Affordable Back-Tax Filing for Canadian Businesses and Individuals

Some are. Legal fees are deductible when they relate to earning income or defending a tax position, such as collecting salary or wages owed to you, objecting to or appealing an assessment, or running a business. Fees paid to obtain or enforce support are generally deductible for the recipient. Fees for the divorce itself, for custody, or for personal disputes are not, and fees to acquire property are usually added to that property's cost instead.

Check My Account, which shows your current balance, any instalment requirement and the assessment for every year. The notice of assessment for your last filed return also states the balance, and the CRA's individual enquiries line can confirm it once you verify your identity. If returns are missing, the balance is not final until those years are filed. A representative can review it for you once authorised through Represent a Client or form AUT-01.

Start by claiming everything you are entitled to: RRSP contributions, child care, moving and employment expenses, self-employment costs, tuition, medical expenses, donations and the credits that follow your family situation. Timing helps too, such as deferring a bonus or triggering a capital loss against a gain. Pension income splitting and spousal RRSP contributions move income to a lower-rate spouse. For a business, incorporating and planning how money is drawn out matters. Leaving income unreported is evasion, not planning.

Two separate charges apply. Filing late costs 5% of the balance owing plus 1% for each full month the return is late, to a maximum of 12 months. Paying late costs compound daily interest on the unpaid balance at the CRA's prescribed rate, which is reset every quarter. Interest also runs on the penalty itself. Check the current quarterly rate on the CRA's prescribed interest rates page before estimating what you owe.

Call the CRA enquiries line for your situation, whether individual, benefits, business or collections, from the contact page on canada.ca, then work through the automated menu to reach an agent. Have your social insurance or business number, your address and a figure from a recently assessed return ready, because the agent cannot discuss the account without them. Early morning is usually quieter. To have someone speak for you, file an authorisation such as the AUT-01 first.

Treatment turns on whether the activity is investing or a business. Occasional trades in gold, oil or a commodity ETF held for appreciation are usually capital, so one-half of the gain is taxable for 2025 and 2026. Frequent, leveraged, short-horizon trading, or trading tied to your own business, is more likely fully taxable business income, with losses fully deductible. Physical bullion sales, futures and hedges each have their own treatment, so document your intention from the start.

A true operating lease is deducted as a current expense over the period it covers. An arrangement that is really a financed purchase is capitalised instead, and you claim capital cost allowance on the asset plus the interest portion of the payments. Passenger vehicle and some equipment leases face separate deduction limits. Accounting standards may put a lease on the balance sheet even where tax still treats it as rent, so the two figures differ. Check the CRA's business expense guidance.

Residents are taxed on worldwide income, self-assessed on a return you file yourself. Add up income, subtract deductions to reach taxable income, apply the federal and provincial brackets in steps, then reduce the result by non-refundable credits and by tax already withheld or paid by instalment. The difference is your refund or balance owing, which the CRA confirms on a notice of assessment and can later review or reassess.

Line 105 on the electronic GST/HST return is the total tax you collected or that became collectible in the period, at 5% GST, 13% in Ontario, or 15% in New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island for 2026. Remitting means sending CRA that figure less your input tax credits. Tax collected is a liability, not revenue, so show it as its own invoice line with your GST/HST number.

Controlled tips do. Amounts the restaurant collects and controls, such as a mandatory service charge or a pool the house allocates, run through the books as revenue and then as wage expense when paid out, and a mandatory service charge on a taxable meal is generally subject to GST/HST. Voluntary tips passed straight to staff are not the restaurant's revenue and no GST/HST applies. Keep the two streams separate in your bookkeeping.

Day camps and day sports schools qualify as child care when you paid them so you could work, run a business or study, and the child meets the age and residency conditions. Overnight camps and boarding schools also qualify, but only up to a weekly limit per child rather than the whole fee. A program that is mainly instruction, such as music lessons or skills coaching, may not count. Keep the receipt showing the child's name and the care amount.

Yes. The CRA runs a leads programme for reporting suspected tax cheating, and you can submit online, by phone or by mail, anonymously if you prefer. Give facts, names, dates and amounts where you have them, because the CRA cannot come back with questions if you stay anonymous. It will never tell you the outcome, since confidentiality rules cover the other taxpayer. A separate offshore informant programme can pay an award on large international cases.