Voyageur 109
A Text Promises Your CRA Refund. The Agency Says It's a Scam, and Canada's Pension Fund Grew to $793 Billion Last Year.
News for residents of the “11th province”: Canadians abroad.
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A Text Promises Your CRA Refund. The Agency Says It's a Scam.
The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has published some new advice after amother recent round of scams that have made us of agency impersonation. One of the latest tricks is a text message promising a refund through an e-transfer link, right as the tax season ends. The CRA says it doesn’t pay refunds that way and that real ones arrive by direct deposit or a cheque in the mail. Beware.
The agency further shared a few things that it said that it will never do. It will not ask for payment by e-transfer, phone, cryptocurrency, prepaid card or gift card (is it inappropriate to insert an “lol” here?). It will not threaten you with arrest or set up a meeting in public to collect. And it will not ask for personal or financial details in a voicemail or email. The only time they say they will send you a text message it to confirm a sign-in.
If you’re filing from abroad, expect a refund, and can’t drop into a tax office to check, the verification step is probably the most important one. If someone calls claiming to be from the CRA, take their name and number, hang up, and confirm it through the agency's phone number before you share any information. Fake websites are another trap to watch for. Often the bogus addresses will look similar to the real one (https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency.html), but the fake addresses will include extra words or odd endings, like cra-login-canada[dot]com or crareturnreview[dot]cfd[dot]com.
Read more: National Post
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Canada's Pension Fund Grew to $793 Billion Last Year.
Canada's biggest pot of retirement money is growing. CPP Investments, which runs the Canada Pension Plan, closed its year on March 31 with $793.3 billion in net assets, up from $714.4 billion a year earlier.
That additional money ($56.9 big ones) means that the fund was able to muster a 7.8% return after expenses. Public equities did most of the work, with energy and infrastructure holdings pitching in. CEO John Graham said the result showed the strength of a portfolio that’s been spread across global markets.
The sailing wasn't all smooth, though - the fund trailed its own benchmark, which returned 13.2% on the back of a few giant US tech stocks that CPP chose not to pile into.
If you paid into CPP and now live overseas, the cheque will still finds you wherever you’ve decided to settle. For the millions counting on it from abroad, the team behind the cheque is worth a glance.
Read more: The Globe and Mail