Budget-Friendly Accounting Services for Multi-Entity Businesses

For the 2025 tax year the filing and payment deadline is 30 April 2026. If you or your spouse carried on a business, the return itself is due 15 June 2026, but any balance owing is still due 30 April 2026. Interest runs on unpaid amounts after the payment deadline, and a late-filed return with a balance owing also attracts a late-filing penalty. Filing on time keeps benefit and credit payments flowing.

A tax credit reduces the tax you owe, whereas a deduction reduces the income the tax is calculated on. Non-refundable credits, such as the basic personal amount or tuition, can bring tax down to nil but pay nothing beyond that. Refundable credits, such as the GST/HST credit, are paid out even when no tax is owing. Almost every credit is claimed on the return, so filing is what releases the money.

Commonly a tax preparer, tax accountant or tax specialist. Titles are not standardised in Canada: some preparers hold an accounting designation, others are bookkeepers, tax technicians or lawyers who focus on tax. What matters more than the label is that the person is registered with the CRA to file electronically for clients, carries a business number, quotes the fee in writing, and signs the return as preparer where required.

No. Revenue is income you have earned and belongs on the income statement, not among liabilities. Money taken before you deliver the goods or service is different: unearned or deferred revenue is a liability until you perform the work. Sales tax you collect is also a liability rather than revenue. Booking customer deposits straight to sales is a common error that overstates profit and distorts the figures on your GST/HST return.

Non-taxable means an amount is left out of income, so it does not add to your tax bill and generally does not reduce income-tested benefits. Examples include TFSA withdrawals, gifts and inheritances, lottery winnings and life insurance death benefits. Some amounts are non-taxable yet still have to be reported or tracked, such as a principal residence sale. When you are unsure, treat a receipt as taxable until a specific rule exempts it, and check the CRA's guidance.

Because GST/HST follows the place of supply, not the seller's address. For goods, the rate is set by the province they are delivered to; for most services, by the customer's address on file. So an Ontario business billing Halifax charges 14% in 2026, Moncton 15%, and Calgary 5%. Getting it wrong means under-collecting or over-collecting, and the Canada Revenue Agency assesses any shortfall against the seller.

Different deductions, not different rules. Withholding follows the TD1 forms you filed, so a colleague claiming more credits, tuition or a disability amount has less tax taken off. Other causes are a different province of employment, a second job where each employer applies the basic personal amount, taxable benefits added to your pay, a higher salary reaching the next bracket, and pay-period timing. CPP and EI also stop at their annual maximums, which higher earners reach sooner.

Periodic spousal support paid under a written agreement or court order, while the parties live separate and apart, is taxable to the person receiving it and deductible to the person paying it — but child support ranks first, so where the same order covers both, the spousal amount is deductible only once all child support due for the current and earlier years has been paid. A lump-sum settlement is generally neither. Child support under an order or agreement made after April 1997 is not taxable to the recipient and not deductible by the payer. Keep the agreement and payment records, since the CRA normally asks for a copy of the order before allowing the deduction.

You collect it as an agent, so it never belongs to your business. You remit it to the CRA with your GST/HST return, after subtracting input tax credits for tax you paid on business purchases. The CRA keeps the federal part, the 5% GST, and transfers the provincial part to the harmonised province. Quebec is different: Revenu Quebec administers GST and QST there. Because it is money held for someone else, keep it out of operating cash.

Bank charges and card processing fees on a business account are deductible in the year incurred, along with merchant discount rates, monthly service charges and interest on business borrowing. Fees on a personal chequing account are not deductible, and neither are the interest and fees on a personal credit card, even where you occasionally put work costs on it. Keep the statements, because the CRA asks for them on review of an expense claim.

Property tax on a second home or cottage you use personally is not deductible, and the same applies to vacant land held for personal use, though carrying costs on land can sometimes be added to its cost instead. If the property earns rent, property tax, mortgage interest, insurance and repairs are deductible against that rental income for the period it is rented. Land transfer tax is never deductible, cannot be rolled into your mortgage, and can still apply on gifted property.

Taxable income is what remains after deductions. A personal return moves through stages: total income from all sources, then net income after deductions such as registered retirement savings plan contributions, child care costs and union dues, then taxable income after any further deductions. Tax is calculated on that taxable income using the federal and provincial brackets, and non-refundable credits are applied afterwards, which is why a credit and a deduction are not worth the same amount.