CCB (Canada Child Benefit)

How the CCB works

The CRA pays the CCB monthly, usually on the 20th, for each child under 18 in your care. It is completely tax-free: it never appears in your taxable income, there is no slip to report, and it does not reduce any other benefit you receive.

The amount is driven by one number: your adjusted family net income (AFNI), which is the combined net income of both spouses or common-law partners from last year's tax returns, with a few adjustments. That "both" matters: both parents must file a return every year, even with zero income. The CRA cannot calculate an AFNI from a missing return, and payments simply stop until it is filed.

Every July, the CCB is recalculated from the previous year's returns. Payments from July 2026 to June 2027 are based on your 2025 returns, and so on. A raise or a pay cut this year does not touch your CCB until the following July.

How much you get

For the July 2026 to June 2027 benefit year, the maximums are $8,157 per year for each child under 6 (about $680 a month) and $6,883 per year for each child aged 6 to 17 (about $574 a month). Families receive the full amount when AFNI is at or below $38,237 (as of July 2026; the amounts and threshold are indexed each year). Above that, the benefit is gradually reduced.

The clawback is a hidden tax on parents

Here is the part most families never see spelled out. Once AFNI passes $38,237, the CCB is reduced at rates that depend on how many children you have, from approximately 7% with one child up to approximately 23% with four or more over the main phase-out band, then at gentler rates in a higher income band.

A reduction rate works exactly like a tax. If your family has two children in the main phase-out band, every extra $100 you earn cuts roughly $13.50 from next year's CCB, on top of the income tax you pay on that $100. Your real marginal tax rate as a parent is therefore your posted tax bracket plus the CCB reduction rate. A parent in a 30% bracket with two kids can face an effective rate above 40% on extra earnings, without ever seeing it on a tax return, because it shows up as a smaller benefit deposit the following July.

The RRSP angle: lower your AFNI, raise your CCB

The clawback has a flip side that works in your favour. An RRSP contribution reduces your net income, which reduces your AFNI, which increases next July's CCB. For a family in the phase-out zone, an RRSP contribution pays off twice: a tax refund now, and a bigger benefit for twelve months starting the following July.

This is one of the most underused planning angles in Canadian family finance. The same contribution that saves tax at your marginal rate also earns back the CCB reduction rate, so its effective return can be dramatically higher for a parent in the phase-out zone than for anyone else with the same income. The worked example below puts numbers on it.

Add-ons, custody, and provincial benefits

The child disability benefit adds an extra amount on top of the CCB for each child eligible for the disability tax credit, with its own phase-out at higher incomes.

In a shared custody arrangement where the child lives roughly equally with both parents, each parent receives 50% of the CCB they would get with full custody, each calculated from their own household's AFNI.

Provincial child benefits stack on top of the federal CCB; Québec's Family Allowance, paid by Retraite Québec, is a separate program with its own rules, and several other provinces add smaller amounts that the CRA bundles into the monthly payment.