How much gis can i get

Comments on this story are moderated according to our Submission Guidelines. Comments are welcome while open. We reserve the right to close comments at any time. Join the conversation Create account. Already have an account? Almost 90, seniors facing guaranteed income supplement cut for accepting pandemic benefits CBC News Loaded. Politics Almost 90, seniors facing guaranteed income supplement cut for accepting pandemic benefits Almost 90, Canadian seniors are being hit by a sudden cut to their monthly income because they accepted a federal financial benefit that was supposed to help them weather the pandemic.

Social Sharing. Qualifying for the GIS To be eligible for the GIS, you must: Be receiving the OAS pension Make your home in Canada and normally live in Canada although temporary absences of up to six months are allowed Have an income lower than maximum allowed see current amounts here To determine your income, use the net income reported on your most recent income tax return minus OAS. Now that you know how GIS payments work, why not meet with your financial advisor to:.

Confirm when you should apply to receive the GIS. Related articles. How annuities can work for you in retirement. However, if there is a reduction in your pension or employment income , Service Canada may calculate your GIS benefit by estimating your pension and employment income for the current year, instead of using last year's pension and employment income.

If you or your spouse or common-law partner have a lower income this year for either of these reasons, you should contact Service Canada. Your benefits may increase. If you receive the maximum OAS pension, the amount you might receive from GIS can be estimated using the Service Canada interactive tables of rates on the same web page.

However, it is reported on Line line prior to of the personal income tax return, so is included in Line line prior to , Total Income for Tax Purposes and Line line prior to , Net Income for Tax Purposes.

It is later deducted on Line line prior to of the tax return, so is not included in Taxable Income. See our article on Taxable Income for an explanation of how this affects your income tax and income-tested benefits. The amount of GIS payable depends on marital status and total income for the prior year. Choose form Form ISP , which has a complete list of what is and is not included in income, and shows the tax return line numbers.

If we hear anything to the contrary, we'll revise this article. Employees who had their wages subsidized by the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy CEWS will not be affected, as it was the employer receiving the subsidy, not the employee.

Renting and day to day expenses eats up all my income and always has. For instance, Mexico is a lot more affordable on my very limited income. Obviously, I am not going to be able to manage. Hope this made sense. The whole GIS program gives me a massive headache and seems designed to benefit the well off who have assets to draw on.

Second, depending on what income sources and amounts you had in and , you could be eligible for some GIS sooner than July or you may not be eligible until July Question: If your income taxes are filed late and you receive a letter stating that it will be stopped, does it automatically resume once you taxes have been processed?

And do you receive a back payment for months missed? Unfortunately automatically is not in the vocabulary of our federal government.

Even though everything was received and updated they still require a phone. I wish there was more information online. I am not working right now because of the pandemic.

I will turn 65 on december and i been here for almost 14 years now my common law partner is receiving a little on old age security. I received a letter that i I can apply for oas and gis, partner will also apply for gis and we wont be having any income next year because she will turn 70 and she will stop working too. How much do you think we can received for both gis and oas.

Thank you so much. I am 76 and my wife is We do not generate any employment or self-employment income and hence no taxes become involved. Is there any useful purpose in saving our eligible medical expense receipts and TTC metro passes? I have 30 years experience in preparing tax returns primarily in Ontario and PEI. Without knowing the distribution of your income between you and your spouse, that is, what you each earn, it is difficult to be specific.

However, regarding medical expenses, I advise my clients no matter their income, to keep those expenses for the year, and then submit them to me when I prepare their returns. If I can use them on their return, I will; if not, I return them to the client. It is always better to have them available, than not. Hi Julienne — You may qualify for GIS, but you will have to notify Service Canada at that you have stopped working and that your EO will soon be stopping.

Be aware though, that this process is not quick. Hi Doug I am almost 62 and I am receiving 1. Hi Maria — They likely used your income from July through June and they likely started using your income effective July through June My wife and I are both low income seniors. In mid July Service Canada sent me a letter indicating that I may be entitled to retroactive benefits i. I filled out Form C-Statement of Estimated Income for and submitted along with copies of my tax return for I was told by no less than three Service Canada agents that the processing time will not exceed 9 weeks in my case.

My subsequent inquiries reveal that it is going to take approximately 6 months and there is no point in making calls or visiting Service Canada Centre. It appears Service Canada has erred in their calculation of my entitlement but prefer to keep me waiting. Is this normal? Having worked for Income Security Program, you may be able to throw some light on this! No, this is not normal and I would suggest that you try calling your MP to see if they might have any better luck.

