Budget-Friendly Foreign Tax Credit Planning for Canadian Businesses and Individuals

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.

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.

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.

An exemption trust is an American estate planning structure that preserves a deceased spouse's federal estate tax exemption, so there is no direct Canadian equivalent. Canada levies no estate or inheritance tax. Instead, capital property is treated as sold at fair market value on death and the resulting gains are reported on the final return, while a qualifying transfer or spousal trust can defer that tax until the surviving spouse dies. Families with United States ties need advice on both systems.

Yes. A bank or other payer that issues you a T5 also files a copy with the Canada Revenue Agency, so your investment income is on file whether or not the slip reaches you. Issued slips generally show up in My Account, which is worth checking before you file. Report the income even when a slip is missing or late, because omitting it invites a reassessment with interest, and interest income is taxable in full at your marginal rate.

Most returns are transmitted electronically, so nothing is mailed and no receipts are sent in. Keep your slips and receipts for six years from the end of the last tax year they relate to, and send them only if the CRA asks. If you file on paper, the return goes to the tax centre for your province of residence, listed on the CRA's page for mailing a paper return. Documents the CRA requests can be uploaded through My Account.

Often yes. A non-resident business making taxable supplies in Canada must register and charge GST/HST once it passes $30,000 of taxable revenue over four consecutive calendar quarters or within a single quarter, using the rate for the customer's province: 5% GST, 13% in Ontario, 14% in Nova Scotia from 1 April 2025. Simplified registration rules apply to digital products and platform sales to Canadian consumers. A US supplier also pays GST/HST on its own Canadian purchases.

EI benefits do not arrive on a T4. Service Canada issues its own benefits slip showing what you were paid and any tax withheld, and posts it in My Service Canada Account as well as CRA My Account, in good time for the filing deadline. EI is taxable, and withholding at source is often lighter than your real rate, so a balance can be owing. Report the slip even if no paper copy reaches you.

Claim everything you are entitled to before looking at anything clever. RRSP contributions cut taxable income directly; the FHSA does too if you qualify. Check childcare, moving, employment and union expenses, tuition, medical costs above the threshold, donations, and the disability amount. Self-employed filers should capture home-office, vehicle and supply costs with records to back them. Splitting eligible pension income with a spouse can help. Deductions reduce income, credits reduce tax, and timing matters.

No GST or HST is charged on long-term residential rent: a lease of a home for a month or more is exempt, which is why your rent has no tax line. Short-term accommodation is different, since stays under a month can be taxable, and a landlord over the $30,000 small-supplier threshold must charge GST/HST on them. Some municipalities also add their own accommodation tax. Provincial sales tax does not apply to residential rent.

Yes. If you rent out part of the home you live in, a basement suite, a room, or a short-term listing, the rent is taxable and reported on your return, with expenses split between the rented area and your own. Renting a portion does not usually cost you the principal residence exemption, but claiming capital cost allowance on the rented part can. Keep records of the square footage and time used.

Ontario's HST is 13% for 2026, 5% federal and 8% provincial, and relief for a Status Indian purchaser turns on delivery rather than where the shop sits. Goods bought off reserve are taxable unless the vendor delivers them to the reserve, and a service is relieved only when performed on reserve. Eligible First Nations purchasers can claim point-of-sale relief for the 8% provincial part on qualifying off-reserve purchases by presenting a Certificate of Indian Status; the 5% federal part still applies.