Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has announced that they have approximately $1.4 billion in cheques that have gone uncashed over the years and will begin notifying taxpayers.

Every year the CRA issues financial refunds and benefits in the form of either direct deposit or by cheque.

As of May 2022, roughly 8.9 million cheques from the CRA were uncashed.

Recipients of the Canada child benefit and related Provincial/Territorial programs, GST/HST Credit, and Alberta Energy Tax Refund recipients of any uncashed cheques will start receiving email notifications from the CRA this month.

Approximately 25,000 e-notifications will be sent out in August, another 25,000 in November, then another 25,000 in May 2023.

An initiative by the CRA to notify residents of their missing money began in February 2020 and has seen $802 million redeemed by Canadians since that time.

Taxpayers that don’t want to wait or want to ensure that any notification is authentic, can use the CRA’s My Account page.

Any uncashed cheques can be found under the “related services” option after logging in.

CRA cheques issued will never expire.

According to the CRA, the average amount per uncashed cheque is $158.