Net Pay

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.

Income tax starts once taxable income passes the basic personal amount, and a separate provincial or territorial amount applies on top, so the break-even point shifts every year with indexation and differs by where you live. Look up the current amounts on the CRA site or in the year's return package. Credits for tuition, disability, pension income or dependants push the point higher. Filing can still be worthwhile or required with no tax owing, for benefits and credits.

It stays out of taxable income but often counts elsewhere. Amounts such as most lottery winnings and income earned inside a TFSA are not taxed at all. Some other receipts are exempt from tax yet still have to be reported, because the CRA uses net income and family net income to test benefits and credits. So an amount that costs you no tax can still reduce a benefit. Lenders and landlords apply their own definitions again.

There is no single figure, because the amount depends on your income, your province and which taxes are counted. Studies that quote an average usually bundle income tax, payroll contributions, sales tax and property tax together, which is why published numbers differ so widely. For your own position, divide the total tax shown on your notice of assessment by your total income to get your effective rate, then compare that with later years rather than with a national average.