Low-cost Bookkeeping Firms for Canadian Businesses

For the 2026 tax year, federal rates are 14% on the first $58,523 of taxable income, 20.5% from there to $117,045, 26% to $181,440, 29% to $258,482, and 33% above that. Each rate applies only to the income inside its own band, so moving into a higher bracket does not raise the tax on the income below it. Provincial or territorial tax is added on top.

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.

The simplest route is the birth registration in your province or territory: consent to share the details with the CRA and the benefit application is handled for you. Otherwise apply in My Account, or mail the child benefits application form with proof of birth and, where asked, proof of residency. You and your spouse or common-law partner must each file a return every year, because the amount is recalculated in July from family net income.

Divide the total by one plus the tax rate expressed as a decimal. That gives the amount before tax, and subtracting it from the total leaves the tax portion. Going the other direction, multiply the pre-tax amount by the rate to get the tax and add the two together. Use the combined rate for the province of supply, and avoid rounding at each step so the tax you report matches the figures on your invoices.

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.

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.

A write-off is an expense deducted from income so that tax applies to a smaller amount. It is not a refund of what you spent: the saving equals the expense multiplied by your marginal rate. Employees may deduct very little, while a business or self-employed person can deduct reasonable costs incurred to earn income, though categories such as meals and entertainment, vehicles and home office are restricted. Keep receipts, because the CRA can ask for them years later.

Usually not. Most financial services, including account maintenance, interest, loan arrangement and transfers of money, are exempt supplies, so no GST/HST is charged and the bank claims no credits on them. Some charges billed on the same statement are taxable: safety deposit box rental, certain administrative or advisory services, equipment rental and merchant processing hardware. Read the statement, since taxable lines show the tax separately, and claim input tax credits only on those.

You cannot write off the income itself, but you deduct the costs of earning it. Common current expenses are mortgage interest (not principal), property tax, insurance, utilities you pay, condo fees, advertising, property management, and repairs that maintain the property. Improvements that better the property are capital and depreciated instead. Only the rented portion counts where you also live there. Keep invoices for six years from the end of the tax year they relate to.

Multiply the hourly rate by your weekly hours, then by the paid weeks in the year: 52 where vacation is paid, fewer where it is not. Going the other way, divide the annual salary by 52 and then by weekly hours. Either way the answer is gross pay, before income tax, CPP and EI come off, so your deposits will be smaller. Overtime, bonuses, statutory holiday pay and unpaid leave all shift the real annual total.

Possibly. CRA My Account carries an uncashed cheque list showing refunds and benefit payments that were never deposited, and the CRA will reissue them; government cheques do not expire. Unfiled returns are the other common cause, because refunds and credits sit unpaid until a return is assessed. You can ask the CRA to reassess earlier years, and provinces run unclaimed property registries for forgotten bank and payroll amounts. Start with My Account.

GST at 5% applies to newspapers across Canada, because they are not zero-rated. Ontario gives a point-of-sale rebate for the provincial part of the HST on printed newspapers, so an Ontario purchase is effectively taxed at 5% rather than 13%. Digital subscriptions are taxable and the rebate does not reach them. A personal credit for digital news subscriptions existed for certain tax years, so check the CRA page for the years it covers before claiming it.