What Canada's new budget means for your money

If your income is low or modest, the 2026 federal budget sends you more money, and soon. The grocery benefit that replaced the GST credit gets a one-time 50% top-up in early 2027, worth up to $339 for a single person and $679 for a couple with two children. Low-wage workers get a bigger yearly tax refund, and people caring for a sick or disabled relative can get up to $1,260 even if they pay no tax.

For almost everyone else, the budget mostly makes taxes less of a chore. Tax day moves to May 15, fewer retirees will have to send the government quarterly payments, and a handful of deductions become flat amounts you can claim without a shoebox of receipts.

The government presented the budget on November 5, 2026. Most of the tax changes aren't law yet. MPs still have to vote them in through a budget bill, so the amounts and dates could still change.

A grocery top-up in early 2027

The Canada Groceries and Essentials Benefit is the quarterly payment that used to be called the GST/HST credit. You don't apply for it. The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) works out whether you qualify from your tax return, so the only thing you have to do is file one, even if you earned little or nothing.

The budget adds a one-time supplement equal to 50% of your benefit for the July 2026 to June 2027 benefit year. It would be paid early in 2027. The government says it is worth up to $339 for a single person without children and up to $679 for a couple with two children.

This comes on top of two earlier boosts: a one-time extra payment in June 2026, and a 25% increase to the regular payments since July 2026. Put together, a single person could get up to about $1,290 over the 2026-27 year, and a couple with two kids about $2,570. The amounts shrink as family income rises, so a higher earner may get a smaller top-up or none.

The regular quarterly payments carry on as before. You can find the exact dates in our payment calendar.

A bigger refund for low-wage workers

The Canada Workers Benefit is a refundable tax credit for people who work but earn little. Refundable means you get it as money back even when you owe no tax. The budget rebuilds it as the Build Canada Workers Benefit, starting with the 2027 tax year.

Three things change:

• You can qualify with less work income. Today you need to earn at least $3,000 from work in the year. That drops to $500. If you get the disability supplement, it drops from $1,150 to $200.
• The maximum goes up. From $1,709 to $1,859 for a single person, and from $2,943 to $3,143 for a family.
• No more advance payments. Right now the CRA pays part of next year's benefit in advance, based on last year. When your situation changes, you can end up owing some of it back. Advance payments are cut in half from July 2027 and stop for the 2028 tax year. You'll get the whole amount as part of your refund after you file.

The government expects about 1.9 million workers to get more, including 180,000 who get nothing today. A worker with very low earnings could get up to $675 more a year, and someone on the disability supplement close to $1,000 more.

Caregivers get paid even if they owe no tax

The Canada Caregiver Credit helps people who support a spouse, parent or other relative with a physical or mental impairment. Until now it only lowered the tax you owe, so a caregiver with a small income often got nothing from it.

From 2027, the budget makes it fully refundable. Caregivers would receive up to $1,260 for 2027, and the amount rises with inflation after that. About 585,000 caregivers would get money, 180,000 of them for the first time. You claim it on your tax return, as you do now.

Tax day moves to May 15

Starting with the 2027 tax return, the one you'll file in spring 2028, there would be one deadline for everyone: May 15 to file and to pay any balance owing. That includes self-employed people, who today file by June 15 but must pay by April 30.

The extra two weeks give employers and banks time to send all your tax slips, so fewer people file before every slip arrives and then have the CRA correct their return later. The budget estimates Canadians would save about $230 million in interest and penalties over five years.

If you disagree with the CRA's decision on your return (your notice of assessment), you'd also get more time to challenge it: one year after the notice instead of 90 days, or two years after the filing deadline if that is later.

Fewer retirees paying tax in instalments

If tax isn't taken off your income at source, the CRA asks you to pay in four instalments during the year once you owe more than $3,000. That catches a lot of retirees, because Old Age Security, Canada Pension Plan and RRIF income often have little or no tax withheld.

From the 2028 tax year, the threshold rises to $7,500 for residents outside Québec and then follows inflation. The budget's own example is an Ontario senior with $40,000 of that kind of income. Today they'd send about $750 every quarter. Under the new rule, they could pay the $3,000 they owe when they file the following spring. About 1.1 million people would stop paying instalments altogether.

Self-employed people get a simpler option too: one payment on December 31 covering two-thirds of the tax they expect to owe for the year, with the rest due when they file.

Fixed amounts instead of receipts

For the 2027 tax year onward, you could claim set amounts for some deductions and credits without itemizing anything:

People with celiac disease get theirs a year sooner: a $1,000 medical expense amount for the extra cost of gluten-free food, starting with the 2026 return you'll file next spring. You no longer have to compare the price of every gluten-free loaf with a regular one.

