Canada Child Benefit Amount (How Much You Can Get)

Raising children is not for the faint of heart and it’s definitely expensive, but there are government benefits that you can take advantage of to help with that. The Canada Child Benefit is a non-taxable benefit paid out to Canadian families to help them with the cost of raising children until the age of 18. The Canada Child Benefit amount is based on your adjusted family net income (AFNI) of the previous year and the amounts are the same from July of the current year to June of the following year. The July amounts are based on your previous tax year.

For example, the current payments are determined from July 2023 to June 2024 and these amounts are based on the 2022 tax return’s adjusted family net income.

This post will go over the Canada Child Benefit Amount, who is eligible for the CCB, the application for the Child Tax Benefit, and the payment dates for the current year.

Canada Child Benefit Amount

What is the amount you can receive? Well you will have to look at your net income. This can be found on Line 23600 on your tax return, and you will have to add you and your partner’s amounts to figure out your combined net income, or the adjusted family net income (AFNI).

Adjusted family net income is your family net income (line 23600 for individual and spouses’ net income, if applicable).

The AFNI is used for income test benefits such as Pharmacare benefits, Canada Dental Benefit, and of course the Canada Child Care Benefit.

In BC for the 2022 tax year, if you and your spouse have a AFNI (combined net income) of more than something like $218,500, you will be completely cut off from any Canada Child Benefit amount if you have two children under six.

That means you get $0 from the CCB if your AFNI is over $218,500 (household net income).

Here’s the maximum that Canadian families can receive from the CCB from July 2023 until June 2024 based on the 2022 tax returns :

• $7,437 per year or $619.75/month for each child under the age of 6
• $6,275 per year or $522.92/ month for each child aged 6 to 17
• You can receive an additional $3,173 per year if your child qualifies for the Child Disability Benefit.

You will receive the maximum if your AFNI is under about $30,000 annually.

In addition, there are additional benefits that are also paid out depending on your eligibility and the province or territory that you live in.

The maximum amount of the Canada Child Benefit is adjusted to inflation on an annual basis.

Also keep in mind that the Canada Child Benefit amounts are NON-TAXABLE meaning you don’t have to pay any taxes on the amounts paid to you.

Here are the Canada Child Benefit amounts annually for the number of children you have and your adjusted family net income for July 2023 to June 2024.

If your AFNI falls in between these numbers, if you have more than three children, or if you want to double check your Canada Child Benefit amount, it’s easiest to use the Canada Child Benefit calculator on the government website.

Number of children Under 5 Years old	Number of Children Between 6 to 17 Years Old	AFNI $0	AFNI $70,000	AFNI $100,000	AFNI $150,000	AFNI $170,000	AFNI $200,000
1	0	$7,437	$4977	$3807	$2208	$1572	$607
0	1	$6,275	$3816	$2640	$1044	$408	$0
2	0	$14,874	$9954	$7614	$4416	$3144	$2289
1	1	$13,712	$8793	$6447	$3252	$1980	$1127
0	2	$12,550	$7632	$5280	$2088	$816	$0
3	0	$22,311	$14,931	$11,421	$6624	$4716	$4626
2	1	$21,149	$13,770	$10,254	$5460	$3552	$3464
1	2	$19,987	$12,549	$9087	$4296	$2388	$2302
0	3	$18,825	$11,448	$7920	$3132	$1224	$0

You can easily calculate what you can get with the government’s child and family benefits calculator.

You’ll need this information handy when you use the benefits calculator:

• The province or territory that you live in
• The number of children you have (haha, you should have this information handy, I hope)
• Your children’s birth dates
• Whether you are divorced, married etc. and if you share custody of your child(ren)
• Whether your child is a qualified disabled dependent
• Your net income
• Your spouse’s net income

The more children you have the more Canada Child Benefit you can get.

If you input your province you will find out other provincial benefits that you may be eligible, for. For example, if you live in BC, you may be eligible for the BC Family Benefit monthly amount.

Canada Child Benefit Eligibility

So how does one qualify for the Canada Child Benefit?

In order to be eligible for the Canada Child Benefit you have to meet the following criteria:

• You live with a child who is under 18 years of age
• You are the primary caregiver for your child
• You are a resident of Canada
• You or your common law partner have to be one of the following:
  • A Canadian citizen
  • A permanent resident
  • A protected person
  • A temporary resident who has lived in Canada for the previous 18 months
  • An individual registered under the Indian Act

Child Tax Benefit Application

Applying for the CCB is a must (even if you are not sure if you qualify based on your family net income), I would say definitely as part of the financial checklist for new parents.

To apply for the CCB, all you have to do is to go to CRA’s (Canada Revenue Agency) My Account and click on apply for CCB or you can complete this form.  The primary caretaker of the child is eligible to apply.

By default, the Canadian government usually considers this to be the woman.  I applied for this automatically with the ‘newborn package’ of things to sign up for after our baby was born (it was an automatic sign up as I provided the government with my Social Insurance Number).

You have to have completed the previous year’s taxes to be eligible to receive the CCB.

Child Tax Benefit Payment Dates 2023

Now you might be eagerly wondering: What time does child tax get deposited?

It usually gets deposited into your bank account if you have direct deposit early in the morning.

If you don’t have a joint bank account here are some new bank account promotions in Canada to stretch your money even further (or you could get an iPad)

Here are the child tax benefit pay dates for 2023.

It’s usually around the 20th of the month, but some dates are different, for example, December it’s a little earlier because of the holidays.

• January 20, 2023
• February 20, 2023
• March 20, 2023
• April 20, 2023
• May 19, 2023
• June 20, 2023
• July 20, 2023
• August 18, 2023
• September 20, 2023
• October 20, 2023
• November 20, 2023
• December 13, 2023

If you chose to set up direct deposit, your money gets deposited into your no fee chequing account on these dates. If you didn’t set up direct deposit, you will get a cheque in the mail after this date.

For other payment dates, you can check out the Canada.ca link here.

The child tax benefit pay dates are the same all across Canada, whether you are in BC, Alberta, or whether you are in Ontario. The province doesn’t matter.

The only way to increase your Canada Child Benefit is to lower your net income. One way is to contribute to your RRSP as this gives you a tax deduction to lower your net income.

This is one reason why contributing to an RRSP rather than a TFSA might may more sense especially if you have a higher income.

Here are other ways to increase the Canada Child Benefit amount.

Are you happy with your Canada Child Benefit Amount?

You may also be interested in:

• How to fight back against the motherhood penalty
• Making money while on maternity leave in Canada
• RESP in Canada