A liability is a financial obligation a business owes to others, from supplier bills and loans to taxes payable and deferred revenue.
Liabilities are what the business owes, and they sit on the right side of the balance sheet opposite assets. They split into current liabilities (due within a year, payables, short-term loans, taxes and payroll owing) and long-term liabilities (mortgages, term loans, lease obligations).
Some liabilities carry personal exposure for business owners. Unremitted source deductions and GST/HST are trust amounts for which directors can be held personally liable, so not all liabilities are equal, some are far more urgent than others.
A company's liabilities include $8,000 owed to suppliers, a $40,000 bank loan, and $3,000 of HST collected but not yet remitted. The HST is a trust liability the directors are personally on the hook for if it goes unpaid.
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Your marginal tax rate is the rate on your next dollar of income, not on your income as a whole. Federally for 2026 that is 14%, 20.5%, 26%, 29% or 33% depending on the bracket you have reached, and your province's rate stacks on top, so an Ontario earner in the 26% federal band adds the Ontario rate for their own band. The two sets of thresholds rarely line up, so add the two rates together.
Most enquiries are settled without a phone call in My Account, My Business Account or Represent a Client, where assessments, balances, slips and CRA mail all sit. When you need a person, use the enquiries line for your programme from the contact page on canada.ca, and have your social insurance or business number plus a figure from a recent return ready for identity checks. Written enquiries go to the tax centre named on your notice of assessment.
No single figure describes it, because the total turns on income, province of residence, family situation and the credits claimed. A typical household pays federal and provincial income tax, Canada Pension Plan or Quebec Pension Plan and Employment Insurance contributions, GST or HST on most purchases, municipal property tax directly or through rent, plus fuel and excise taxes. Your own income tax for a year is set out on the notice of assessment the CRA issues.
Open the forms and publications section of canada.ca, search by form number or title, and choose the PDF for the tax year you need, because forms change from year to year and prior-year versions stay available in the same place. Most personal filers need no printed forms at all, since software approved for NETFILE builds the T1 and transmits it. Paper filers should print the version for their province or territory of residence.
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Reviewed and fact-checked by Udit Gupta
Ex Big 4 — Ernst & Young, Deloitte · International & cross-border tax specialist · CPA Canada (In-Depth Tax Program) · Chartered accountant, ICAI & MIA
Udit Gupta has over 15 years of experience helping corporations and business owners with corporate structuring, corporate tax filing, bookkeeping, payroll, GST/HST, cross-border tax and CRA representation. Big 4 trained at Ernst & Young and Deloitte, and qualified as a chartered accountant in India and again in Malaysia, he founded his accounting practice in 2014 to serve entrepreneurs, startups and non-resident business owners across Canada. View full member bio.
The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India — member 521458 · Malaysian Institute of Accountants — member CA 44667 · Ex Big 4: Ernst & Young, Deloitte · CPA Canada (In-Depth Tax Program), completed 19 Dec 2023 · In-Depth GST/HST Part I, 12 Jul 2022 · Part II, 5 Jul 2023
Editorial policy. Every page is researched against primary sources — the Income Tax Act, CRA publications and CPA Canada guidance — and every rate or threshold is stated with the tax year it applies to.
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