Budget-Friendly Consolidated Financial Statements for Canadian Businesses

For the 2025 tax year the filing and payment deadline is 30 April 2026. If you or your spouse were self-employed, the filing deadline moves to 15 June 2026, but any balance owing is still due 30 April 2026. Interest starts the day after the payment deadline, and a late-filing penalty applies on top when a return with a balance owing is filed late. File on time even with nothing owing, because income-tested benefits are recalculated from the filed return.

Online banking is the simplest route: add the CRA as a payee, select the account and tax year precisely, and pay from your chequing account. CRA My Payment takes debit card payments, and pre-authorised debit can be scheduled in My Account or My Business Account for a single amount or a run of instalments. Corporations and GST/HST registrants use the same channels under their business number. Keep the confirmation number and allow several days for the payment to post.

Income tax is tax charged on the income you earn in a year, levied by both the federal government and your province or territory. Rates are graduated, so successive slices of taxable income are taxed at higher rates, and credits such as the basic personal amount reduce the tax calculated. Employment income is taxed through payroll withholding and settled on your T1 return. Quebec residents also file a separate provincial return with Revenu Quebec.

Yes. Most people file electronically through NETFILE using CRA-certified software, which submits the return directly and confirms receipt immediately. Filing online is also what makes a fast refund possible: for 2025 returns filed in 2026 the CRA service standard is about two weeks online, against a considerably longer standard for a paper return, and registering direct deposit removes the cheque step. CRA online filing for 2025 returns opened 23 February 2026 and closes 29 January 2027.

Yes. Pay for casual, part-time or one-off work is taxable to the worker, however small the amount and whether or not a slip was issued. If the person is your employee, you generally withhold and remit source deductions and report the pay on a T4. If they are genuinely self-employed, they invoice you and report the income on a T2125. Worker status turns on control and independence, not on the word “casual”.

A tip the customer chooses to leave is not payment for the meal, so no GST or HST applies to it. A service charge the business adds to the bill is different: it forms part of the price of what was supplied and is taxed like the rest of the bill. Set your point-of-sale system so voluntary tips sit outside the taxable sale, otherwise you remit tax you never actually collected.

Rarely on its own. Municipal tax follows the assessed value set by your province's assessment authority, not your renovation invoices. Work that adds living space, finished area or a permanent structure usually prompts a reassessment; replacing or paving a driveway generally moves market value very little. Building permits are how an assessor normally learns of changes. Your assessment notice explains how to ask for a review if the value looks wrong after work is done.

Canada has no annual tax-free allowance of the kind the United Kingdom applies to capital gains. What you get instead is the basic personal amount, a credit that shelters a first band of income each year, plus targeted reliefs: the principal residence exemption on a qualifying home and the lifetime capital gains exemption on qualifying small business shares or farm and fishing property. Only half of a capital gain is taxable for 2025 and 2026, with no separate yearly allowance.

Interest is compounded daily on the unpaid amount from the day after the payment deadline until you pay in full. The rate is the CRA's prescribed rate, which is reset every calendar quarter, so a balance carried across quarters is charged at more than one rate. Interest also accrues on any penalty. Because the rate moves, use the CRA's prescribed interest rates page for the quarter in question rather than an old figure.

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.

Give your accountant your business number so they can request access through CRA's Represent a Client service, then approve that request in My Business Account, which is the quickest route. A signed AUT-01 sent to the CRA is the route when online approval is not possible, but note what it gives: offline access only, so your accountant can deal with the CRA by phone and mail while online access to the account still has to be granted through Represent a Client and confirmed by you. Repeated failed sign-in attempts can lock the account until CRA verifies your identity by phone. A first-time filer with no assessed return can still register, using CRA's document verification option instead of an amount from a past return.

Treat a municipal tax sale as a legal exercise rather than a bargain hunt. The municipality is selling to recover unpaid property tax, and you generally buy without vacant possession, without a survey and without the title protections of a normal purchase; some interests, including certain Crown claims, can survive the sale. GST/HST may apply to the price, and a quick resale can be business income instead of a capital gain. Get property-specific legal advice before bidding.