CRA sitting on nearly $2 billion in uncashed cheques
11 million unclaimed payments waiting — some over $100,000. Ottawa urges Canadians to check their accounts.
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The Canada Revenue Agency is holding nearly $2 billion in uncashed cheques that belong to Canadians — and the pile keeps growing.
As of April 2026, the CRA is holding approximately 11 million uncashed cheques valued at $1.9 billion combined. That's up from 10.2 million cheques worth $1.7 billion in March 2025. Most amounts are relatively small, under $1,000, but a small number exceed $100,000.
The unclaimed payments include tax refunds, benefits, and other government cheques that recipients never cashed. The CRA has set up an online tool to help Canadians track down their money.
"Canadians can check for and request any uncashed payments at any time by logging into their secure CRA My Account," the agency said. "Checking for uncashed payments takes only a few minutes."
Canadians can also call the CRA or visit its uncashed cheques website to search for outstanding payments, or notify the agency if a cheque was lost, stolen, or damaged. Good news: cheques issued by the Government of Canada never expire, so they can still be cashed at any financial institution for no charge.
If you think you might have money waiting, take five minutes to check your CRA account — you might be surprised.