I retired Dec 31, I got my lump sum pension but it all on my rrsp. When will my GIS kick in? Assuming you mean that you will retire in the future on Dec 31, , your GIS will kick in effective Jan BUT only if you have contacted Service Canada to tell them about your retirement and once you have completed the necessary forms to estimate your income. I am wanting to retire at age 65, 2 more years. As Doug said, you should check with a financial planner to determine the best financial strategy based on your situation.

Hi,My husband is born I am born Thank you! The exemption has also been expanded to include earnings from self-employment as well as employment. Can you tell me the processing time for the application?

I submitted my GIS application end of December and received the 1st payment the end of September In the beginning of February they were giving themselves 12 more weeks to process my application.

Everyone and their dog is applying for GIS it would seem. Carol — Sorry to hear about all of the delays that you experienced, but good on you for being persistent!

My spouse is eligible for the allowance in May , will my GIS be reduced automatically or will it still be based on income? Your GIS will continue to be based on your income until July , at which time it will become based on your income; but it will be reduced under a different rate table once your wife turns age 60 and starts receiving the Allowance.

My parent was resident in Canada for 10 years he have Canadian citizenship. Now he is 60 years old. From 20 years he live in Poland. He didnt have any income in Canada in last 20 years, only work in Poland and fill polish Personal Income Tax. Do you think that could be a problem? Please help me to find out is everything ok and if not, what I can do to help him do fix that problem. My husband and I are low income seniors aged 75 and I was told to submit Form C Statement of Est.

Income for within 30 days and that any delays may result in a potential loss of benefits. I submitted the requested information in person together with my tax papers for on August 01, Service Canada agent took copies and also gave me an acknowledgment of the documents I produced.

I am clueless why Service Canada sent me Form if no retro payment is involved in my case. I would kindly appreciate your response, Doug. If you want to email me at [email protected] I may be able to help you a bit more. It appears I made a typo error in my question to you yesterday! I was 65 years last June This may help you to analyze my question, please.

Hi Doug, If you are recieving GIS full or partial and a cpi increase is announced, is the indexed increase applied consistently across all GIS amounts. I noticed some differences in what an idexed increase would be at some levels and the actual GIS values contained in the spreadsheet table data that Service Canada provides with each increase.

The increase is applied to the maximum GIS amount only, and every other rate is determined by subtracting amounts from that maximum based on other income. The actual percentage increase is therefore larger at the lower end of the GIS scale e. Am I correct in assuming that if I take a part time job, the GIS will not be affected until sometime in ? You are correct, unless your GIS is currently being paid based on your estimated earnings. This would be the case only if you had previously retired or you had a reduction of pension income in or So, assuming that your GIS is currently based on your income, your part-time earnings will affect your GIS for the period of July through June Secondly, does Service Canada mail out our letters of GIS entitlement during the first or second week of July or can I call them by end of June to ascertain our entitlement?

The purpose being we are depending on our GIS for the payment of our rent. I look forward to your response, Mr. Sorry to bother you again. Just one more question. Service Canada Representative disagree. Is this information correct? I have become aware that I have not been receiving my GIS payments for the last 2 years it was confusion on my part.

According to my income tax assestments for those years, I had been qualified for the GIS for those last 2 years. If so, how do I do so? James — GIS is normally limited to 11 months of retroactivity.

I recommend that you visit a Service Canada site ASAP, to complete an application for July to June based on your income as well as for the period of July to June based on your income. Doug, The investment income of my wife and I has dropped dramatically in and will remain very low for and We did not have employment, pension or EI income in or We are resident Canadians, having lived all our lives in Canada.

I am 66 and my wife is I have not yet applied for OAS. Our net incomes will no doubt qualify me for GIS and my wife for the Allowance. Or, would we have to wait until July for me to start receiving the GIS and for my wife to receive the Allowance based on our income tax returns?

There is reference in some posts I have read regarding using current year income in calculating GIS and the Allowance, if there is a loss of some types of regular recurring income such as employment earnings, pension income and EI benefits but there is no reference to loss of investment income.

There is also reference to a Form for anticipated net income but I cannot find it. Would loss of investment income from that earned in qualify to allow a person to use anticipated income in calculating GIS and the Allowance from Jan. Or would it only start in July at the earliest? Or would we have to wait to start receiving the GIS and Allowance until July based on actual net income? Depending on whether anticipated income can be used, there may be an extra 6 months July to Dec.

