Government of Canada – Canada Emergency Rent Subsidy (CERS) (2022)

  • This program is currently closed.

Description:

Canadian businesses, non-profit organizations, or charities who have seen a drop in revenue due to the COVID-19 pandemic may be eligible for a subsidy to cover part of their commercial rent or property expenses, starting on September 27, 2020, until June 2021. This subsidy will provide payments directly to qualifying renters and property owners, without requiring the participation of landlords.

If eligible for the base subsidy, applicants may also be eligible for lockdown support if their business location is significantly affected by a public health order for a week or more.

Comments on Funding:

For each claim period, applicants can claim eligible expenses up to a maximum of:

  • $75,000 per business location (base and top-up),
  • $300,000 in total for all locations (including any amounts claimed by affiliated entities). It applies to the base subsidy only and there is no maximum for the top-up subsidy.

The rent subsidy is calculated taking into account the revenue drop as follows:

  1. for a revenue drop of 70% or more, the maximum subsidy rate is 65%;
  2. for a revenue drop of 50 to 70%, calculated as: (the applicant’s revenue drop – 50%) x 1.25 + 40%;
  3. for a revenue drop of less than 50%, calculated as: 0.8 x the applicant’s revenue drop.

In addition to the rent subsidy rate, applicants can receive a lockdown support amount for certain locations affected by public health restrictions. CERS top-up (lockdown support) rate is 25% on lockdown, calculated as:

  • 25% (fixed top-up rate) X timesdays the location was locked down due to the COVID-19 pandemic : (divided by) 28 (the days in the CERS period) equals the applicant’s top-up (lockdown support) rate.

Eligibility:

Applicant must:

  • meet at least one of these conditions:
  • have had a CRA business number on September 27, 2020, or
  • have had a payroll account on March 15, 2020, or another person or partnership made payroll remittances on their behalf, or
  • have purchased the business assets of another person or partnership who meets condition b above, and have made an election under the special asset acquisition rules, or
  • meet other prescribed conditions that might be introduced (there are no prescribed conditions at this time).
  • be an eligible business, charity, or non-profit (eligible entity);
  • have experienced a drop in revenue. There is no minimum revenue drop required to qualify for the subsidy. The rate the revenue has dropped is only used to calculate how much subsidy the applicants receive for these periods.
  • have eligible expenses. Applicants must have a qualifying property. Only certain expenses are eligible for CERS.

Applications Steps:

You must submit a separate application for each claim period you are eligible for. An application must be filed no later than 180 days after the end of the claim period.

There are 2 ways to apply:

certifiacte-icon

Guaranteed Government Grants

Get a FREE 45-page guide with proven steps to business grants success:

    We respect your privacy. Unsubscribe at anytime.

    Documentation Needed:

    Applicants must:

    • keep records showing information that supports their rent subsidy claim, such as their reduction in revenue and amounts for their eligible expenses;
    • print and keep the results summary or save an electronic copy for their records, if they use the online calculator to calculate their subsidy amounts, or save a record of how they came up with their amounts, if they calculate their amounts another way;
    • save a copy of the agreement they made about the percentage of the subsidy each business will claim, if they have affiliated entities that are also applying for CERS for the same period they are;

    Supporting for the revenue drop documents include: 

    • sales journal, 
    • general ledger, 
    • evenue amounts,
    • working paper calculations. 

    Supporting documents for the eligible expenses include:

    • rental or lease agreements, 
    • property tax bills, 
    • insurance documents, 
    • mortgage documents (provincial land title or property abstract, or title number, legal description, or other property identifying numbers such as: parcel identifier number (PID), land identifier numerical codes (LINC), property identification number (PIN), mortgage registration number), 
    • bank statements,
    • receipts or other proof of payment.

    Effective: September 27, 2020, to October 23, 2021.
    Date modified: 2021-12-21 – Source

    Similar Posts

    Leave a Reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *