Economical Film and Television Tax Credits 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.

There is no single rate. Federal personal income tax for 2026 runs through five brackets: 14%, then 20.5%, 26%, 29% and 33% on the highest band, and your province's brackets stack on top, so your combined marginal rate is the federal rate plus the provincial one. The 2026 federal basic personal amount is $16,452, tapering to $14,829 as net income rises from $181,440 to $258,482. Capital gains and Canadian dividends are taxed on a different basis.

CRA online filing for 2025 returns opened 23 February 2026 and closes 29 January 2027. Most people file between late February and the 30 April 2026 deadline, and that stretch is what tax season refers to. You can gather documents and prepare a return earlier, but it cannot be sent electronically before the system opens. Employment and investment slips such as T4 and T5 are issued by payers early in the year, and the CRA's Auto-fill service can pull the ones it already holds once you have set up My Account.

Multiply the pre-tax price by the combined rate for the province where the supply is made, then add that amount to the price. If the price already includes tax, divide the total by one plus the rate to get the pre-tax amount, and the difference is the tax. The rate depends on the province of supply rather than where your business sits, so verify the current rate for that province and confirm the item is not zero-rated or exempt.

A non-refundable credit reduces the tax you owe to zero but no further, so any unused part is lost, carried forward, or transferred to a spouse or parent where the rule allows it. A refundable credit is paid to you even when no tax is owed, which is how benefit-style payments reach people with little or no income. Most personal credits on the federal return, including the basic personal amount, are non-refundable.

The landlord pays tax on rent, not the tenant. Rent received is income, reported every year on the owner's return, and the costs of earning it are deductible: mortgage interest, property tax, insurance, utilities you pay, advertising, repairs and condo fees. Improvements are added to the cost of the property and written off over time instead. Rent a tenant pays for a home is not deductible, although some provinces give a housing or occupancy credit on the provincial return.

There is no single tax-free amount that applies to everyone. Federal and provincial basic personal amounts each shelter a band of income, so someone whose income stays within those amounts pays no income tax. The federal amount is reduced for higher earners, and every province sets its own figure that changes each year. Look up the basic personal amount for your province and tax year, and remember CPP and EI still come off employment income.

Once you stop being a small supplier. That happens when your taxable revenue passes $30,000 measured over four consecutive calendar quarters, or within a single calendar quarter - and if you cross the threshold inside one quarter, you must charge GST/HST on the very sale that takes you over. You then register and file returns for the assigned period. You can also register voluntarily below the threshold to recover input tax credits.

The slip reporting employment insurance benefits is issued in February following the year you received them, ahead of the filing deadline. Look for it in your My Service Canada Account and in CRA My Account; a paper copy is mailed if you have not chosen electronic delivery. EI benefits are taxable, and the tax withheld at source is often less than the tax finally due, so expect a balance owing if you had other income that year.

Both happen, and the tax result differs. Canada Pension Plan and Old Age Security are paid monthly and taxed as received. A defined-benefit pension usually pays monthly, though some plans offer a commuted value instead; a lump sum paid to you is taxable in that year unless part of it transfers directly into a registered plan. Money in an RRSP can be withdrawn as a lump sum or converted to periodic retirement income.

Your EI slip comes from Service Canada, not from an employer, and it is a T4E rather than a T4. The quickest route is My Service Canada Account, where the slip is posted early in the year and can be viewed, printed or saved. It also flows into CRA My Account once processed, so Auto-fill my return pulls it into most tax software. A paper copy is mailed unless you chose online delivery only.

Card processing fees your merchant provider charges on business sales are a deductible business expense, as is the annual fee on a card used only for the business. Where one card mixes personal and business spending, claim only the business share and keep the statements that prove the split. Interest on borrowing used to earn business income is deductible too, while interest on personal purchases is not, whatever the card is called.