Are You GIS-Eligible?
All seniors aged 65 and over are eligible for GIS if their income is low enough and they are also approved for Old Age Security.
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All seniors aged 65 and over are eligible for GIS if their income is low enough and they are also approved for Old Age Security (which essentially requires them to be a long-time resident of Canada). You can get an application kit by calling Service Canada at 1-800-277-9914, or visiting servicecanada.gc.ca.
The maximum benefit is $8,788 for single seniors and $11,655 for senior couples. (Special rules apply if one spouse is a senior and the other is not.) As your income from other sources rises, your GIS entitlement falls: you lose roughly 50 cents of GIS for every $1 of other income. The income cutoff for GIS is $16,368 for singles and $21,648 for senior couples, which sounds so low that you may not even bother applying.
But wait: not all of your income is counted for GIS purposes. It turns out they don’t count your Old Age Security benefits: so if you add in full OAS, then a more realistic cutoff is $22,849 for singles and $34,610 for couples.
Now do you think you might be eligible? Hold on, because there are other adjustments you have to make to the government’s peculiar definition of income, some of which work in your favour, and some against:
- First, some sources of income count dollar-for-dollar for GIS purposes with no adjustments: Canada Pension Plan benefits, employer pension income, interest, foreign dividends, and RRSP/RRIF withdrawals. Each dollar of income can cost you 50 cents of GIS.
- For employment income, you don’t count the first $3,500 (so it doesn’t cost you any GIS). Above that threshold, you lose 50 cents of GIS for each dollar of employment income.
- You only count half of your capital gains from investments, which means you lose only 25 cents of GIS for every $1 of capital gains.
- You have to gross-up Canadian dividends by about 1.4 to calculate income for GIS purposes, so here you effectively lose about 70 cents on the dollar. (The grossed-up amounts are provided on your T3s and T5s, which you enter on your tax return.)
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Seems like double standard and discrimination of immigrants.
If you are born in Canada, you are entitled to full OAS, and OAS does not count as income for GIS eligibility.
If you have worked in foreign country say for 20 years, and 20 years in Canada, you are eligible for only 50% OAS, but whole OAS from foreign country counts as income for GIS eligibility.
So you have no chances to get GIS, and your OAS will be only 50%.
What’s more Canada is taxing foreign pensions, despite they are already taxed in the country in which it was earned. I pay 35% tax for foreign pension 500 CAD a month. Without this pension I would qualify for GIS.
If my spouse is over 65 and already receiving the GIS and I’m only 63 and providing I qualify in every other way can I apply for GIS?
Due to the large volume of comments we receive, we regret that we are unable to respond directly to each one. We invite you to email your question to [email protected], where it will be considered for a future response by one of our expert columnists. For personal advice, we suggest consulting with your financial institution or a qualified advisor.
The above statement states that some sources of income count dollor-for-dollar for GIS purposes such as CPP, employment pension income , interest, etc etc. with no adjustments. Immediately after that in the same section it states that each dollar of income can cost 50 cents of GIS. Obviously, both can’t be right. The first part states dollar-for dollar and the second part states 50 cents. Which is correct.
So which is it? Did you ever get an answer?
Curious about the response you got. ?
i applied last year for GIS and didnt qualify that tax year. Income is now half of when i applied. Will I have to reapply?
If I have taxes in arrears or have not filed for this year can I receive the supplement
Due to the large volume of comments we receive, we regret that we are unable to respond directly to each one. We invite you to email your question to [email protected], where it will be considered for a future response by one of our expert columnists. For personal advice, we suggest consulting with your financial institution or a qualified advisor.
October 4,2020
I am already 65 years old ,had lived in Canada for more than 10 years and receiving my Old Age Pension .Am I qualified to get the full amount off Guaranteed Income Supplement.
Thank you ,Milagros
Due to the large volume of comments we receive, we regret that we are unable to respond directly to each one. We invite you to email your question to [email protected], where it will be considered for a future response by one of our expert columnists. For personal advice, we suggest consulting with your financial institution or a qualified advisor.
Does wsib pension count dollar for dollar for gis purposes
Due to the large volume of comments we receive, we regret that we are unable to respond directly to each one. We invite you to email your question to [email protected], where it will be considered for a future response by one of our expert columnists. For personal advice, we suggest consulting with your financial institution or a qualified advisor.
I already reached 65. I am not receiving OAS but I already file my application.
As I am receiving EI and will be keeping receiving until September, is EI will impact the GIS of OAS
2 seniors only receive oas,gis,&cpp . How do we get discount dental
Due to the large volume of comments we receive, we regret that we are unable to respond directly to each one. We invite you to email your question to [email protected], where it will be considered for a future response by one of our expert columnists. For personal advice, we suggest consulting with your financial institution or a qualified advisor.