Affordable CRA Program Account Setup for Canadian Businesses

Paper returns go to the CRA tax centre that serves your province or territory of residence, not to one national address. The correct address is printed in the paper return package and listed on canada.ca under mailing addresses for individual returns, and it differs for non-residents and for business returns. Filing electronically is much faster: for the 2025 tax year the CRA aims to issue a refund on an online return in about two weeks, against a considerably longer standard on paper.

A refund is the tax already paid minus the tax actually owed. Add the income tax withheld on your slips to any instalments you paid, work out tax payable on your total income after deductions and credits, and the difference comes back if the first figure is larger. Large refunds usually trace to over-withholding on employment income, RRSP contributions, or credits transferred to you. Run the numbers through the CRA's or a commercial estimator before you file.

As the rules stand for the 2025 tax year filed in 2026, the late-filing penalty is 5% of the balance owing plus 1% of that balance for each full month the return is late, to a maximum of 12 months, so 17% at worst. It rises to 10% plus 2% per month for up to 20 months, a 50% maximum, but only where the CRA formally demanded the return and had already charged a late-filing penalty for any of the three preceding tax years. Interest compounds daily.

Income tax starts once taxable income passes the basic personal amount, and a separate provincial or territorial amount applies on top, so the break-even point shifts every year with indexation and differs by where you live. Look up the current amounts on the CRA site or in the year's return package. Credits for tuition, disability, pension income or dependants push the point higher. Filing can still be worthwhile or required with no tax owing, for benefits and credits.

The business number is the single identifier the CRA uses for your business, with a separate programme account opened under it for each obligation: GST/HST, payroll deductions, corporate income tax, import and export. Register through Business Registration Online, by phone or by mail, or receive one automatically when you incorporate federally. You need it before you can remit payroll or file GST/HST. Provincial registration is separate in some provinces, notably Quebec, where Revenu Québec administers its own accounts.

A return filed online is usually assessed within about two weeks, and the notice of assessment appears in My Account as soon as that happens. Some returns are held for a review of slips, receipts or credits, which adds time without meaning anything is wrong. A non-resident return can take up to sixteen weeks. Register for My Account and email notifications so you see the notice the day it issues.

Sign in to CRA My Account and open the tax returns and tax information slips sections. Slips your employers, banks and payers filed with the CRA appear there, including T4, T4A and T5, usually by late March for the previous year. You can also download notices of assessment, prior-year returns and your RRSP and TFSA room statements. Slips arrive at different times, so confirm everything you expect is listed before you file.

The balance begins accruing compound daily interest from the payment due date, and filing late adds a separate late-filing penalty on top of it. If nothing is paid the file moves to collections, where the CRA can keep refunds and benefit payments, garnish wages or a bank account, and register a lien against property. Filing on time and agreeing a payment arrangement, even a partial one, prevents most of that. Interest runs until the balance reaches zero.

Your business number appears on every CRA notice, statement of account and remittance voucher, on GST/HST and payroll correspondence, and in My Business Account once you sign in. It is also on the confirmation issued when the account was opened, and on incorporation paperwork if the number came with registration. If nothing is to hand, the CRA business enquiries line can confirm it once it verifies that you are authorised to ask.

Match what is withheld to what you will owe. Ask your employer to deduct extra tax if you have a second job, a pension, or investment income with nothing taken off, and review the credits you claimed on the personal tax credits return you filed with them. Self-employed people should set money aside each month and pay instalments when the CRA asks. RRSP contributions made before the annual contribution deadline early in the next year also cut the balance.

Ornamental plants are taxable. Cut flowers, houseplants, shrubs, trees and potted arrangements all carry GST or HST at your province's rate. Plants and seeds that produce food for people are treated as basic groceries and are zero-rated, which covers vegetable seedlings and garden seed for edible crops, and some bulk agricultural seed and nursery stock sold to farmers is zero-rated as well. A garden centre applies both rules, so one bill can be part taxed.

Some are. Unused tuition, disability, age and pension income amounts can be transferred to a spouse, parent or grandparent within limits, and tuition not transferred carries forward for the student indefinitely. Most other non-refundable credits only reduce tax to zero and are then lost, because they cannot be refunded. Donations and student loan interest carry forward for a limited number of later years, and CRA's page for each credit states its transfer and carry-forward rules. Refundable credits are paid even with no tax payable.