Budget-Friendly Financial Data Cleanup for Canadian Businesses

A write-off is simply a deductible expense. You subtract it from the income it helped earn, so the saving equals the expense multiplied by your marginal tax rate, not the full amount spent. To qualify, the cost must be incurred to earn business or employment income, be reasonable in amount, and be backed by a receipt. Purely personal costs never qualify, and mixed-use items such as a vehicle or a home office are split by business-use proportion.

No. Revenue is income you have earned and belongs on the income statement, not among liabilities. Money taken before you deliver the goods or service is different: unearned or deferred revenue is a liability until you perform the work. Sales tax you collect is also a liability rather than revenue. Booking customer deposits straight to sales is a common error that overstates profit and distorts the figures on your GST/HST return.

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.

Work it from your own figures rather than a rule of thumb. A corporation on active business income pays 9% federally on the first $500,000 for 2026, plus the provincial small business rate — 3.2% in Ontario, falling to 2.2% on 1 July 2026 — so reserve that share of profit as you earn it. A sole proprietor should set aside at their marginal personal rate plus CPP. Keep GST/HST collected in a separate account; that money was never yours.

For your own tax information, ask for a personal information request through the federal ATIP online portal, or submit the government's request form to the CRA's access to information office. Name the years and the type of record - notices of assessment, audit working papers, collections notes - because a narrow request is answered faster. Check CRA My Account first: slips, notices and account balances are already there at no cost.

No. While your taxable revenue stays under the $30,000 small-supplier threshold for 2026, unchanged from 2025, you are not required to register for GST/HST or charge it. The threshold is tested over four consecutive calendar quarters or within a single quarter, and crossing it in one quarter ends small-supplier status on the sale that takes you over. You may still register voluntarily so you can claim input tax credits on your costs.

GST/HST is designed as a broad-based tax on consumption, so the default is that a sale is taxable and the exceptions are deliberately narrow. Each business in a chain charges tax and recovers the tax it paid, so only the final buyer really bears it. GST is 5% for 2025 and 2026, and most provinces add an HST, PST, RST or QST layer on top of that.

The CRA issues a notice of assessment once it finishes processing your return, so there is no fixed mailing date. An online return is usually processed in about two weeks (2025 tax year), and the notice appears in My Account first if you are registered, with a paper copy following unless you chose online mail only. A non-resident return can take up to 16 weeks. Reassessments arrive whenever a later review changes something.

There is no federal renter's credit. Some provinces offer one: Ontario includes rent in its energy and property tax credit, Manitoba has a renters tax credit, and Quebec's solidarity credit factors in your housing. You claim it on the provincial schedule filed with your T1 for the year, reporting rent paid and your landlord's details, so you must file even with low income. Keep receipts or a lease. Check your province's page for eligibility.

Interest runs on an unpaid balance from the day after the payment due date and compounds daily until the balance is cleared. The rate is a prescribed rate the CRA sets for each calendar quarter and tied to short-term government yields, so it moves through the year; the current figure is published on the CRA's prescribed interest rates page. Interest also applies to penalties once assessed, and it is not deductible. Any partial payment reduces the balance interest is charged on.

A bursary is treated the same way as a scholarship. The payer reports it on a T4A, and the scholarship exemption then removes the amount from income for a student enrolled full time in a qualifying educational program. Part-time students can exempt an amount tied to tuition and program costs. Money that is really compensation for work is taxable and belongs in income, and support for training outside a qualifying program is taxable only beyond the small basic exemption that applies to awards which do not qualify.

Only one parent claims a given child amount, and the same child cannot be claimed on both returns. The Canada child benefit goes to the parent primarily responsible for the child's daily care, and where parents share that care roughly equally the CRA can split the payments between them. Child care expenses are generally claimed by the lower-income spouse. Medical expenses and the child disability amount can go on either return, so compare both before filing.