Pocket-Friendly Insolvency and Restructuring Tax Support for Canadian Businesses

Sign in to CRA My Account, or use the CRA's mobile app, where the return shows as received, in process or assessed, and the refund amount and payment date appear once it has been assessed. The CRA also runs an automated telephone service giving the same information. A representative you have authorised through Represent a Client can check it for you. If the status has not moved past the published processing time, the return is probably under review.

Most enquiries are settled without a phone call in My Account, My Business Account or Represent a Client, where assessments, balances, slips and CRA mail all sit. When you need a person, use the enquiries line for your programme from the contact page on canada.ca, and have your social insurance or business number plus a figure from a recent return ready for identity checks. Written enquiries go to the tax centre named on your notice of assessment.

Revenue Canada is the former name of the Canada Revenue Agency. The CRA is the federal body that administers income tax, GST/HST, payroll deductions and benefit payments such as the Canada child benefit, and it collects provincial income tax for every province except Quebec, which runs its own personal system through Revenu Québec. The old name is still in everyday use, so paying Revenue Canada means paying the CRA, and a letter from either is the same agency.

File an Access to Information or Privacy Act request with the CRA. Personal records about yourself go through the Privacy Act; other records through Access to Information. You can submit online through the federal ATIP portal or send the government's request form to the CRA's access and privacy office, describing the records and period you want. A request for your own personal information has no application fee; access requests carry a small one. Audit working papers are commonly obtained this way.

The CRA does not usually move a due date, but you can ask for a payment arrangement that spreads the balance over time. Interest keeps running while you pay. Apply through My Account, My Business Account, or the CRA's debt management call centre. Where interest or penalties arose from circumstances beyond your control, ask for relief using form RC4288. British Columbia's property tax deferment program is a separate provincial scheme with its own application.

Work down the page. Total income comes first, then deductions, which give net income and taxable income. Below that, federal and provincial tax are calculated, non-refundable credits are subtracted, and amounts already paid — tax withheld on slips and any instalments — are applied. The last line is your refund or balance owing. Then compare it with your notice of assessment, because the CRA may have changed a figure while processing the return.

Call the individual or business tax enquiries line listed on the CRA's Contact us page, then work through the automated menu to reach an agent. Have your social insurance number or business number, your date of birth and a line amount from your last assessed return ready, because the agent cannot discuss your file without them. Wait times are longest right after the filing deadline. My Account answers many questions without a call.

Yes. Maternity and parental benefits are taxable income for the year you receive them and appear on the benefits slip Service Canada issues. Tax is withheld at source, usually at a rate below your overall rate, so a balance owing at filing is normal, particularly if you worked part of the year or your employer added a top-up. Quebec parental insurance benefits are taxable in the same way and come with their own slip.

Rental profit is taxed as ordinary income at your marginal rate; there is no special landlord rate. You report gross rent and deduct current expenses such as mortgage interest, property tax, insurance, utilities, repairs, advertising, condo fees and reasonable management costs. Capital improvements are added to the property's cost rather than deducted. A rental loss can generally offset other income. On sale, the gain is a capital gain, half of which is taxable for 2025 and 2026.

Yes. Provincial and territorial governments generally pay GST/HST on their purchases and recover it through their arrangements with the federal government, so invoice a government department the way you would any other customer. A small number of buyers hold documented relief, including certain Indigenous purchases and specific certificate arrangements, and that relief has to be evidenced when the sale is made. Keep the documentation with the invoice, because the CRA will otherwise look to you for the tax.

The CRA will not hand your return to a former spouse. Your tax information is confidential, and only you or a representative you have authorised can obtain it. Family law is separate: for support or property matters you can be required, by agreement or court order, to disclose returns and notices of assessment. Tell the CRA when your marital status changes, since benefits and credits are then recalculated on your own income.

The CRA applies its prescribed arrears interest rate, which is reset each quarter and compounded daily, to any balance left unpaid after the deadline. There is no fixed annual figure to quote, so check the current quarter's rate on canada.ca before estimating what you owe. Interest on personal income tax arrears is not deductible, and paying part of the balance immediately reduces the amount interest is calculated on for the rest of the period.