Affordable Religious Organization Accounting for Canadian Non-Profits and Charities

HST combines the 5% federal GST with a provincial component in five participating provinces. For 2026 the combined rates are 13% in Ontario, 15% in New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Prince Edward Island, and 14% in Nova Scotia since 1 April 2025. Elsewhere you charge the 5% GST alone, or GST plus a separate provincial tax. The rate follows the province of supply, not where your business sits.

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.

Interest on a student loan gives a non-refundable tax credit, not a deduction, and only the interest counts: repaying principal claims nothing. The loan has to come from a federal or provincial government student loan program, so interest on a line of credit, a bank loan or money borrowed from family does not qualify. Interest you cannot use because you owe no tax may be carried forward and claimed in a later year instead of being lost.

Usually a tax preparer, tax accountant, or bookkeeper, depending on what they actually do. In Canada no single licence is required to prepare someone else's return, so the titles vary widely and are worth asking about. To transmit your return electronically a preparer needs an EFILE number from the CRA, and to discuss your file with the CRA they must be authorised as your representative, either through My Account or with an AUT-01. Confirm the scope and the fee before work starts.

RM identifies the GST/HST program account inside a CRA business number. A business number is nine digits, then a two-letter program code and a four-digit reference, so 123456789 RM0001 is your first GST/HST account. Other codes cover payroll, corporate income tax and import-export. Use the RM account when filing or remitting a GST/HST return, and quote the full fifteen characters so the payment lands on the right account.

Claim everything you are entitled to, and file on time. Gather every slip and receipt, use My Account to confirm the CRA holds the same slips you do, and claim RRSP contributions, tuition, medical expenses, child care, moving costs and employment expenses where they apply. Couples should compare who claims transferable credits and pooled expenses. If you are self-employed, deduct real business costs on the T2125. Contributing to an RRSP or FHSA before the deadline reduces taxable income directly.

HST is not a fee the business keeps. It is the harmonised sales tax, a combined federal and provincial sales tax the supplier collects on your behalf and remits to the CRA. On a bill it appears as a percentage of the pre-tax subtotal at the rate of the province of supply, 13% in Ontario. A registered supplier must show the tax, or state that it is included, and give their GST/HST registration number on request.

Once the year has closed the options narrow to deductions still open for that year, mainly an RRSP contribution made before the annual deadline, plus carry-forward losses and credits you have not used. Re-read the notice of assessment for anything missed and file a T1-ADJ to correct it. Where interest and penalties are the real weight, taxpayer relief can be requested on Form RC4288, and CRA will discuss a payment arrangement for the balance.

Not every dollar counts. The medical expense credit applies only to eligible expenses above a threshold, set as the lesser of a fixed percentage of your net income or a flat dollar amount the CRA indexes each year, so a lower income means a lower threshold. What clears the threshold becomes a non-refundable credit rather than a refund of the cost. You can pick any twelve-month period ending in the tax year and pool the family's receipts.

Non-profits pay GST/HST on most of what they buy, and many also have to charge it on what they sell. Being a non-profit is not a GST/HST exemption in itself. Registration turns on whether the organisation makes taxable supplies above the small-supplier threshold that applies to public service bodies, and several kinds of supply made by non-profits are exempt, which keeps them outside that test. Some non-profits also qualify for a public service body rebate of tax they cannot otherwise recover.

Very few businesses are exempt from income tax. Registered charities and most non-profit organisations are exempt on their own activities but still file annually, and business income can cost a non-profit that treatment. Sales tax turns on the supply, not the supplier, and a small supplier need not register. For 2026 that means worldwide taxable revenue, including that of associated persons, of $30,000 or less both across the four most recent consecutive calendar quarters and within any single quarter, because crossing it in one quarter ends that status immediately.

Not by default. Property tax is governed by provincial legislation and municipal bylaws rather than by the CRA, so any exemption depends on where the property sits and how it is used. Places of worship, certain charitable and educational uses and some seniors housing commonly qualify, and many municipalities offer partial rebates to registered charities that lease space. Exemption is rarely automatic: you usually have to apply, and reapply, with evidence of use and status.