All the Numbers

Benefits tested on family income

From the All the Numbers wiki · Retirement and benefits

Several federal and provincial payments are calculated on family net income and on facts about the household: how many children you have, their ages, who they live with, your rent or property tax, and your residency. They are not taxable and are paid in cash, with the amount falling as income rises.

What the engine does

The engine can calculate each of them, to the cent, for a plan that carries the household facts and names who receives the benefits.[1] Family net income is the sum of both spouses' net incomes, with CRA's small adjustments left out.[2] The payments are made from July to June on the return for the year before, so a change in income reaches the payments with a delay.[3] Before the plan has years of its own, that income is taken as each person's pay today.[4] In later years the amounts and income limits grow at the plan's inflation rate; the law grows them with the consumer price index, so the two agree when prices rise as the plan assumes.[5]

All the Numbers asks for your children's birth years and sends the engine the household: the children, living full time with you, and, for a couple, the two of you as partners.[6] With that, a plan pays the Canada Child Benefit and your province's child benefit. Every couple, with children or not, also claims the spouse amount for a partner with a low income[7] (see age, spouse and caregiver credits).

Every household, with children or not, also gets the GST/HST credit and the province's own credits for lower incomes: Ontario's sales tax credit, Quebec's solidarity credit, Saskatchewan's low-income credit, Nova Scotia's affordable living credit, New Brunswick's HST credit and Newfoundland and Labrador's income supplement. In Ontario it also gets the energy and property tax credit, from the rent and the property tax on your home that the plan pays each year (see Ontario's credits).

In a plan

  • Canada Child Benefit — in a plan with children: the largest of them for a family with young children, reduced on a schedule of family net income.

  • Ontario Child Benefit and the other provinces' child benefits — in a plan with children.

  • GST/HST credit — now the Canada Groceries and Essentials Benefit, quarterly and income-tested, in every plan.

  • Ontario Trillium Benefit — the sales tax credit and the energy and property tax credit, in every Ontario plan; see Ontario's credits for lower incomes.

See also

  • Age, spouse and caregiver credits · Some credits depend on who you are or who you support. The age amount starts at 65 and shrinks with income; the spouse amount is the basic personal amount less your partner's income. All the Numbers applies the age amount, and the spouse amount for a couple; not the caregiver credits.
  • Canada Child Benefit · A monthly tax-free payment for each child under 18, paid to the person who cares for them and reduced as family income rises above about $38,000. All the Numbers pays it for the children you enter, from their birth years.
  • GST/HST credit (Canada Groceries and Essentials Benefit) · A quarterly tax-free payment to people with low and modest incomes, now called the Canada Groceries and Essentials Benefit. Every plan includes it, worked out from the household's family net income.
  • Ontario Child Benefit · An Ontario monthly payment of up to $146.66 for each child under 18, reduced as family income rises above $26,865. All the Numbers pays it for the children you enter, with the Canada Child Benefit.
  • Ontario's credits for lower incomes · Ontario pays three credits to people with modest incomes. LIFT reduces tax on low earnings, while the sales tax credit and the energy and property tax credit arrive as the Ontario Trillium Benefit.
  • RESPs and the education grant · Contributions attract a 20% government grant, up to $500 a year, and $7,200 for a child's lifetime, up to a $50,000 contribution limit. Growth and grants come out taxed in the student's hands, at a rate that is usually near zero.
  • Taxes are per person · Canada has no joint return, so each of you is taxed on your own income with your own brackets and credits. The routes that do move income between partners — pension splitting, spousal RRSPs, prescribed-rate loans — are not modelled, so a couple's real bill may be lower than this.

References

  1. ↑ITA 122.6 "eligible individual" (f); 122.5(5) · For a cohabiting couple the plan names the benefit recipient; the ITA 122.6(f) female-parent presumption is not applied · See the source · effective 2026-09-18
  2. ↑CRA T4114 Canada Child Benefit — "adjusted family net income"; ITA 122.6 "adjusted income" · Adjusted family net income: family net income (line 23600 of both cohabiting spouses) minus UCCB and RDSP income received plus repaid; the engine models neither, so AFNI is the sum of net incomes · See the source · effective 2016-07-01
  3. ↑ITA 122.6 "base taxation year"; 122.5(4.5) · Federal and Ontario refundable benefits are paid July–June on the base taxation year (the calendar year before July); CGEB months are July/October (preceding year) and January/April (second preceding year) · See the source · effective 2026-07-01
  4. ↑ITA 122.6 "base taxation year" and "adjusted income": the July–June benefit year reads the family's net income of the calendar year before it · Child benefits paid before the plan has assessed a year of its own (January 2026 to June 2027 for a plan starting in 2026) read each parent's net income for the base year as their pay today · effective 2026-10-13
  5. ↑ITA 122.61(5) (CCB amounts and thresholds adjusted each July by the 117.1(1) consumer price index factor); our convention: the benefits are linear in their amounts, thresholds and income, so deflating the income and growing the payment equals indexing every figure · In projected years the family benefits (the Canada Child Benefit, the provincial child benefits and credits) grow at the plan's inflation rate from the published July 2026 figures: a benefit is read at the family's income deflated to the base year and the payment grown back up. The law indexes them to the consumer price index each July or January (CCB: ITA 122.61(5)), so the plan's inflation stands in for that index · effective 2026-10-05
  6. ↑ITA 122.6 "eligible individual" (resides with the qualified dependant and is primarily responsible for their care) and "cohabiting spouse or common-law partner" · Every child lives full time with the plan's adults, the first person receives the child benefits, and a couple has lived together since the younger turned 18. Shared custody, a child living elsewhere and a separation are not asked · effective 2026-10-13
  7. ↑ITA 118(1)(a) for the C + C.01 - C.1 formula; 2026 dollar amount from TaxTips 2026 non-refundable credits · Federal spouse or common-law partner amount (ITA 118(1)(a); tracks the BPA, reduced dollar-for-dollar by the spouse's net income) · $16,452 · effective 2026-01-01