But Statistics Canada only produces the national numbers with an 18-month lag. This means it will only confirm the numbers for the people living in poverty in 2024, for example, around May 2026. Therefore, even if we were to know the income levels of CVITP clients served in 2024, we would only be able to confirm the percentage living in poverty that were served by the CVITP in the 2025 tax season around May 2026 when the total number of those living in poverty in 2024 will be confirmed.
Despite these limitations, those who are regular readers of this website know that I report annually on the percentage living in poverty served by the CVITP.[i] To get around these limitations, I make the generous assumption that all CVITP clients have incomes below the official poverty lines. As suggested above, this simplifying assumption overestimates the proportion of people living in poverty who are served by the CVITP.
…and then a return to the data
Looking again at the above graph, one might notice two distinct trends. One is for the number of clients served between 2016 and 2019, prior to the onset of COVID. The other is for the number of clients served between 2021 and 2025, after the onset of COVID. The two trendlines shown below reflect the general rates of growth during these two periods.
The steeper trendline for the 2021 to 2025 period reflects the faster growth rate than during the 2016 to 2019 period. The flatter trendline for the 2016 to 2019 period has been extended out to the right side of the graph, reflecting a steady growth rate. This means that, in the absence of COVID, the number of clients served would have probably been a bit less than is currently the case. In other words, the CVITP has fully rebounded from the damage done by COVID.
Returns filed
The number of returns filed reached 982,480 in 2025.
Although a new peak for the CVITP, this is not surprising as the number of returns filed has consistently been between 11% and 15% higher than the number of clients assisted since 2018. These generally represent prior year returns that individuals had not previously filed.
One can see the same two trends, between 2016 and 2019 and then again between 2021 and 2025, for returns filed as was the case for individuals assisted. The reason for this is most likely the same as for individuals assisted: the financial incentive provided through the pilot grant project.
Value generated
The CRA posts data on the refunds, credits and benefits generated (or what I call “value generated” purely for conciseness) for clients from filing their returns in the 2025 tax season. As the main rationale for offering a CVITP clinic is not to help individuals pay income tax but rather to help them maintain access to many poverty-reducing benefits, this figure provides tangible evidence of the real value generated for CVITP clients – and its potential impact in reducing income poverty amongst Canadians.
These figures reflect the nominal value of the value generated[ii]. The real value takes account of inflation over time. To be able to compare the purchasing power of these benefits over time, I have converted the values generated after 2018 into 2018 dollars.[iii]
These two charts suggest that the average value generated has not kept pace with inflation since 2018. In both cases, it has been declining in terms of purchasing power over time. The loss of the Canada Carbon Rebate is a contributing factor in 2025. Other federal and provincial benefits have not kept up with inflation.
To read about the most recent trends in the numbers of volunteers and host organizations recruited and retained, see Part 2 – Infrastructure Supporting CVITP Service Delivery.
[i] See this article for the most recent example.
[ii] The nominal value is the current value in the year in question.
[iii] To do this, I have deflated the post 2018 values by the relevant inflation rate for each subsequent year using Statistics Canada’s data on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) annual average, not seasonally adjusted.