I am wondering which time period would be applicable for the payments? Hi Doug — do you know how soon after one is approved for GIS that the first payment will start? We received a letter showing a starting date which was the retroactive date, but nothing to indicate when payments would begin. Do you have any ideas about this? Thank you Doug; I have a follow up question. By waiting as we must until receiving Notices of Assessment for our taxes probably in late Spring would we then be able to obtain retroactive GIS and Allowance back to Jan.

I regret that I again have a negative reply for you. GIS eligibility for any payment year July to June is based on income in the previous calendar year, so your income will be used for the period of July thru June Since we are both persons with severe disabilities, can we escape the winter months. Our son has promised to cushion our air fare each year. Will Income Security have a negative thinking of our decision? If they do, they are dead wrong.

They have been giving us negative answers. Your feedback would be much appreciated. It helps if your other attachments are clearly stronger to Canada than to any other country e. All what we have to do is send in our tax returns to CRA every taxation year. We do not apply for the GIS. It is given automatically based on our tax returns. Supposing one of us die, will the survivor be called upon to apply for the GIS all over again?

Also, will the GIS be higher for the surviving partner? Your response, please. The second part is quite complicated. If it would decrease though, there is a provision that the higher married rate could remain payable for the balance of the fiscal year ends with June. If the GIS increases, that would be done immediately.

Thank you Doug. I did miss stating that I was getting an Omers pension. Our joint income is computed as follows:. Did you receive GIS for July thru June , or was your income in excess of the maximum also? Hi Doug are you sure on that.

My understanding of it is the income can be estimated. A form is available and will be retroactive for back to Jan. You can be paid on your estimated current income only if there has been a reduction in a regular ongoing income such as employment earnings or a monthly pension.

You cannot be paid on your estimated income to avoid claiming a lump sum RRSP withdrawal. GIS entitlement is currently based on income, including payment until June Hi Doug! I am 62 now and my wife will turn 65 on February 25 Because she has lived in Canada for 29 years has never left the country ,I understand that she will not get the full OAS. When she turns 65,I was informed that I would receive a supplement until I turn Just an after-thought. Did your wife apply for the child-rearing provision when she applied for CPP?

It usually helps increase your CPP benefits if I am understanding correctly. Is she gaining or losing extra income on a monthly basis. My husband was 67 this past January and I just turned 65 in May of I thought that based on the total income and the fact that I was still 64 at that time , we would qualify again. Is this right? Thanks so much for your help. I love reading all the comments and questions on your website.

Is there any point in applying now, or is it too late? There is a maximum of 11 months retroactivity, so if you applied now in Aug , your Allowance could be paid effective Sept thru May You can never be worse off though, so there would be nothing to lose.

I have returned to Canada on June 4th after residing overseas for 20 years. My question after reading some of the responses on this site is how long does it normally take to process the application.

I have heard that the normal processing time was between 4 to 12 weeks from the date of submitting the application. Doug, thanks for the quick response to my question. I hope it will closer to the minimum and not the normal. I have been waiting 4 months now and was told it could take 6 months.

In this day and age this seems like a ridiculous amount of time. Maybe they should hire a second person to work on these files. Hi Eric — I agree that their target processing time of 35 weeks is ridiculous, and there is no valid reason for it. Her total income will be , which was 6 months of CPP disability. Is this legal? Please respond…thank you. Net income is used to determine other government benefits such as GST credit eligibility.

An example of non-taxable income would be a Department of Veterans Affairs benefit paid to a veteran or spouse. That income is never reported on a T-slip and therefore, never appears on a tax return. This type of income would therefore not be available for assessment as part of income to determine rent subsidy.

Karoline, I suggest you read regulations on subsidized housing in your province. Karoline If you are refering to the BC Housing. I have a copy of the application in hand and you must swear to your income and it specifically says gis is considered income.

Is GIS calculated on annual net or gross income? Also what is the max annual income to be eligible for GIS? AGAIN is it net or gross? The answers to both of your questions can be found in the above article. There are four different max income cutoffs depending on your marital status and whether your spouse is eligible for OAS or the Allowance.

