Economical Business Restructuring Support for Canadian 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.

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.

For 2025 returns filed in 2026, most online returns are processed in about two weeks, and a non-resident return can take up to sixteen weeks. A paper return runs on a considerably longer standard because it is handled manually. Those timeframes assume a complete return that is not pulled for review. Register direct deposit and track progress in CRA My Account rather than waiting on a posted cheque.

The CRA mails an income tax package to people who filed on paper the year before, usually in February. Anyone else can order one online or by phone, or download and print the forms. Filing online is faster: a refund on an electronically filed return usually arrives in about two weeks. Slips such as T4 and T5 come from your employer or financial institution, not from the CRA, though filed copies show in CRA My Account.

Register with the CRA for a business number, which is the account identifier the agency uses for your business. You can apply online through Business Registration Online, by phone, or by mail, giving your legal name, business activity and, for a corporation, your incorporation details. Incorporating often triggers a business number automatically. You then add program accounts on top of it, such as GST/HST, payroll and corporate income tax, as each obligation begins.

For the 2025 personal tax year the balance is due 30 April 2026, even if you are self-employed and file by 15 June 2026. Employees pay through payroll deductions across the year, while the self-employed and people with investment income may owe quarterly instalments. A corporation's balance is due two months after year end, or three months for an eligible CCPC claiming the small business deduction. Interest runs from the day after the due date.

Property tax has to be current at closing, and the lawyers handle it through the statement of adjustments: the seller is credited for any period already paid past the closing date, or debited for arrears. Unpaid municipal tax is a lien on title, so it must be cleared before the transfer registers. This is a municipal charge, separate from any capital gain you report to the CRA on the sale.

For an individual it is the social insurance number, which the CRA uses to identify you on your return and your benefit accounts. A business gets a business number, extended by a program account for each purpose, such as corporate income tax, payroll and GST/HST. Anyone who must file but cannot obtain a social insurance number, a non-resident for example, applies to the CRA for an individual tax number instead.

The rent is taxable income from the first payment, reported gross with expenses deducted, even for a short-term or part-year rental. Renting out part of the home usually leaves the principal residence exemption intact where the rental use is ancillary and you claim no capital cost allowance on the building. Converting the whole home to a rental is a change in use that can deem a disposition at fair market value. Get advice before you convert, not after.

Returns are assessed one at a time, even when they are filed together on the same day. One can go straight through while the other is held for a review, a missing slip, a benefit recalculation or a manual check. Your spouse's assessment tells you nothing about yours. Check your own status in CRA My Account, and if it still shows as in process after a few weeks, look for a letter asking for information.

Register through Business Registration Online, or by phone or mail, and the CRA issues the business number together with the program accounts you request: GST/HST, payroll, corporate income tax, or import-export. Incorporating federally usually generates the number automatically, so check whether you already have one before applying again. Open the GST/HST account before your first return is due and the payroll account before the first remittance, since deadlines run from the obligation, not the registration.

File on time anyway, then deal with the balance separately, because the late-filing penalty is avoidable even when the payment is not. The CRA accepts payment arrangements, where you propose instalments you can meet and usually disclose income and expenses to support them. Interest keeps running, so pay what you can immediately and arrange the remainder. Where penalties and interest built up through illness, disaster or CRA delay, Form RC4288 asks for taxpayer relief. A free 15-minute consultation can help you choose the route.