Each one is optional. If your real costs are higher and you kept the receipts, you can still claim them. The medical expense credit also gets easier in general: you won't need a separate prescription for every device, and a single certification of your condition can cover several expenses.

RRSPs could stay open past 71

Today you must turn your RRSP into a RRIF, or buy an annuity, by the end of the year you turn 71. The budget says the government plans to merge the two into an "RRSP-for-life," so you'd never have to convert. The minimum withdrawals that start after 71 would stay the same.

The government is also considering letting a surviving spouse simply take over the account, which would make passing it on after a death much simpler. This is still just a plan. The Department of Finance is asking the public for feedback until January 8, 2027, before it writes the rules. If you're new to these accounts, how an RRSP works covers the basics.

Cheaper massages, gas and heating

Massage therapy. Massages from a licensed or qualified massage therapist become exempt from GST/HST for any appointment after November 5, 2026. Depending on your province, that's 5% to 15% off.

Gasoline. The federal excise tax of 10 cents a litre on gasoline, and 4 cents on diesel, has been suspended since April 20, 2026. The government extended the break in September: it lasts to the end of January 2027, then the tax comes back at half the rate until the end of March, and returns in full on April 1, 2027. On a 50-litre fill-up, the full break saves you just over $5.

Heating. The National Heat Pump Rebate Program, announced on October 8, aims to help up to 820,000 households switch to a cold-climate heat pump. The government says applications would be approved within 24 hours and low-income households would get more. Homes leaving oil, propane or baseboard heaters save more than $1,400 a year on average, according to the budget. Our guide to current heat pump rebates shows what you can already claim.

Buying a home

Insured mortgages, the kind you need when you put down less than 20%, would be allowed on homes up to $1.5 million, up from $1 million. Those loans could also be stretched over 30 years instead of 25 when at least one borrower is a first-time buyer or the home is newly built. A longer amortization lowers the monthly payment, but you pay more interest over the life of the loan.

The Bank of Canada would also publish insured mortgage rates so you can see what lenders are actually charging, and the government wants to make mortgage prepayment penalties easier to understand, starting with feedback from the public.

Your bank, phone and credit card

A few changes target the small fees that add up:

• One yearly fee statement. The government plans to require banks to send you a single, clear total of what you paid in fees on your chequing and savings accounts each year.
• Card payments go to the most expensive balance first. When part of your credit card balance carries a higher rate, such as a cash advance, any amount you pay above the minimum would go to that part first. Québec already works this way. The government is still asking for feedback on this one.
• Payday loans. Lenders would have to give you at least 42 days to pay back a loan, split into several payments, and could no longer charge you credit insurance fees.
• Phone and internet. New rules would remove activation, plan change and cancellation fees. The government estimates that saves Canadians about $100 million a year.

One change works in the other direction. If you owe the CRA more than $50,000 and haven't arranged to pay, the CRA could report the debt to credit bureaus, after warning you in writing at least 30 days ahead. Debts under objection or appeal are excluded.

Smaller changes that may apply to you

• Under 25? Entry to Canada's national museums stays free for good, and the Canada Strong Pass, with its free and discounted visits to parks, museums and VIA Rail trips, is back for another summer.
• Foreign investments. If you own investments outside Canada, you'd only have to file the T1135 form (the CRA's report of foreign assets) once they cost you more than $200,000 in total, up from $100,000, for tax years ending after 2026.
• Artists. Employed artists can deduct all their job expenses from 2027, instead of stopping at $1,000. Self-employed artists may also get a new Canada Creative Credit. Together with the basic personal amount (the income everyone can earn tax-free), it would let them earn up to $45,000 a year from their art without paying federal income tax. The government is still asking for feedback on this one.
• Northern residents. Today, if your employer doesn't give you a travel benefit, your northern travel deduction is limited to a $1,200 flat amount. From 2027, everyone could deduct what the trip really cost, up to the price of the cheapest return flight to the nearest designated city.
• Disability savings. When an adult can't sign a Registered Disability Savings Plan contract and has no legal representative, a parent, spouse or sibling can open the plan for them. That rule was temporary and set to end in 2026. The budget makes it permanent.

Most of the money in this budget only reaches you through a tax return. If someone in your family skips filing because they earn little, they're the person who stands to lose the grocery top-up, the workers benefit and the caregiver credit. The benefits finder shows what else your household may be missing.