mediaphage posted:

at what point is a vanity business a real business? what if they make 15k the next year by building on the prior year's success? do you think you just instantly become successful and rich when you start out?

who the gently caress cares, calling it a vanity business was 100% because it was a woman baking cakes

Virtual Russian posted:

this country blows. The narrative around CERB is "should hobby business owners get CERB?" and totally silent on the issue of essential workers that made $1100 a month and couldn't get CERB. I had to move in with my mom and lost most of my possessions in the move all while being an essential frontline worker.

Doing better now, but am very very bitter.

Virtual Russian posted:

this country blows. The narrative around CERB is "should hobby business owners get CERB?" and totally silent on the issue of essential workers that made $1100 a month and couldn't get CERB. I had to move in with my mom and lost most of my possessions in the move all while being an essential frontline worker.

Doing better now, but am very very bitter.

Rutibex posted:

you couldn't ask your boss to cut one of your shifts so you are making $900/month?

Virtual Russian posted:

Because what i really wanted to do was make even less money...

Rutibex posted:

i thought if you made $900 from your job your could collect CERB and make $2900 total per month

jettisonedstuff posted:

yeah or maybe they picked this particular couple in particular because they knew rubes like you would eat it up. just keep deluding yourself into thinking that this lady and her husband getting to keep the 18 grand they don't need means poor people are better off somehow.

Virtual Russian posted:

lol, no, if you made less than $1000 you could get topped up to $1000. There was a literal second tier of CERB so incredible disadvantaged minimum wage workers couldn't get a taste of a better life. It was designed to keep all those poor people working, otherwise society would have collapsed.

mediaphage posted:

yes i’m such a rube because i want to err on the side of giving people more money instead of enjoying the means tested misogyny in the thread

jettisonedstuff posted:

but the CERB already didn't do that, it just gave money to people who had at least 5k in income in 2019/the previous 12 months and then lost it. CERB wasn't a temporary UBI, it was a temporary expanded unemployment insurance. simply letting wealthier people get away with defrauding unemployment insurance doesn't retroactively turn it into a UBI

also you seem to think that a significant number of low income people erroneously collected CERB, but of the people who actually did this I think like 95% of it was wealthier people, particularly high income, single earner households. There are a lot of well off professionals who have one or several registered business under which they do contract work, and a bunch of them used them to claim CERB money despite not having their income drop whatsoever. the CRA should absolutely go after those people. The decent thing to do is to let the few lower income households who collected in error off the hook, and I guess we'll see if the CRA actually does that. it certainly makes sense from a revenue perspective because you're way less likely to even get money back from low income households.

also the whole point of not means testing is for political considerations, i.e. that letting everyone benefit from government programs will give them more broad popularity, it's not because giving money to rich people also benefits poor people somehow

vyelkin posted:

The idea of giving everyone CERB and then taxing it back from those who didn't need it afterwards is way too efficient and makes way too much sense to ever be adopted as policy

Arivia posted:

ah yes, the government not providing more money to survive to impoverished part time workers (like virtual russian) or people who are too disabled to work (like myself) is very defensible, it's only about popularity of messaging you see

Arivia posted:

ah yes, the government not providing more money to survive to impoverished part time workers (like virtual russian) or people who are too disabled to work (like myself) is very defensible, it's only about popularity of messaging you see

gently caress

OFF

Arivia posted:

government sucks, mps suck, the NDP is at least someone I wouldn't punch in the face if I met them in person

bvj191jgl7bBsqF5m posted:

I don't think you would punch any member of parliament in the face if you met them in person

Rutibex posted:

bvj191jgl7bBsqF5m posted:

I don't think you would punch any member of parliament in the face if you met them in person

vyelkin posted:

i sometimes forget that our current prime minister first really leaped into the national spotlight for physically beating an indigenous man on live television

jettisonedstuff posted:

yeah or maybe they picked this particular couple in particular because they knew rubes like you would eat it up. just keep deluding yourself into thinking that this lady and her husband getting to keep the 18 grand they don't need means poor people are better off somehow.

Fashionable Jorts posted:

hell yeah fight the power by getting big mad at the middle class

vyelkin posted:

i sometimes forget that our current prime minister first really leaped into the national spotlight for physically beating an indigenous man on live television

Juul-Whip posted:

my friend who was furloughed on CERB for 5 months does not qualify for the BC Recovery Benefit but my partner and I whose income has more than doubled since 2019 will be receiving close to the full BC Recovery Benefit

Reality Protester posted:

don't forget beating up a woman in the house of commons

xtal posted:

Finally, an honest politician

quote:

CRA sent 441,000 'education letters' to Canadians who may have to repay CERB benefits
The Canada Revenue Agency says it has sent out 441,000 letters warning individuals that they may not be eligible for the Canada Emergency Response Benefits they received.

