Pocket-Friendly Restricted-Fund 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.

Canadian income tax is built up in layers. You total your income for the year, subtract the deductions you qualify for to arrive at taxable income, then apply the federal brackets and your province's brackets to that figure. Each bracket rate applies only to the income sitting inside it, so earning more never retaxes the dollars below. Non-refundable credits, starting with the basic personal amount, come off the tax afterwards. Look up the CRA bracket table for the tax year you are filing.

Work out the tax you actually owe for the year, then compare it with what has already been paid. Total your income, subtract deductions to reach taxable income, apply the federal and provincial brackets, take off your credits, and set the result against the tax withheld on your T4 and other slips plus any instalments. If more was withheld than you owe, the difference is your refund. Tax software approved for NETFILE runs the same arithmetic once your slips are entered.

Yes, the CRA does telephone people, usually about a balance owing, a missing return, an audit or to verify information, and calls can come from many different numbers, so caller ID proves nothing either way. A real agent never demands payment by gift card, cryptocurrency or e-transfer, never threatens immediate arrest or deportation, and never asks for a password. If a call feels wrong, hang up, check your balance and mail in My Account, then call back using a number from canada.ca.

Canada runs three systems. The federal GST is 5% for 2026 and applies nationally. Five participating provinces fold a provincial share into one harmonised rate: 13% in Ontario, 15% in New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island, and 14% in Nova Scotia since 1 April 2025. Others add their own tax to the 5% GST, giving 12% in British Columbia and Manitoba, 11% in Saskatchewan and 14.975% in Quebec. Alberta and the territories charge 5% only.

For 2026 the CPP contribution rate is 5.95% for the employee and 5.95% for the employer, charged on pensionable earnings between the $3,500 basic exemption and the year's maximum pensionable earnings of $74,600. That caps each side at $4,230.45. Self-employed people pay both halves, up to $8,460.90 for 2026. Earnings above $74,600 attract a separate second contribution instead. The CRA resets these amounts every January, so always check the current year.

Yes, in substance. The GST is a value-added tax: registrants charge 5% on taxable sales and recover the GST/HST paid on business inputs, so tax lands only on the value added at each stage. In participating provinces it is blended into the HST, at 13% in Ontario, 14% in Nova Scotia since 1 April 2025, and 15% in New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island. Quebec runs its own QST of 9.975% alongside the 5% GST.

There is no single CRA fax number. Fax lines belong to particular offices and programs, so the only reliable number is the one printed on the letter you are answering. Faxing without that reference risks your documents landing in the wrong queue. Submitting them through My Account, My Business Account or Represent a Client is faster and gives you a confirmation, which a fax does not.

The tax-free savings account began in the 2009 calendar year, so an adult resident of Canada has been accumulating room every year since then, and unused room carries forward indefinitely. Cumulative room reached $102,000 at 1 January 2025 and $109,000 at 1 January 2026, with the annual limit $7,000 for both 2025 and 2026. Check My Account for your own number, since it also reflects past contributions and withdrawals.

Your T4 reports more than base pay. Overtime, bonuses, commissions, vacation pay, tips your employer processed and taxable benefits are all folded in, including employer-paid life insurance, a company vehicle available for personal use, most allowances, and gifts beyond what the CRA treats as non-taxable. Some benefits are also itemised separately on the slip while still sitting inside the total. Payroll RRSP contributions cut the tax withheld, not the income reported.

Working income is what CRA counts as earned from working: employment income, net self-employment income, and certain taxable scholarship, grant or research amounts. It leaves out pensions, investment income, EI benefits and most other passive receipts. The figure matters for the Canada workers benefit, which requires working income above a floor before it pays anything and then reduces as family net income rises. Both the floor and the reduction thresholds change each year, and the current ones are on CRA's Canada workers benefit page.

Card processing fees your merchant provider charges on business sales are a deductible business expense, as is the annual fee on a card used only for the business. Where one card mixes personal and business spending, claim only the business share and keep the statements that prove the split. Interest on borrowing used to earn business income is deductible too, while interest on personal purchases is not, whatever the card is called.