The Canada Revenue Agency will pilot a new automated system next year to help vulnerable Canadians who do not file their taxes obtain their benefits.

The federal budget this week also stated that the Canada Revenue Agency will present a plan in 2024 to expand the service, following consultations with stakeholders and community organizations.

The move towards automatic tax filing, which the government first promised in the 2020 speech, is one of several budget measures that the Liberals say aim to help Canadians with the cost of living.

Experts and advocates have also called for automatic filing, noting that many vulnerable Canadians miss out on benefits they are entitled to.

Canadians are generally not required to file tax returns every year unless they owe money, but the federal government increasingly relies on the Canada Revenue Agency to deliver income-tested benefits to individuals.

This includes the Canada Child Benefit, as well as the recent increase in the Canada Housing Benefit and the temporary doubling of the Goods and Services Tax credit.

A 2020 report co-authored by Jennifer Robson, Associate Professor of Political Management at Carleton University, also estimated that between 10 to 12 percent of Canadians do not file their taxes.

Although non-filers exist across all income brackets, they were heavily concentrated in the lower income groups.

The report estimated the value of lost entitlements for working-age non-filers to be $1.7 billion in 2015.

The federal budget also said that the Canada Revenue Agency will expand access to a service created in 2018 that allows some low or fixed income Canadians to file simple returns automatically by phone.

The budget said that two million Canadians will be eligible for that service, called "File My Return," by 2025, nearly triple the number of people who can use it now.