Pocket-Friendly Revenue Recognition Accounting for Canadian Businesses

For the 2025 tax year the filing and payment deadline is 30 April 2026. If you or your spouse were self-employed, the filing deadline moves to 15 June 2026, but any balance owing is still due 30 April 2026. Interest starts the day after the payment deadline, and a late-filing penalty applies on top when a return with a balance owing is filed late. File on time even with nothing owing, because income-tested benefits are recalculated from the filed return.

For the 2026 tax year, federal rates are 14% on the first $58,523 of taxable income, 20.5% from there to $117,045, 26% to $181,440, 29% to $258,482, and 33% above that. Each rate applies only to the income inside its own band, so moving into a higher bracket does not raise the tax on the income below it. Provincial or territorial tax is added on top.

Your refund is the tax already withheld or paid by instalments minus the tax you actually owe after credits and deductions, so the amount depends entirely on your own numbers - there is no standard figure. Timing is more predictable: the CRA aims to process an online return in about two weeks, and up to 16 weeks for a non-resident return. Direct deposit is faster than a cheque, and amounts owing to government can be offset.

Commonly a tax preparer, tax accountant or tax specialist. Titles are not standardised in Canada: some preparers hold an accounting designation, others are bookkeepers, tax technicians or lawyers who focus on tax. What matters more than the label is that the person is registered with the CRA to file electronically for clients, carries a business number, quotes the fee in writing, and signs the return as preparer where required.

Rent from a relative is reportable when the arrangement is commercial, meaning market rent charged with a view to profit. Where you charge a family member only enough to cover a share of the costs, the CRA treats it as a cost-recovery arrangement: you report no income and claim no loss or expenses. Charging below market rent and then deducting a loss is the combination the CRA disallows. Keep the lease and payment records either way.

No. Canada has no income tax exemption based on disability status. Relief comes through the disability tax credit, which reduces tax payable for someone with a severe and prolonged impairment once a medical practitioner certifies the impairment and the CRA approves the claim. Unused credit can often be transferred to a supporting spouse or parent, and approval also opens access to other programs. Check the CRA's disability tax credit pages for the current amounts and the certification steps.

It is a projection, not a decision. CRA calculators and benefit notices show what the GST/HST credit would come to using the family net income and family situation entered or last assessed. The final figure is set when your return is assessed, and it changes if income, marital status or the number of children changes. Tell the CRA about changes promptly, because payments based on stale information create an overpayment you have to repay.

Your business number appears on every CRA notice, statement of account and remittance voucher, on GST/HST and payroll correspondence, and in My Business Account once you sign in. It is also on the confirmation issued when the account was opened, and on incorporation paperwork if the number came with registration. If nothing is to hand, the CRA business enquiries line can confirm it once it verifies that you are authorised to ask.

The CRA does not offer a general public chat line for tax advice. Account-specific service runs through its telephone lines, My Account or My Business Account, and mail, and the Contact the CRA page on canada.ca lists what each option covers, including automated lines for balances and benefit dates. Treat any chat window on a site that is not canada.ca as a phishing risk and never type your social insurance number into one.

Ask the employer first, since slips are due to employees by the end of February for the prior year. If it still does not come, most T4 information appears in My Account and can be pulled into most tax software using auto-fill my return. Failing that, file on time using your pay records and final pay stub and estimate the amounts. Filing late costs more than a small estimating error, and you can correct the figures afterwards with a T1-ADJ.

From 1 October 2026, British Columbia applies 7% PST to several services that were previously untaxed: accounting and bookkeeping, architectural, engineering and geoscience, security and private investigation, and non-residential real estate services. Architectural, engineering and geoscience fees are taxed on 30% of the purchase price rather than the full amount. Providers not already collecting PST must register online, and can do so up to six months before their first taxable sale.

The owner. Municipalities bill the registered owner, so the landlord is responsible and any arrears become a charge against the property rather than the tenant. In practice residential rent is set to cover it, so tenants fund it indirectly. Commercial leases work differently: a net lease commonly requires the tenant to reimburse the property tax directly. For a landlord, property tax on a rental property is a deductible expense against the rental income it relates to.