Economical Rental Income Audit Support for Canadian Businesses and Individuals

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.

Yes. Canada's value-added tax is GST/HST. GST is 5% federally in 2025 and 2026. In participating provinces it is combined into HST: 13% in Ontario, 15% in New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island, and 14% in Nova Scotia since 1 April 2025. Registered businesses charge it on taxable sales and claim input tax credits on what they pay, so the tax lands on the final consumer.

Yes. Employment Insurance benefits are taxable income and must be reported on your return. Service Canada issues a T4E slip showing the benefits paid and the tax already withheld, and that withholding is often less than the rate that ends up applying, because it takes no account of employment income earned earlier in the same year. Many claimants therefore owe a balance at filing. If your income for the year is high enough, part of any regular benefits may also be repayable — the repayment never touches maternity, parental or sickness benefits, and it does not apply where you have not received regular benefits in the previous ten years.

Yes. A prior-year return can be filed at any time, and electronic filing stays open for several past years, so a 2024 return usually still goes through software rather than on paper. If a balance is owing, the late-filing penalty has already run to its twelve-month maximum and interest is still accumulating daily, so there is nothing to gain from waiting. If you cannot pay in full, file anyway and then arrange payment, because the penalty is tied to filing rather than paying.

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.

The individual and business enquiry numbers, along with their hours, are listed on the CRA contact page. Have your social insurance number or business number and a figure from a recent return ready, because the agent must verify you before discussing anything. Many tasks never need a call: CRA My Account and My Business Account show balances, assessments, slips and instalments, and let you file a dispute, change a return or set up a payment arrangement.

TPS is simply the French name for the GST, taxe sur les produits et services. It is the same federal tax at the same rate, 5% for 2025 and 2026. In Quebec you will also see TVQ, the French name for QST, at 9.975% applied to the pre-GST price, giving a combined 14.975%. Quebec receipts usually show both lines separately, and Revenu Quebec administers the returns for both taxes there.

Rarely on its own. Municipal tax follows the assessed value set by your province's assessment authority, not your renovation invoices. Work that adds living space, finished area or a permanent structure usually prompts a reassessment; replacing or paving a driveway generally moves market value very little. Building permits are how an assessor normally learns of changes. Your assessment notice explains how to ask for a review if the value looks wrong after work is done.

Other income is the catch-all line on the T1 for taxable amounts that fit nowhere else: certain retiring allowances, death benefits, some scholarship, bursary or grant income, and various payments reported on a T4A that have no dedicated line of their own. It is ordinary income taxed at your marginal rate. Tax is often not withheld on these amounts, so they can leave a balance owing. Match the slip's box number to the CRA guide before choosing a line.

There is no minimum income that switches filing on. You must file if you owe tax, if the CRA asks you to, if you disposed of capital property, or if you have to repay benefits. Below the federal basic personal amount, $16,452 for 2026 and reduced at higher incomes, you generally owe no federal tax. Filing is still how you claim the GST/HST credit, the Canada child benefit and provincial credits, so file anyway.

These are calculated lines rather than amounts you enter. Line 40600 is federal tax on your taxable income; line 42000 is net federal tax after non-refundable credits, the federal foreign tax credit and any additions. Line 43700 totals the income tax already deducted from your slips, and line 48200 totals your credits and withholdings. Subtracting line 48200 from total payable produces either a refund on line 48400 or a balance owing on line 48500. Carry-forward amounts are listed in CRA My Account.

Two different taxes are in play. GST/HST is not charged on long-term residential rent, which is an exempt supply, so the landlord adds no tax and cannot claim input tax credits on those costs. Commercial rent and most short-term accommodation are taxable once the landlord is registered, at 13% HST in Ontario or 5% GST in Alberta. Separately, the rent received is income to the landlord, reported on the T1 or T2 after deductible expenses.