Economical Accounting Policy Development for Canadian Businesses

For the 2025 tax year the filing and payment deadline is 30 April 2026. If you or your spouse were self-employed, the filing deadline moves to 15 June 2026, but any balance owing is still due 30 April 2026. Interest starts the day after the payment deadline, and a late-filing penalty applies on top when a return with a balance owing is filed late. File on time even with nothing owing, because income-tested benefits are recalculated from the filed return.

Yes, and usually you should. A return with no income is how the CRA works out the GST/HST credit, the Canada child benefit and provincial credits, all of which depend on a filed return. It also keeps carryforward amounts such as unused tuition on record and gets back any tax withheld. Skipping a year can pause benefit payments until you file, and there is no penalty for filing a nil return.

Options range from free community volunteer clinics for simple returns on a modest income, through NETFILE-certified software you use yourself, to a tax preparer or accounting firm that files on your behalf. Choose based on complexity: a single T4 is straightforward, while self-employment, rental property, investments or a corporation usually warrant professional help. Our fees are fixed and agreed before we start, and you pay after the service.

Not across the board. For 2026 the lowest federal bracket rate is 14%, with 20.5%, 26%, 29% and 33% applying above it, and the federal basic personal amount is $16,452, tapering to $14,829 on net income between $181,440 and $258,482. The capital gains inclusion rate stays at one-half for 2025 and 2026; the 2024 proposal to raise it was never enacted. Brackets and credits are indexed annually, so check the CRA's rates for the year you are filing.

No. Capital is the owner's stake in the business, so it sits in equity, not liabilities. On a balance sheet, assets equal liabilities plus equity, and the capital account belongs on the equity side alongside retained earnings. Money the owner lends the business is different, because the business owes it back, and that is a liability. Keeping owner capital, owner loans and drawings in separate accounts prevents a messy reconciliation at year end.

Preschool and nursery school fees generally qualify as child care expenses, because the care lets a parent work, run a business or study. Fees for the educational portion of a program at a school can be excluded, so ask the provider for a receipt that separates child care from tuition. The claim normally goes on the lower-income spouse's return and is capped by the child's age and earned income. See the CRA child care expenses page.

Tax law is the body of statutes, regulations and court decisions that set who pays tax, on what, and when. In Canada the main pieces are the federal Income Tax Act and the Excise Tax Act, which covers GST/HST, plus each province's own tax statutes. The CRA administers these rules and publishes guides, folios and interpretations explaining its view, while the Tax Court and higher courts settle disputes over what the wording means.

There is no single national start date. Each participating province harmonised its own sales tax with the GST at a different time, and some later changed course, one province reversing harmonisation entirely and returning to a separate provincial sales tax. The Atlantic provinces harmonised first and Ontario followed years afterwards. Because the answer depends on the province, check the CRA page on GST/HST rates and participating provinces, which sets out the rate history for each.

Your business number appears on every CRA notice, statement of account and remittance voucher, on GST/HST and payroll correspondence, and in My Business Account once you sign in. It is also on the confirmation issued when the account was opened, and on incorporation paperwork if the number came with registration. If nothing is to hand, the CRA business enquiries line can confirm it once it verifies that you are authorised to ask.

Line 23600 is not on the T4. It is a line on the T1 income tax return, where it reports net income after deductions. The T4 gives you employment income in box 14 along with the amounts withheld, and those figures feed into the return that produces line 23600. When a lender, a benefit application or a sponsorship form asks for line 23600, take it from your filed return or your notice of assessment in CRA My Account.

Canada has no general dependant exemption of the kind used in the United States, but you may claim the spouse or common-law partner amount where you supported a partner with low net income. The credit is reduced dollar for dollar by that partner's net income and disappears once it passes the threshold for the year, so both returns should be prepared together. A partner with an impairment may also qualify you for the Canada caregiver amount.

Generally no for a salaried employee, because preparing a straightforward personal return is a personal expense. Accounting and bookkeeping fees are deductible when they are incurred to earn income, so fees tied to self-employment, a rental property or professional income go against that income. Fees paid to object to or appeal an assessment are also deductible. Split invoices between personal and income-earning work, and check the CRA guidance on carrying charges and interest expenses.