These current amounts are shown above and updated amounts can be found by using the link provided. I turned 60 in July and started to receive the allowance in August. Today we received the deposits and what happened was they just took my allowance payment away from my husbands GIS, dollar for dollar. What is the benefit of even getting the allowance. I was led to believe that we would be getting an increase in income but instead they just took it from my husbands income and payed it to me.

Seems to me a huge waste of time and aggravation, why not just leave it as is. We were very disappointed that we did not see any increase. Looking forward to your answer. My mother turned 65 this March. She still works 2 part time jobs to support herself she is divorced. I understand the rules on max income. My question is regarding the best time to retire. Can the decision on GIS be changed once they are notified that she has retired from her jobs?

It seems like a vicious cycle… any advice would be appreciated, Thank you,. Once you mother quits both of her jobs, she will immediately become eligible for GIS based on her estimated future income CPP only. Even though she will be eligible immediately though, it takes Service Canada several months to process that estimate. I retired on July 31, It was a very low payment, not what I was told I would be getting, and an entire year after I retired. All the retired folks I have spoken with said they waited for six months only.

Can you enlighten me as to what is happening to me? Did you complete forms that estimated your income after retirement? If so, you should have been eligible retroactive to August if your estimated income was low enough. My parents were eligible for GIS approx 8 years ago.

For the tax year of , they will again be eligible. Do you know if they will have to reapply for GIS? Or will it automatically occur once their taxes are filed? I recommend contacting Service Canada in January to request and complete the application. I have read with interest most of your answers in response to questions posed by readers. As a regular feature and with help from certain people we leave Canada during the winter months because of our disability and making sure we do not exceed our stay more than six months in any calendar year.

When I contacted Service Canada recently they specified in no uncertain terms that we are doing the right thing and not finding loopholes to cheat the system. That being so how will Service Canada know that a person is away from Canada half the year?

They say that they have no authority to check with immigration regarding our movements etc. Your response would be appreciated. When it suppose to get it…?? Unfortunately, there is no minimum processing time imposed on Service Canada for GIS applications or anything else. Sometimes they are very good and sometimes they are horrible. All that I can suggest is that you follow up with them regularly by phone at We went down to Service Canada and filled the correct forms on June 1 I was told that because I did apply in March they would back date the new forms to March.

Since then I have called twice once in July to be told oh someone is working on it. Called again in Aug to find out we have to wait another 12 weeks. You have my sympathy, but unfortunately that seems to be the current reality by Service Canada see above comment also. The only good news is that the first payment will include retroactive GIS benefits. Please can you clarify.

It is paid if they are between the age of 60 to Sir, But for some reason like these exeptional times of corona virus, you get stuck outside canada for more than 6 months, would you lose your GIS benefit?

Or will the Govt. Make an exception? It would help if you could provide evidence that you had previously purchase return travel within the 6 month period of absence and that you do actually return to Canada at the earliest possible opportunity. I am receiving only Please provide the following information: — month and year of birth; — date of entry to Canada if applicable ; — total income from all sources in ; — marital status; — age of spouse if applicable and income of spouse; — are you having any tax withheld from your OAS;.

Another question. Please advise. If you also completed a GIS application with your income, it could be retroactive to July if you were receiving OAS effective that date. You are providing a great source of much-needed informtion with this webpage — Thank you for that. I turned 65 on Dec 01, My wife and I both retired from our jobs at that point.

She has applied for the Allowance. Perhaps you know? Is it now normal for GIS applications to take over 9 months to process? I have been paying my bills from a small savings account, which is quickly being depleted, and I am concerned for those seniors who do not have any resources to fall back on.

Thanks for the reply, Doug. Service Canada really needs to hire more workers to deal with their huge GIS backlog. Would you hazard a guess about how much my wife and I might get as GIS?

We are homeowners, and other than OAS, I have told you all the income we have. I feel as though I can apply for an allowance, however I have been receiving long term disability that is not taxable, do I have to report this when apply.

Hi Jay — I would suggest that you report it, but indicate clearly on the form that the disability payments are non-taxable. Doug, after reading your response above about the norm for processing a new GIS application extending to 9 months which in my case would be February or March I have a planned trip out of Canada from December 9th to May 1st and had expected my application to be completed before my departure date.

Would not having my application completed by my departure date cause any concerns with me leaving Canada. My total days residing in Canada up to departure would be days.

Planning to leave Canada for almost 5 months after having been present in Canada for only 6 months is not the best way to establish that you are actually residing in Canada.

Whether or not your GIS application is approved before you leave Canada is not really the issue.