Every fall, the Department of Finance Canada provides an update informing the public about the state of the federal government’s finances and key economic developments.  The Fall Economic Statement (FES) for 2024 was issued on December 16.  Intriguingly, it touched on the issue of filing the income tax and benefit returns of low-income Canadians.

The articles in this two-part series tackle both what the FES said and what it did not say about this subject as the government’s omissions were as relevant to the CVITP as its treatment of the filing of returns for low-income Canadians.

The first article presents and comments on what the FES had to say on this subject.  The FES discussion was limited to advancing its agenda for the automatic filing of low-income Canadian’s income tax and benefit returns.  This article highlights the relevance of this agenda for the CVITP.  It also lays the foundations for the second article, which speculates on some reasons why the CVITP may suffer from weak growth over the next few years.