Affordable Invoice Reconstruction for Canadian Businesses

Taxable income is what is left after you total the income the tax rules include and subtract the deductions you are allowed. Employment and self-employment earnings, most pensions, EI and CPP benefits, interest, dividends, rental profit, the taxable portion of capital gains, RRSP and RRIF withdrawals and most taxable benefits from work all go into the total. Tax is then calculated on that figure and reduced by non-refundable credits such as the basic personal amount.

Interest is normally an exempt financial service, so you do not charge GST/HST on interest you earn or on interest you add to an overdue invoice. Exempt supplies differ from zero-rated ones: zero-rated sales are taxed at 0% and still let you recover input tax credits, while exempt supplies do not. If most of your revenue is exempt, your registration position and credit recovery both change, so review the CRA's financial services guidance.

A flat monthly car allowance is generally taxable, added to employment income on the T4 with source deductions taken. A per-kilometre reimbursement is different: if it is based on business kilometres actually driven at a reasonable rate, it is not taxable. For 2026 the CRA treats 73 cents per kilometre for the first 5,000 kilometres and 67 cents after as reasonable, with 4 cents more in the territories; the 2025 rates were 72 and 66 cents.

No. QST is a separate Quebec tax administered by Revenu Quebec, and it cannot be recovered on your federal GST/HST return. Only a business registered for QST can claim input tax refunds for the 9.975% QST it pays, and registration normally follows from making taxable supplies in Quebec. An Ontario business with no QST registration treats the QST on a Quebec invoice as part of the cost of the expense. Check Revenu Quebec for the registration rules.

If you are registered for GST/HST, record expenses net of the tax and claim the tax portion as an input tax credit on your GST/HST return. Deducting it as an expense as well would claim the same amount twice. If you are not registered, the tax you paid is simply part of the cost and is deducted with it. Keep supplier invoices showing the tax and the supplier's registration number, because the CRA can ask for them.

No. Insurance premiums are an exempt financial service, so no GST/HST appears on them and there is no input tax credit to claim. Provinces levy their own taxes on certain premiums, and Ontario applies retail sales tax to some group benefit and insurance premiums, which is why an invoice can still show a tax line. The premium itself stays deductible as a business expense where the coverage relates to earning income.

There is no age or milestone at which refunds stop. A refund only means more tax was withheld or paid by instalments during the year than the return finally calculates, so it turns on your income mix each year. Retirees often stop seeing refunds because pension, RRIF and investment income tends to be under-withheld, which produces a balance owing instead. You can ask a payer to withhold more, or pay instalments, to change that.

Property tax funds municipal services: roads, water and waste collection, transit, fire and police, parks, libraries and local administration. In most provinces the bill also carries a separate education portion collected for the province's school system. None of it goes to the CRA, and it is not income tax. Property tax on the home you live in is not deductible on your T1, while property tax on a rental or a business property is a deductible expense.

Spousal support is deductible to the payer and taxable to the recipient when it is a periodic amount paid under a written separation agreement or court order, and both people report the same figure. Lump sum settlements, property division and legal fees to negotiate the arrangement generally do not qualify. Child support under most orders and agreements now in place is neither deductible nor taxable. Register the order with the CRA and keep every payment record.

Usually yes, but read it with the date beside it. The balance shown in CRA My Account is what that account owes as of that date, including interest charged to that point. It moves afterwards: interest compounds daily on an unpaid balance, and a payment, a reassessment or a credit transferred from another account changes the figure. Instalment, payroll and GST/HST accounts are shown separately, so confirm you are looking at the right one.

Both, at different points in the statements. Income tax for the period is an expense on the statement of profit or loss, while the amount still owing at the reporting date sits on the balance sheet as a liability, usually shown as income taxes payable. Sales tax works differently again: GST/HST you collect is never revenue and never an expense, it is a liability owed to the CRA net of the input tax credits you claim.

A balance in the thousands almost always means a whole slice of income had little or no tax taken off it. Self-employment is the usual reason, since nobody withholds for you and CPP contributions on that income are yours to pay as both employee and employer. Large RRSP withdrawals, severance, stock benefits, capital gains and rental profit do the same. Check each slip against the assessed return, then start instalments or set money aside so next year is not a repeat.