Why Am I Not Getting My GST/HST Credit? Who Is Eligible and How to Fix It

The GST/HST credit, paid since July 2026 as the Canada Groceries and Essentials Benefit (CGEB), is easy to lose without noticing, because CRA recalculates it every July from your most recent return. This page works through why a payment stops or shrinks and how to fix each cause. The conditions are set out below, the payment dates are on GST/HST credit payment dates, and the amounts and how they’re worked out are on the CGEB page.

Is your payment late, or missing?

If a payment hasn't arrived, CRA asks you to wait 10 working days after the payment date before contacting it. Your own payment dates and amounts are shown in My Account, your CRA online account; the schedule is on the payment dates page.

Getting nothing in October, January or April can be normal: If your benefit is less than $50 a quarter, CRA pays the whole year's amount in one payment in July. To recognise the deposit on a bank statement, see what a CANADA PRO deposit is.

If your payments have stopped, CRA asks you to make sure the information it has about you is up to date, and any amounts you were entitled to but missed are paid with your next scheduled payment. The causes are listed further down.

Who is eligible for the Groceries and Essentials Benefit (GST/HST credit)?

The Canada Groceries and Essentials Benefit, formerly the GST/HST credit, has these conditions:

• You are a resident of Canada for tax purposes in the month before the CRA makes a payment and at the start of the month the payment is made.
• You are at least 19 years old.
• If you are younger than 19, you are eligible only if you have (or had) a spouse or common-law partner, or you are (or were) a parent and live (or lived) with your child.
• You are entitled to payments only if your adjusted family net income is below the CRA's maximum income threshold for your family situation.
• You have to file a tax return every year, even with no income to report; only new residents of Canada may need to apply, for their first year.

If you have a spouse or common-law partner, CRA combines your two adjusted net incomes into one adjusted family net income. Someone who has lived with you in a conjugal relationship for at least 12 continuous months counts as a common-law partner (am I common-law for tax purposes?). More on each: your income rose above the threshold and your marital status changed.

Do you have to apply?

To get the benefit you have to file a tax return for 2025, even if you had no income that year (see benefits and your tax return).

Newcomers apply for the year they become residents of Canada, with Form RC151, Canada Groceries and Essentials Benefit Application for Individuals Who Become Residents of Canada. Children are registered for the benefit automatically if you’re eligible for the Canada child benefit for them, so a parent’s CCB application brings them in. Both you and any spouse or partner need a SIN to be paid, though someone Service Canada refuses one to can still be paid when they meet all of the conditions above. Residency questions: am I a Canadian tax resident?

When does the benefit start at 19?

In the month before a quarterly payment you need to be at least 19, unless one of the under-19 conditions above applies to you.

• File the tax return for the year the payment period is based on, even with no income to report: the 2025 return for payments from July 2026 to June 2027.
• If you are entitled, your first payment is the quarterly payment after your birthday; you aren't paid for a quarter if you weren't yet 19 before the first day of the payment month.
• If you file after July, CRA decides your entitlement once it has assessed the return, and any amounts you missed are paid retroactively with the next scheduled payment.

CRA gives an example: someone who turns 19 on January 5 isn’t paid in January, because they weren’t 19 before the first day of that month, but if they filed the tax return the payments are based on, they may be paid from April. Which children count toward a parent’s benefit is under a child turned 19.

Who can’t get it?

Even if you meet the conditions above, you generally can’t get the benefit if, at the end of the month before a payment and at the start of the month it’s paid:

• you work for a foreign government, as a diplomat for example, and so don’t pay Canadian tax, or you belong to such a person’s family or staff
• you’re held in a prison or similar institution for 90 days in a row or longer
• the person who received it has died: nobody is eligible for payments after their death

Top reasons Canadians stop receiving the GST credit

How each cause works

You didn’t file last year’s return

CRA calculates the credit from your filed return, so without one there is nothing to pay, even with no income to report; a nil return is enough. Filing late still works: CRA pays the credit retroactively once the return is assessed. Filing by April 30 each year keeps the quarterly payments from being interrupted; a late return can pause them until it is assessed.

Your income rose above the threshold

The benefit is reduced by 5% of your adjusted family net income above $46,432 (for the July 2026 to June 2027 payments), the same threshold for every family type. Adjusted family net income is your net income plus your spouse's or common-law partner's, taken from the previous year's tax return, and CRA recalculates the benefit every July. The CGEB page sets out the full formula. A bigger family simply starts from a bigger maximum, so its credit reaches zero at a higher income:

Where the credit reaches zero = threshold + maximum credit ÷ 5%. Adjusted family net income is based on your net income (line 23600 of your return) plus your spouse’s or partner’s, so an RRSP contribution, which lowers net income, can bring you back under.

A reassessment of your or your partner’s return that changes net income also changes the credit, and CRA sends a notice of redetermination with the revised amount.

Your marital status changed

The credit uses the combined net income of you and your spouse or common-law partner. Once CRA knows you live together, it recalculates using both incomes, and a partner’s income can reduce or end the credit. Only one of you receives the credit for both of you, usually the partner whose return is assessed first, so the payment can move to your partner’s name.

• Tell CRA by the end of the month after the month your marital status changed, through My Account, by phone or with Form RC65, Marital Status Change.
• For a separation, wait until you have been separated for at least 90 days before telling CRA.
• Once you have been apart for 90 days because of a breakdown in the relationship, your separated status starts from the date you began living apart.
• Living apart for another reason, such as one of you working, studying or getting health care elsewhere, or being incarcerated, isn't a separation: you still have a spouse or common-law partner.
• CRA recalculates the benefit based on the effective date of the change.
• Only one payment is allowed per family each quarter: if you and your new spouse or partner both kept receiving payments after the change, one of you will have to repay the amounts received after it.
• If a recalculation shows you were overpaid, CRA sends a notice of the amount due.

A child turned 19, or a baby arrived

Each child under 19 adds $234 a year (for July 2026 to June 2027). A child who turns 19 drops out of your family credit and can get the credit in their own right. A new baby is added automatically once the child is registered for the Canada child benefit, and any amount owed is paid retroactively with a later payment.

The conditions a child has to meet, including how shared custody works:

• The child is yours, or depends on you or your spouse or common-law partner for support.
• The child is under 19.
• The child has never had a spouse or common-law partner.
• The child has never been a parent of a child they lived with.
• The child lives with you.
• You can't get the amount for a child who isn't living with you because they are maintained by an agency or are in foster care.
• In shared custody, each eligible parent may get half of the amount for that child.
• A child is registered automatically if you are currently eligible for the Canada child benefit for them.
• A child who turns 19 stops counting from the quarterly payment after their birthday.

Your bank account or address changed

If CRA shows a payment as issued but it never arrived, check whether it went to an old account or address. Update both in My Account; setting up direct deposit with CRA is covered separately. If the payment still isn’t there, CRA’s benefit enquiries line is 1-800-387-1193.

Why is this payment smaller than the last one?

CRA recalculates the benefit every July from the previous year's tax return, and also during the year when a reassessment of your or your spouse's or common-law partner's return changes your adjusted family net income, your marital status changes, the number of eligible children in your care changes, an eligible child turns 19, you start or stop sharing custody of a child, or a recipient dies; it then sends a notice with the revised amount. How the payments are recalculated is on the CGEB page.

On June 5, 2026 CRA paid a one-time top-up of the GST/HST credit, before the new benefit replaced the credit in July; it was generally twice the January 2026 quarterly payment, so a regular payment can look small next to it (the one-time top-up).

The GST and HST this credit offsets are explained on the sales tax by province page.