Thread by @kerrywcampbell

A story I wrote Friday on #CERB eligibility / repayment has sparked considerable debate about the program & CRA efforts to reclaim some benefits.
I just wanted to share some links / info to expand on what's in the story in terms of govt messaging around eligibility.../ #cdnpoli

This hinges on whether those with self-employment income were directed to calculate net income (instead of gross) to determine eligibility. CRA told us "To be clear, there has been no change to this position during the lifecycle of the CERB." .../

From CRA: "This requirement was publicized on Canada.ca since the beginning, specifically under the category “Self-Employed and Independent Workers” on the Question and Answers page." And they provided the following link.../ canada.ca/en/services/be…

If you go to that link you'll see it is specified that self-employment should be considered on a net, pre-tax basis.

But if you go the Internet Wayback Machine, which captures old versions of web pages, you'll see their 1st imprint of this page is from Apr 7, and that until Apr 21, the page was leaner than what's up today, and the info on net income was not included: web.archive.org/web/2020042119…

On eligibility, the old page said you were eligible if, among other things, you "had 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" ...

On what income to include, the old page said "The $5,000 includes all employment and self-employment income. This includes among others: tips you have declared as income; non-eligible dividends; honoraria ..."

I haven't conducted a search of what other info might have been available to applicants at the time (not sure if I can), but wanted to clarify how the page CRA directed me to last week had changed since the start of April, and that info on net income had been added.

The story is here btw. cbc.ca/news/canada/pr…