The Canadian Revenue Agency (CRA) will no longer accept cheque payments for all transactions, breaking a 106-year-old tradition. It plans to announce updated regulations regarding electronic transfers for large payments, which will be implemented in 2024.. Canada Revenue Agency .“This policy is not scheduled to come into effect until Jan. 1,” said Charles Drouin, spokesperson for the CRA..“We will communicate additional details about the administration of this policy in due course.”.Drouin said that cheques may still be used in cases where a taxpayer “cannot reasonably remit or pay the amount” by direct deposit. He did not elaborate..The CRA would not say if it would refuse to prosecute scofflaws..Bill C-47, an omnibus budget bill, includes a clause mandating electronic payment of taxes over $10,000..The original 1917 Income War Tax Act allowed taxpayers to pay “in cash or by cheque.”.“Changes are intended to make the process more efficient from the perspective of the government and from the Canada Revenue Agency’s perspective,” Lindsay Gwyer, director general of tax policy with the department of Finance, testified on Tuesday at the Commons Finance committee..“Large payments above $10,000 are required to be made electronically.”.“That’s really intended to increase the efficiency of the tax system,” said Gwyer, adding she could not comment on how the CRA would enforce the no-cheque rule..“I can’t speak to their practices.”.Lump sum payments are standard for Canada’s three million self-employed tax filers..Other taxpayers drawing employers’ wages are subject to biweekly cheque deductions at source under a practice dating from 1942..The CRA last rewrote its cheque regulations in 2015 when it stopped issuing cheques for sums under $2. It followed a public outcry in 2014 after the department of Veterans Affairs mailed a 1¢ cheque to the Hamilton, ON, family of an Afghan war veteran who committed suicide. Then-Defence Minister Rob Nicholson apologized for the penny payment as “an insensitive bureaucratic screw-up.”.According to Blacklock’s Reporter, the department of Public Works, in 2014, in-house research found a quarter of Canadians surveyed, 26%, objected to any mandatory electronic payment scheme..“They are less trusting of the government and of direct deposit,” said a pollsters’ report Quantitative Research for the Direct Deposit Initiative..Asked why they resisted electronic transfers, cheque users said they “like to review my cheque to make sure it’s right” and “I have better control of my cheques.” .Researchers said cheques were most popular with the self-employed, small business owners and Canadians over 55.
