🇨🇦 CanadaRefunds and government cheques
Tax refunds, benefit payments and programme refunds are often sent by cheque to the last address on file. Many are never cashed. The official service below explains whether an old cheque can be replaced and how to ask.
Looking for a US state tax refund? This page covers Canada only, and Canada has provinces, not states. We do not cover US money. For a US state tax refund, use your state tax agency's refund status page. For US unclaimed property, use your state's official unclaimed property office.
You may have this if…
- You moved and did not update your address with the tax office
- You filed a return years ago and never saw the refund
- You were eligible for a benefit you never received
Where to search — 1 official destination
These are the organisations that actually hold this money. Open them directly. You will not be asked to pay to search.
✓ Verified 2026-10-26Canada Revenue Agency — Uncashed cheques
Run by Canada Revenue Agency
- What it covers
- Tax refunds and benefit payments the CRA issued to you that were never cashed. The CRA says Government of Canada cheques never expire.
- How the claim works
- Sign in to CRA My Account and select Uncashed cheques; it lists cheques at least 6 months old. To get a replacement you sign form PWGSC 535 by hand and send it to the CRA. To get the form by mail instead, call the CRA: 1-800-959-8281 for personal tax refunds, 1-800-387-1193 for credit and benefit payments. You do this yourself — no third party is needed.
Open the official service ↗Source: Official Government of Canada page on canada.ca, read in full on 26 October 2026 (page dated 2026-10-15).
How we checked: We fetched and read the page on 2026-10-26.
Your next steps
- Gather what identifies you. Old addresses, maiden or former names, account or policy numbers, employer names and the years you were there. Most searches are by name, and old names matter.
- Search every name you have used, and every spelling. Records are entered by hand and get misspelt.
- Search for relatives too if you may be an heir or nominee — these amounts are commonly sitting under a parent's name.
- Claim directly with the organisation that holds it. They will ask for proof of identity and proof of your link to the money. That is normal. A request for money from someone who contacted you first is not. A few official programmes charge a published fee; read it on the operator's own site before you claim.
- Expect it to take weeks, not minutes. Official verification is slow. Slowness is a sign you are in the right place, not the wrong one.
⚠️ Before you pay anyone, read this
- Searching is free everywhere on this site. Every destination we route you to is an official government or regulator service that does not charge you to look.
- You don’t need to pay anyone to search. Be wary of anyone asking for an upfront fee.
- Be wary of anyone who asks you for money first. An advance fee, a processing charge, or a tax payable up front, asked by someone who contacted you or advertised to you, is the single clearest sign of a scam. A few official programmes do charge a published fee, so read the amount on the operator’s own site before you claim.
- Type the address yourself, or use our link. Do not follow links from an unexpected email, SMS or WhatsApp about unclaimed money, and do not scan a QR code to receive a payout.
- Nobody legitimate needs your password, OTP or full card number to help you find unclaimed money.
Let’s Find Money does not hold, recover, or guarantee any funds. We are not a government service and we are not affiliated with any of the organisations we link to. We do not search on your behalf. Our search tools don’t see your results. Case review is not open yet; when it is, we will keep only the contact details you choose to send, and only to reply to you. What we do is point you to the official service that actually holds the money, so you can search it yourself, free. Rules, eligibility and processes are set by those organisations and can change — always read their own guidance.