New Ontario Trillium Benefit Payment Coming on August 10: What Newcomers Should Know

Here is what the Ontario Trillium Benefit payment covers, who qualifies for it, and what you need to do to receive the money.

Key Takeaways

• The Ontario Trillium Benefit (OTB) combines three credits: the Ontario Energy and Property Tax Credit, the Northern Ontario Energy Credit, and the Ontario Sales Tax Credit.
• Your next payment is scheduled for August 10, 2026.
• Eligibility and payment amounts are based on your 2025 tax return, so you need to have filed to receive anything.
• You don’t apply for each credit separately.

What Is the Ontario Trillium Benefit and Who Can Get It

The Ontario Trillium Benefit is not a single credit. It is a combined monthly payment made up of three provincial credits, all administered by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) on behalf of Ontario. Depending on your living situation, you may qualify for one, two, or all three credits.

Here’s an overview of the three different credits.

Ontario Energy and Property Tax Credit

This credit helps cover the cost of rent, property tax, or home energy costs if you lived in Ontario on December 31, 2025. It applies whether you rented an apartment, paid property tax on a home, or lived in a designated student residence. Newcomers who rented for part or all of 2025 are often eligible, even if they moved partway through the year.

Northern Ontario Energy Credit

If you lived in Northern Ontario, you may also qualify for this credit, which helps offset higher energy costs in that region.

Ontario Sales Tax Credit

This is a tax-free payment meant to offset sales tax costs for lower to moderate income residents. For payments based on your 2025 return, the maximum credit is $378 for each adult and each child in your family. If your income is above a certain threshold, the amount is gradually reduced.

How Much Could You Receive from the Ontario Trillium Benefit

The amount you receive depends on your income, family size, and which of the three credits apply to you.

The Ontario Sales Tax Credit maxes out at $378 for each adult, plus another $378 if you have a spouse or common-law partner, and $378 for each dependent child under 19. If your income is above $29,047 as a single person, or $36,309 as a family, that amount starts shrinking by 4 percent of the income over the threshold.

For the Ontario Energy and Property Tax Credit, your entitlement depends on the following:

• your age
• your marital status
• the property tax paid by or for you
• the rent paid by or for you, if it was subject to municipal and school property tax
• energy costs paid for living on a reserve
• accommodation costs for a public or non-profit long-term care home
• your adjusted family net income
• whether you lived in a designated Ontario university, college, or private school residence

The maximum comes out to $1,307 for non-seniors (including $290 for the energy component and $1,017 for the property tax component). If you’re a senior, the maximum is higher at $1,488, with the same $290 energy component but a bigger $1,198 property tax component.

The Northern Ontario Energy Credit only applies if you lived in Northern Ontario in 2025. If you’re single with no children, you can get up to $189 a year, and that starts phasing out once your income passes $50,833. If you have a spouse, common-law partner, or at least one child, the maximum jumps to $290, with the phase-out starting at $65,356 instead.

The CRA divides your total annual entitlement by 12 and pays it out monthly. If your total annual entitlement is $500 or less, the CRA pays it all at once instead of spreading it across the year.

When is the August 2026 Ontario Trillium Benefit Payment?

The next scheduled date is August 10, 2026.

Your 2026 OTB payments are based on your 2025 tax return. These payments are issued monthly, usually on the 10th of each month. If the 10th falls on a weekend or statutory holiday, the CRA issues the payment on the last working day before that date instead.

What Newcomers Need to Do to Qualify for the Ontario Trillium Benefit

File a Tax Return, Even with Little or No Income

The OTB is calculated entirely from your tax return. If you did not file a 2025 return, you will not receive a payment, regardless of how long you have lived in Ontario or what your income was. This catches many newcomers off guard, especially those who assume a tax filing is only necessary if you owe money or earned a full income. This also means newcomers who only just arrived in Ontario and haven’t filed their first Canadian tax return yet won’t qualify.

Set Up Direct Deposit and CRA My Account

Although it isn’t mandatory to do this, payments arrive faster and more reliably through direct deposit. Setting up a CRA My Account also lets you check your payment status, update your address, and confirm your next deposit date. If you don’t have direct deposit set up, expect to receive a cheque from CRA.

Frequently Asked Questions About the Ontario Trillium Benefit

Do you need to apply for all three OTB credits separately?

No. You apply once, through Form ON-BEN attached to your income tax and benefit return. The CRA uses that single form to determine which of the three credits you qualify for and combines them into one OTB payment.

What happens if you filed your taxes late?

If your 2025 return was assessed after June 19, 2026, your first OTB payment will include any amounts owed from earlier months and typically arrives within four to eight weeks of your return being assessed. After that, payments continue monthly on the usual schedule.

If you have not filed your 2025 return yet, filing now is the only way to start receiving this benefit, even if your income was low or you only lived in Ontario for part of the year.