Described as "education letters" by a CRA spokesperson, the letters were sent to those for whom the agency said it was "unable to confirm ... employment and/or self-employment income of at least $5,000 in 2019, or in the 12 months prior to the date of their application" — one of the key criteria for the CERB program.

In the past several weeks, many Canadians have reported they received such letters and now fear they'll have to repay thousands of dollars in benefits.

The new figure provided by CRA suggests how broad the problem might be. According to federal figures, 8.9 million Canadians applied for CERB. That means nearly 5 per cent of applicants have received letters saying they may not be eligible and could be forced to repay benefits.

Many of those affected have argued that the federal government never clearly defined how the $5,000 amount would be calculated. Some point to the CERB application, which asks if the person received "a minimum of $5,000 (before taxes) in the last 12 months, or in 2019 …" but makes no explicit mention of expense deductions.

In emails to CBC News, the CRA says it has been clear about how it defines income.

"The CRA considers self-employment income as the net pre-tax income (gross income less expenses). This is consistent with how self-employment income is calculated when dealing with the CRA. To be clear, there has been no change to this position during the lifecycle of the CERB," a CRA spokesperson told CBC News earlier this month.

The CRA also said the employment income requirement has been publicized on Canada.ca "since the beginning" on a Q&A page for self-employed and independent workers.

However, a CBC News search of archived internet pages shows that information was added sometime after April 21 — about two weeks after the program opened for applications.

Some Canadians are getting letters from the Canada Revenue Agency, suggesting they could have to repay thousands of dollars in CERB money because they may not have been eligible to receive it in the first place. 6:54

The CRA says that not everyone who receives a letter will be required to repay their CERB benefits. Recipients are encouraged to complete their 2020 tax returns to help the CRA correctly identify the benefits and credits to which they are entitled.

The letter says that those who do owe CERB money are encouraged to repay by Dec. 31. A CRA spokesperson said this is for tax filing purposes, not a repayment deadline.
A promise of 'flexibility'

"If you are unable to immediately repay the amount," reads a sample of the warning letter provided to CBC News, "we can make an arrangement to give you more time and flexibility based on your ability to pay."

In fact, the CRA has suspended collection activity on new debt during the pandemic. The agency has said it will resume collecting on debts, including CERB payments, "when it is responsible to do so."

Some of those who received letters from the CRA say they spent their CERB benefits on basic needs such as groceries and rent. They say they fear they would not be able to repay the money if asked.

Asked about the situation in question period last week, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau suggested the government had been clear from the beginning about the pandemic supports it has offered Canadians.

"The rules did not change, but we indicated to Canadians that we will work with them if people made good-faith mistakes," he told the House of Commons.

CRA's most recent run of warning letters is in addition to the 213,000 letters the agency sent out in November. Those letters were addressed to Canadians who applied for CERB through both Service Canada and the CRA, and warned them that repayment may be required.

The CRA says it's possible that some Canadians received both letters.

odiv posted:

Okay that seems a bit offside.

quote:

...this is the first time Canada's ever had a plan that is being proposed that shows how we will not only meet, but we will exceed the [climate] targets to which we have committed internationally.

blatman posted:

maybe we can use the empty tarsand camps as makeshift prisons

Frank Dillinger posted:

cruel and unusual, dude.

Rutibex posted:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/cerb-covid-coronavirus-pandemic-1.5840550


ahahahaha more than half a million people. they dont have enough prisons to lock them all up, get hosed CRA

Sassafras posted:

You'd probably be impressed by the CRA's ability to collect. CERB amounts are easily recoverable in withheld benefits or seized funds/assets if people refuse to play along.

It's kind of like that "... But if you owe the bank 100 million, the bank has a problem" saw.

Rutibex posted:

actually you can't bleed a stone. if you try to "collect" $16,000 from extremely poor people by stealing money from their bank accounts and cutting off their benefits you will only displace the burden onto another government service. they still need to eat, so whos going to feed them? they will get welfare or they will steal and the prisons system will feed them (costs a lot more than $16,000 to house a prisoner in canada). when they get sick from sleeping outside because the are evicted and have no money they are going to the hospital where they will get a lot more than $16,000 worth of medical treatment.

the government aen't collecting poo poo.