Below you’ll find a brief explanation and links to Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) resources to help you and your tax experts fill out T4s.
What is the Canada Dental Benefit?
The interim Canada Dental Benefit is intended to help lower dental costs for eligible families earning less than $90,000 per year. Depending on a family's adjusted income, they may be eligible for tax-free payments.
How HSAs and EHBs impact Canada Dental Benefit Eligibility
In order to be eligible for the Canada Dental Benefit, a child must not have access to a private dental insurance plan. The CRA uses the term "private dental insurance plan" loosely, including any employer-provided dental coverage such as our EHB or HSA (Health Care Spending Accounts are even mentioned specifically by name).
This is a yes/no question - either you have coverage, or you don't. No mention is made of the level or amount of coverage.
That implies that any Blendable Plan Member with an HSA or EHB is not eligible for the Canada Dental Benefit.
What Plan Sponsors/Plan Admins need to do
As part of the rollout, employers are now required to indicate on employee T4s whether or not the employee or any of their family members were eligible for coverage or dental services. Like the application, this is a yes/no question. Either employees or their family members were eligible to access coverage of dental services, or they were not.
If the employee has a Blendable HSA, they and their dependants have access to coverage for dental services.
Will Blendable be sending anything else?
No, since type/amount/level of coverage does not need to be disclosed, Plan Sponsors and Plan Members do not need any special reporting from Blendable.
The usual disclaimer
This is not specific advice on how to apply for the Canada Dental Benefit or fill out tax forms. Plan Members and Plan Sponsors should consult the CRA resources and their own tax experts.