Budget-Friendly School and Educational Institution Accounting for Canadian Non-Profits and Charities

File a T1 return for the year, sending it electronically with CRA-certified software or mailing a paper return. Gather your slips and receipts first and check them against the ones listed in My Account. For the 2025 tax year the filing and payment deadline was 30 April 2026, or 15 June 2026 to file if you or your spouse were self-employed, with payment still due 30 April 2026. CRA online filing for 2025 returns closes 29 January 2027.

As the rules stand for the 2025 tax year filed in 2026, the late-filing penalty is 5% of the balance owing plus 1% of that balance for each full month the return is late, to a maximum of 12 months, so 17% at worst. It rises to 10% plus 2% per month for up to 20 months, a 50% maximum, but only where the CRA formally demanded the return and had already charged a late-filing penalty for any of the three preceding tax years. Interest compounds daily.

Multiply the pre-tax price by the combined rate for the province where the supply is made, then add that amount to the price. If the price already includes tax, divide the total by one plus the rate to get the pre-tax amount, and the difference is the tax. The rate depends on the province of supply rather than where your business sits, so verify the current rate for that province and confirm the item is not zero-rated or exempt.

Income up to the basic personal amount is effectively untaxed, because that credit offsets the federal tax on it, and each province and territory has its own equivalent amount. Both figures change every year with indexation, so look up the amount for the tax year in question. Other credits, such as the age amount, tuition, or the disability amount, lift the point where tax actually starts. Tax withheld at source below that point comes back as a refund.

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.

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.

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.

Tax exempt describes an amount or a transaction that tax does not apply to at all, which is different from a deduction or credit that merely reduces tax. Common examples are supplies that are exempt or zero-rated for GST/HST, investment income earned inside a TFSA, and specific receipts Parliament has excluded from income. Registered charities and non-profits can be exempt from income tax while still carrying filing duties. Exemption is never automatic; the rule must fit your facts.

Divide the total by one plus the tax rate expressed as a decimal. That gives the amount before tax, and subtracting it from the total leaves the tax portion. Going the other direction, multiply the pre-tax amount by the rate to get the tax and add the two together. Use the combined rate for the province of supply, and avoid rounding at each step so the tax you report matches the figures on your invoices.

Line 42000 is your net federal tax. Work out federal tax on your taxable income using the federal brackets, subtract your federal non-refundable credits, then apply the adjustments in that step of the return - the federal dividend tax credit, any foreign tax credit, and the federal surtax on income earned outside Canada if it applies. For 2026 the federal brackets start at 14% and rise through 20.5%, 26% and 29% to 33%.

Your refund is the tax already withheld or paid minus the tax you actually owe once credits and deductions are applied, so there is no standard amount. Larger refunds usually come from over-withholding at source, RRSP contributions, tuition or medical claims, or a mid-year job change. Your notice of assessment shows the calculation. Online returns are typically processed in about two weeks; a non-resident return can take up to 16 weeks.

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.