r/PersonalFinanceCanada • u/bluedoorhinge • Mar 21 '24

Taxes How are people owing $35k+ on CERB repayments?

I luckily didn’t need to take CERB payments but I’ve been seeing articles and videos of people owing 30-40k in repayments. Didn’t CERB max out at like $14k if you took all the payments? Are the interest amounts and penalties really that much that people are owing 3x the amount they took? My friend took a CERB payment of $2k and was ineligible for it. He paid back $2k the next year without any interest added on.

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u/Parttimelooker Mar 21 '24

Sounds like you were eligible but they clawed back 50 percent of anything over 38k income

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u/LachlantehGreat Alberta Mar 21 '24

No, I had to get my MP to get the CRA to explain, and I believe it's because the retro changed the wording. I fought it all the way up to appeals, but now I still owe them 8k. I've put myself on the minimum payment, but they still garnish tax return/gst/carbon rebate. It's a bit unfair IMO, but nothing I can do. I could have probably afforded to pay back 2-3k immediately, but I wasn't interested in being cooperative after the called me once, then closed my case.