Affordable Investor Reporting for Canadian Businesses

For the 2025 tax year the filing and payment deadline is 30 April 2026. If you or your spouse carried on a business, the return itself is due 15 June 2026, but any balance owing is still due 30 April 2026. Interest runs on unpaid amounts after the payment deadline, and a late-filed return with a balance owing also attracts a late-filing penalty. Filing on time keeps benefit and credit payments flowing.

CRA online filing for 2025 returns opened on 23 February 2026 and stays open until 29 January 2027. You can prepare a return before the service opens, but it cannot be transmitted, and slips such as T4s and T5s often arrive only in late February. Filing early makes sense if you expect a refund. If you expect a balance owing, you can still file early and pay by 30 April 2026.

The basic personal amount is a non-refundable credit that shelters a base level of income from federal tax, so income below it carries no federal tax. The amount is indexed every year, and the enhanced portion is phased out across the second-highest federal bracket, so taxpayers in the top bracket receive only the base amount. Each province and territory sets its own version. On Form TD1 you claim it so your employer withholds less; claim it with one employer only, or too little tax is withheld.

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.

Sign in to CRA My Account and check the uncashed cheques list, your balance, and whether any returns are still outstanding, since a refund is only issued once a return is assessed. Missing returns also stop benefit and credit payments. An old CRA cheque never expires; you ask for it to be reissued. Forgotten bank, insurance or pension balances sit with provincial unclaimed-property registries rather than the CRA, so check those separately.

Compare the tax deducted shown on your slips, plus any instalments, with the total tax payable on your notice of assessment. If what you paid exceeds what you owed, the difference comes back as a refund and the notice shows it. Common causes are working only part of the year, two employers each withholding as though they were your only one, or credits and deductions you did not claim. Missed claims can be corrected with a T1-ADJ.

Rent is not deductible against employment income, so most tenants claim nothing for it directly. It can still matter. Ontario tenants may report rent paid toward the Ontario energy and property tax credit on the provincial benefits schedule, and Quebec and Manitoba have their own renter measures. If you are self-employed or required to work from home, a reasonable share of rent based on workspace area is deductible. Keep receipts, the amounts paid and your landlord's details.

Lenders, landlords and immigration or benefit programs generally mean a document from the CRA that confirms your reported income and filing history. The CRA issues nothing under that exact name, so what you supply instead is a proof of income statement, printable from My Account, or the notice of assessment for the year in question. A representative authorised on your account, using form AUT-01, can obtain the same documents on your behalf if you cannot.

The GST/HST credit is paid quarterly and there is no fixed clock time. A direct deposit is released on the payment date and most banks post it that morning, though some show it overnight before and others later in the day. Cheques take longer in the mail. The year's payment dates are on the CRA's benefit payment dates page, and My Account shows your next amount. Wait a few business days before reporting a missing payment.

Zero-rated supplies are taxable at 0%: you charge no tax and can still claim input tax credits on the costs of making them. Exempt supplies sit outside GST/HST entirely, so you charge nothing and recover nothing. Basic groceries, prescription drugs and most exports are zero-rated. Long-term residential rent, most health services, childcare, tuition and financial services are exempt. Everything else carries the 5% GST for 2026, or 13% to 15% HST in the harmonised provinces.

A taxable event is any transaction that creates income or a gain the CRA can tax: selling or transferring property, receiving salary, interest or dividends, withdrawing from an RRSP, exercising employee options, or a deemed disposition on emigration or death. For the 2025 and 2026 tax years, one-half of a capital gain is included in income. You cannot simply push income into next year: employment income is taxed when paid or receivable, and interest must be reported as it accrues even if you have not received it.

Fix the withholding or reserve the cash. An employee can ask payroll to deduct extra tax each pay, and should refile the personal tax credits form when a second job or a changed credit claim has made the old one wrong. Self-employed people pay quarterly instalments and hold back a set share of every invoice. RRSP contributions made before the deadline reduce taxable income. Reviewing last year's balance early in the new year is what prevents the repeat.