Liberal tax promise tracker, post-fall economic statement

The House of Commons has adjourned and resumes sitting on Jan. 27, 2025. In the interim, outlined below is the status of selected federal tax promises since our last update.

Updates from the fall economic statement

On Sept. 23, the Liberal government tabled a notice of ways and means motion in the House to introduce a bill to implement proposed changes to the capital gains tax, which will be effective retroactively to June 25. The 2024 fall economic statement confirmed the government intends to proceed with these legislative proposals, but they are not yet law.

The fall statement also confirmed that the government will proceed with legislative proposals from Aug. 12, 2024, related to the following measures (among others):

• Canadian Entrepreneurs’ Incentive
• Non-compliance with information requests

Canada Pension Plan changes from the 2024 federal budget will take effect Jan. 1, 2025, the statement said, and it also included the following new proposals:

• making the Canada Disability Benefit, which will be distributed beginning July 2025, tax-exempt (Bill C-422 passed first reading in the House earlier this month)
• automatic tax filing for certain low-income Canadians
• new funding ($451.5 million over five years) for the Canada Revenue Agency to address tax evasion and conclude audits of Covid-era business subsidy amounts
• strengthening the anti–money laundering framework
• introducing legislation for the remaining elements of open banking
• boosting the scientific research and experimental development (SR&ED) tax incentives and renewing the accelerated investment incentive

Proposals with no major updates since our last check-in

Aging at home

Three promises from the Liberals’ 2021 election platform were highlighted in the final report from the National Seniors Council regarding aging at home, which was commissioned by the ministers of seniors and of health:

• create an aging at home benefit
• increase the guaranteed income supplement
• make the Canada caregiver credit refundable

The latter two promises have appeared in mandate letters for relevant ministers, and none of the three promises has been proposed in federal budgets or legislation.

Other outstanding promises

Implementing a career extension tax credit for working seniors was promised in the 2019 election platform and mentioned in former Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s 2021 mandate letter. It appeared in the 2024 pre-budget report of the Standing Committee on Finance, but did not appear in the budget itself.

Nothing has been announced regarding these other 2019 election promises:

• increasing the Canada child benefit by 15% for kids younger than one year old
• making EI maternity and parental benefits tax-exempt
• doubling the child disability benefit