Budget-Friendly KPI Dashboard Development 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 23 February 2026 and closes 29 January 2027. Most people file between late February and the 30 April 2026 deadline, and that stretch is what tax season refers to. You can gather documents and prepare a return earlier, but it cannot be sent electronically before the system opens. Employment and investment slips such as T4 and T5 are issued by payers early in the year, and the CRA's Auto-fill service can pull the ones it already holds once you have set up My Account.

Sign in to CRA My Account and open the tax returns section, which lists your assessed returns, notices of assessment and reassessment, and carry-forward amounts for earlier years. You can also download a proof of income statement, request a copy by phone, or ask whoever prepared the return for you. Keep your own copy and the supporting records for six years from the end of the tax year they relate to.

Medical costs give a non-refundable credit rather than a deduction. Eligible items include prescription drugs, dental work, eyeglasses and contact lenses, fees paid to medical practitioners authorised to practise, private health plan premiums, attendant care and travel for treatment unavailable locally. Over-the-counter products and most cosmetic procedures do not qualify. Only the portion above an income-based threshold counts, the claim period may end at any point in the tax year rather than following the calendar year, and pooling the family claim on one spouse usually helps.

A non-refundable credit reduces the tax you owe to zero but no further, so any unused part is lost, carried forward, or transferred to a spouse or parent where the rule allows it. A refundable credit is paid to you even when no tax is owed, which is how benefit-style payments reach people with little or no income. Most personal credits on the federal return, including the basic personal amount, are non-refundable.

Line 23600 is net income. Start from total income on line 15000, then subtract the deductions listed above it: registered pension and RRSP contributions, union and professional dues, child care costs, moving expenses, support payments, employment expenses and similar claims. Net income drives most income-tested credits and benefits, so an error there changes benefit entitlement as well as tax. Tax software totals the line automatically from the slips and claims you enter, but check the deduction list yourself.

Sometimes, depending on the type. A non-refundable credit reduces tax payable and can only take it to zero, so once you owe nothing, extra non-refundable credits add nothing to a refund. A refundable credit is paid out even when no tax is owing, so it does increase what you get back. Deductions work differently again, lowering taxable income before the rates apply. If you already owe nothing, look for refundable credits and benefits instead.

Yes. A television is an ordinary taxable good, so GST at 5% for 2026 applies, or HST instead in the HST provinces: 13% in Ontario, and 14% in Nova Scotia since 1 April 2025. In British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Quebec, provincial sales tax or QST is charged alongside the GST. Electronic recycling or environmental handling fees may appear on the receipt and are generally taxable themselves.

A personal return is the T1: identification pages, then pages that total income, subtract deductions to reach taxable income, apply federal and provincial credits, and finish with a balance owing or a refund. Behind it sit schedules and forms for specific items, such as a self-employment statement or a capital gains schedule, plus the slips supporting each figure. The notice of assessment the CRA issues afterwards is a separate document, not the return itself.

A final return, also called a terminal return, is the T1 filed for the year a person died, covering income from 1 January to the date of death. It reports the deemed disposition of capital property and, unless the plan rolls over to a surviving spouse or common-law partner or to a qualifying dependent child or grandchild, the value of an RRSP or RRIF, together with the final credits and deductions. Income earned after the date of death goes on a T3 trust return for the estate instead. The filing deadline depends on the date of death, so confirm it on CRA's final return page.

CRA stands for the Canada Revenue Agency, the federal body that administers income tax, GST/HST, payroll deductions and benefit payments such as the Canada child benefit. It collects for the federal government and, under agreement, for most provinces and territories. Quebec is the main exception: Revenu Quebec administers provincial income tax and the provincial sales tax there. Alberta and Quebec also administer their own corporate income tax.

The parent receiving support may deduct legal fees paid to establish, increase, collect or enforce child or spousal support, including fees to defend against a reduction. The paying parent cannot deduct legal fees for support, custody or access, and neither parent can deduct the cost of obtaining the divorce or separation itself. Claim the deductible portion on your return and keep the lawyer's account showing how time was allocated between the issues.