GST Payment Dates 2026: Groceries and Essentials Benefit (GST/HST Credit) Schedule

The Canada Groceries and Essentials Benefit (CGEB) is the GST/HST credit under a new name: it replaced the credit in July 2026, with the same eligibility, calculation and payment structure. It is a tax-free payment for people and families with low and modest incomes, meant to help with groceries and other everyday costs. The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) sends it as quarterly payments, so the dates below cover both names.

On this page: Dates · Which return counts · How it’s paid · Provincial credits · Missing payment

GST payment dates 2026

Source: Canada Revenue Agency: Canada Groceries and Essentials Benefit: Payment amounts.

The “Paid as” column shows which name each payment went out under: payments before July 2026 were made as GST/HST credit payments, and later ones as the CGEB. For other federal benefits, see the government payment dates calendar.

When are the next January and April payments?

CRA's guide to the benefit says the last two payments of the current period will be made on January 5, 2027 and April 5, 2027.

Which tax return sets each payment?

The four payments from July 2026 to June 2027 are worked out from your 2025 tax return. CRA recalculates the amount every July from the previous year’s return.

How is it paid?

• The benefit is paid in four quarterly payments, in July, October, January and April.
• Payments are made on the 5th of the month; when the 5th falls on a Saturday, a Sunday or a federal statutory holiday, they are made on the last business day before it.
• Each payment period runs from July to the following June and is based on the previous year's tax return.
• If your benefit is less than $50 a quarter, CRA pays the whole year's amount in one payment in July.
• If a payment hasn't arrived, CRA asks you to wait 10 working days after the payment date before contacting it.

With direct deposit, CRA puts your provincial or territorial credit payments into the same account as the CGEB. A move can stop payments even if you use direct deposit and keep the same bank account, so CRA asks for a new address right away. To set up or change direct deposit, see how to set up CRA direct deposit. If you don’t recognise how the deposit is labelled on your statement, what a PRO or CRA deposit means and why CRA deposited money in your account cover the common descriptions.

Are provincial credits paid with it?

CRA runs several provincial credits linked to the CGEB, and you don’t apply to the province for them. In CRA’s words, these payments “will be combined with your CGEB payments (except for the Ontario sales tax credit, as part of the Ontario trillium benefit, which is issued separately)”. Apart from Ontario’s sales tax credit (below), the credits CRA lists are:

• New Brunswick: the harmonized sales tax credit (New Brunswick sales tax)
• Newfoundland and Labrador: the income supplement and the seniors’ benefit (Newfoundland and Labrador sales tax)
• Nova Scotia: the affordable living tax credit (Nova Scotia sales tax)
• Prince Edward Island: PEI’s sales tax credit (PEI sales tax)
• Saskatchewan: the low-income tax credit (Saskatchewan sales tax)

In Ontario, the sales tax credit is issued separately, as part of the Ontario Trillium Benefit (see the Trillium payment dates). British Columbia’s climate action tax credit used to be added to the same payment, but it ended with the April 2025 payment (what happened to it).

What if a payment doesn’t arrive?

Your CRA account shows the next expected payment date and amount, and CRA can email a reminder about a week before each payment. You are eligible for the Canada Groceries and Essentials Benefit (the former GST/HST credit) if you are a resident of Canada for tax purposes both in the month before a payment and at the start of the month it is paid, and you are at least 19 years old, or younger and have (or had) a spouse or common-law partner or are (or were) a parent living with your child. You receive payments only if your adjusted family net income is below the CRA's maximum for your family situation, and you have to file a tax return every year, even with no income, for the CRA to assess you. When a payment is late, smaller or missing, why you’re not getting the GST/HST credit goes through the reasons and what to do.

Related pages

Amounts, the July recalculation and the one-time payments are on the Canada Groceries and Essentials Benefit page: how payments are recalculated, the June 2026 top-up and the 2023 Grocery Rebate, which were separate one-time payments.

• Benefits and your tax return: filing to keep benefits coming, and overpayments
• All government payment dates
• Sales tax in Canada by province