RC151 / RC66+RC66SCH

Forms for Newcomers

A newcomer should submit an RC151 or RC66.

• RC151 – to apply for:

• GST/HST Credit
• Canada Carbon Rebate (for payments up to April 2024, prior to program cancellation)
• Ontario Sales Tax Credit

• RC66 (with schedule RC66SCH) – to apply for the above, plus the Canada Child Benefit (CCB).

Meaning of Newcomer:

“Newcomer” is not a legal term. The CRA uses it to describe individuals who become residents of Canada during a tax year. A newcomer may be:

• A refugee claimant
• An international student
• A foreign worker
• A person who entered Canada with protected person status or permanent resident status from an out-of-Canada application

When does a newcomer become entitled to the benefits and rebates?

Newcomers become entitled to payments starting with the first payment month in which they are resident on the 1st of that month.

If they file an RC151 upon arriving, they may receive benefits before filing a tax return. To continue receiving quarterly payments a newcomer must file a return for the year they became resident in Canada and for each following year.

The payment months for the GST/HST credit and the Carbon Rebate are January, April, July and October. The payment month for the Trillium Ontario Sales Tax Credit is July or else monthly.

For example, if a newcomer begins residing in Canada in the middle of February 2024, they are eligible to GST/HST and carbon rebate payments in April 2024 and an Ontario Sales Tax Credit in March or July 2024.

What if the newcomer does not have a SIN?

A newcomer who does not yet have a Social Insurance Number (SIN) may still submit a form. In that case, they should:

• Include a letter explaining why a SIN cannot be obtained (for example they are a refugee claimant without a work permit), and
• Attach a copy of an identification document (e.g., an IRCC-issued record).

If the newcomer has been assigned a Temporary Tax Number (TTN), this number can be entered in place of a SIN. However, it is still advisable to attach a letter explaining why a SIN is not available.

If the newcomer plans to get a SIN, it may be best to get the SIN before submitting a form.

Which form should be used?

Scenario 1:        No dependent children in Canada → RC151 online submission

Scenario 2:        Dependent children in Canada, but not eligible (or not yet eligible) for the Canada Child Benefit → RC151 by mail

Scenario 3:        Children in Canada and they are eligible for the Canada Child Benefit → RC66 and schedule RC66SCH by mail (there is no online option).

Listing children on the RC-151:

• In Scenario 2 (dependent children in Canada, but no eligibility for the CCB), the children should still be listed on the RC151.
• Proof of birth for each child must also be attached. Acceptable documents include:

• Birth certificate
• Certified copy of birth registration
• Hospital record of birth or record from the attending physician, nurse, or midwife
  Baptismal certificate, cradle roll, or other church record
  Passport

• Children living abroad should not be listed on the RC151.

Spouse or common-law partner living abroad:

If the newcomer has a non-resident spouse or common-law partner:

• The spouse must be identified on the form.
• The spouse’s income does not need to be reported.
• The spouse does not need to sign the form.
• For benefit and credit purposes, the newcomer will be treated as single.
• For the spouse’s address, it is sufficient to state the country and indicate “non-resident.”

What happens if the RC151 is mailed?

An RC151 should be mailed only if it is necessary to attach proof-of-birth records for children. After an income tax return is e-filed and the RC151 form is mailed separately, newcomers should expect that, several weeks later, the CRA may send a letter requesting additional information.

Example:
Suppose a newcomer arrived in 2024 and filed their 2024 tax return in March 2025. By July 2025, the CRA might send a letter stating:

Base year 2024

Payment period Apr 2025 - Mar 2026

The CRA cannot calculate the amount you may be entitled to receive for all periods because the necessary information has not been provided.

The CRA cannot calculate the amount of the [GST/HST Credit] you may be entitled to receive for April 2025 to January 2026 without the following information:

• your world income, converted to Canadian dollars, for the period in 2024 before you came to Canada

This happens because the RC151 has not yet been processed (processing can take up to 12 weeks or more). The letter can be ignored. The information will be provided when the RC151 is processed.

Why does the CRA require income information from the year or years before the newcomer’s arrival to Canada?

The CRA requires the information because the GST/HST credit calculation is dependent on past income.

As an example, this table shows when payments are made for each of the base tax years from 2022 to 2024.

Consider a newcomer arriving in mid-February 2024. They are entitled to a GST/HST credit payment starting in the month when the next payment is made, which is April 2024.

As we can see from the table above, the payment for April 2024 is dependent on a person’s income in 2022. The payment in July 2024 is based on the person’s income in 2023. Therefore the CRA will need to know the newcomer’s income in 2022 and 2023 to calculate the GST/HST credit.

Since the newcomer came to Canada in February 2024, they will file a 2024 income tax return, but not a 2022 or 2023 return. The filing of a 2024 tax return will not give the CRA the necessary information to assess entitlement for the payments of: Apr 2024, July 2024, Oct 2024, Jan 2025, and Apr 2025.

In addition, the filed 2024 income tax return will not provide the CRA with the newcomer’s income from Jan 1, 2024 to mid-Feb 2024, and therefore the CRA benefits department will have insufficient information to assess entitlement for the payments of July 2025, Oct 2025, Jan 2026 and Apr 2026.

Although the newcomer’s worldwide income information for 2024 is inputted into the UFile software, it is unclear if that information is transmitted with efiling, and if it is, that particular information may not get forwarded to the CRA benefits department. The benefits department of the CRA which administers benefits and refundable credits, and the department of the CRA that processes returns, are different, and apparently they don’t share all information between them.

It may seem unexpected that newcomers can receive the GST/HST credit based on tax years during which they were not residents of Canada. For example, a person arriving in February 2024 is entitled to an April 2024 credit payment. That April payment is calculated using information from the 2022 tax year—a year when the individual was not resident in Canada.

This entitlement is supported by the wording of s.122.5(1) of the Income Tax Act. In particular, subsection (6.2) provides:

“For the purpose of this section, the income of a person who is non-resident at any time in a taxation year is deemed to be equal to the amount that would, if the person were resident in Canada throughout the year, be the person’s income for the year.”  

Thus, for the purposes of calculating a benefit payment, a person’s income in the tax year is deemed to be their income in the foreign country (or countries) they resided in that year.

References:        

• GST/HST Credit, Guide RC4210
• Income Tax Act, s.122.6
• Forms: RC151, RC66, and RC66SCH