Balance Sheet

Property tax is an annual municipal levy on real estate, charged by the city or town where the property sits rather than by the CRA. The bill is the assessed value of the property multiplied by the tax rate the municipality sets each year, and it funds local services such as roads, waste collection, policing and the education portion the province adds. Assessed value is set by a provincial assessment authority, so it is not the price you paid.

The HST is a single sales tax blending the federal 5% GST with a participating province's own sales tax, collected and administered by the CRA. For 2026 it is 13% in Ontario, 14% in Nova Scotia since 1 April 2025, and 15% in New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Prince Edward Island. A registrant charges HST on taxable supplies, claims input tax credits on its purchases, and remits the difference on one return. Elsewhere you charge the 5% GST plus any separate provincial tax.

The three levers are deductions that reduce the income you are taxed on, credits that reduce the tax itself, and moving savings into registered plans. RRSP room is the lesser of 18% of prior-year earned income and the year's dollar limit — $32,490 for 2025 and $33,810 for 2026 — then reduced by any pension adjustment and increased by unused room carried forward. A TFSA shelters growth instead of deferring tax. Claim every eligible expense, split eligible pension income where the rules allow, and carry unused amounts forward rather than losing them.

Taxable wages are the part of an employee's pay that income tax is calculated on: salary, hourly wages, overtime, bonuses, commissions, most allowances and the value of taxable benefits such as personal use of a company vehicle. They are not the same as gross pay, and they differ again from pensionable and insurable earnings, which drive CPP and EI. Box 14 of the T4 reports employment income for the calendar year.