The Association of Canadian Independent Travel Advisors (ACITA) is urging independent travel advisors to check their CRA accounts to see if their federal support payments during the pandemic have been recalled.

ACITA says it was advised in April that the Canada Revenue Agency had sent notification to investigate eligibility criteria for both the CERB ($14,000) and CRB ($24,000) to a handful of Independent Travel Advisors (ITAs), adding that it was “hopeful” that the appeals process would be swift and would be found in favour of the ITAs contacted.

Since then, the association has been monitoring the situation closely and recently posted a private group message asking to be contacted by anyone affected. The result turned up several more ITAs “(who) are now in a position where appeals have been denied, and they now require a lawyer to get them through the judicial review process,” says ACITA.

The association says its execs met last week with its contacts within the government, stating, “They clearly understand our business model, how we are paid, and why we had qualified for both programs. They are talking to both the tax department and the Ministry of Finance on our behalf to determine our next steps.

“From what we understand, the issue seems to be that the interpretation of the rules differs from each case reviewer within the CRA, and they may not be taking into consideration that we were the hardest hit within our own industry. The biggest contributor seems to be income from more than one source and/or the $5,000 NET vs. Gross issue we encountered for the CERB.”

What ACITA does know “for sure” is that notification of the recalls is only being received via each person’s individual CRA account – not by mail.

To that end, the association has issued a “call to action” asking agents to advise it immediately of any notifications of repayment that have been issued at
acitacanada@gmail.com.

ACTA says it has similarly taken up the cause to sort out the troubling situation with the government.