Pocket-Friendly Balance Sheet Preparation for Canadian Businesses

Most people pay through online or telephone banking, adding the CRA as a payee and choosing the exact account and year, such as a personal balance owing or an instalment. The alternatives are CRA My Payment with a debit card, pre-authorised debit scheduled in My Account, a credit card or e-transfer through a third-party provider that charges its own fee, or paying at your bank with a remittance voucher. For the 2025 tax year the balance was due 30 April 2026.

If you owe nothing, no penalty applies, but a refund and benefit payments such as the Canada child benefit and the GST/HST credit are held up until the return is processed. If you owe, a late-filing penalty is charged and interest runs on the balance and compounds daily from the day after the due date. For the 2025 tax year the deadline was 30 April 2026. File even if you cannot pay, because the penalty is driven by filing, not payment.

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.

Rental income is revenue, not an asset. In double-entry bookkeeping you credit a rental income account and debit cash or accounts receivable, so the income sits on the income statement while the receivable or bank balance sits on the balance sheet. The property itself is the asset, and the rent it produces is periodic revenue. Rent collected in advance is a liability, deferred revenue, until the month it relates to arrives.

The CRA publishes its numbers on the Contact the Canada Revenue Agency page, with separate lines for individual enquiries, business enquiries and benefits. We do not quote them here because they change and vary by service. Have your social insurance number or business number, a recent return and your postal code ready, since the agent will verify your identity before discussing your account. Automated self-service handles balances, and My Account answers many questions without a call.

No, earning more still leaves you better off. Canada uses graduated rates, so a higher bracket applies only to the income above that threshold, not to everything you earn. Federal rates for 2026 begin at 14% and rise through 20.5%, 26% and 29% to 33%, with provincial rates on top. Extra income never leaves you with less after tax. What can shrink as income rises are income-tested benefits and credits, so check those first.

No. While your taxable revenue stays under the $30,000 small-supplier threshold for 2026, unchanged from 2025, you are not required to register for GST/HST or charge it. The threshold is tested over four consecutive calendar quarters or within a single quarter, and crossing it in one quarter ends small-supplier status on the sale that takes you over. You may still register voluntarily so you can claim input tax credits on your costs.

Call the individual tax enquiries line listed on the CRA's contact page on canada.ca; the automated menu leads to an agent during business hours. Have your social insurance number, date of birth and an amount from a recent return ready, because the agent cannot open your file without them. Walk-in counter service is not offered, and in-person help is limited and by appointment. If you would rather not deal with the CRA yourself, authorise a representative in My Account or with an AUT-01.

Basic groceries are zero-rated for GST/HST, so no federal or harmonised tax is charged on bread, milk, produce, meat and similar staples. Snack foods, candy, carbonated drinks and prepared meals are excluded and taxable. On the provincial side, British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Manitoba exempt food for human consumption from PST and RST, so groceries carry no provincial retail sales tax either. Quebec's QST follows the federal zero-rating for basic groceries.

Divide income tax expense by profit before tax to get the effective rate. It differs from the statutory rate because of permanently non-deductible items, credits and timing differences between accounting and tax treatment. Income tax payable is a current liability and income tax receivable a current asset, so a refund is recorded against that receivable rather than as revenue. Internet is normally an operating expense under utilities or office costs, and property taxes are expensed unless properly capitalised to a project under construction.

The Canada Child Benefit and related credits are calculated on adjusted family net income taken from both spouses' prior-year returns, so there is no single income cut-off. Payments sit at a maximum up to a threshold, then reduce as income rises, and the amounts and thresholds are indexed each July. Both partners must file every year, even with no income, or payments stop. Use the CRA's child and family benefits calculator for your own figures.

The GST/HST credit is paid quarterly and there is no fixed clock time. A direct deposit is released on the payment date and most banks post it that morning, though some show it overnight before and others later in the day. Cheques take longer in the mail. The year's payment dates are on the CRA's benefit payment dates page, and My Account shows your next amount. Wait a few business days before reporting a missing payment.