Budget-Friendly Section 116 Certificate of Compliance for Canadian Businesses and Individuals

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.

Income tax is tax charged on the income you earn in a year, levied by both the federal government and your province or territory. Rates are graduated, so successive slices of taxable income are taxed at higher rates, and credits such as the basic personal amount reduce the tax calculated. Employment income is taxed through payroll withholding and settled on your T1 return. Quebec residents also file a separate provincial return with Revenu Quebec.

A tax deduction is an amount subtracted from your income before tax is worked out, so it reduces the income being taxed rather than the tax bill directly. Its worth depends on your marginal rate: the higher the rate, the more the deduction saves. Common examples are RRSP contributions, child care costs, union dues, moving expenses and business expenses. Credits work the other way, reducing the tax calculated on that income.

Most people file electronically with software the CRA approves for NETFILE, or have a preparer send the return through EFILE. Paper filing is still accepted and takes far longer to process. Before starting, set up My Account, confirm your direct deposit details, and download the slips the CRA already holds so your return matches its records. For the 2025 tax year the deadline was 30 April 2026, with any balance owing due the same day; a 2025 return not yet filed is late, so file it now to stop the late-filing penalty growing.

Most residential rentals produce property income, not business income: you collect rent, pay the bills and report the net amount. The rental becomes a business when you provide services well beyond heat, light, parking and laundry, such as meals, cleaning, security or daily turnover, or run enough units with enough activity that it looks like a trade. The distinction matters for capital cost allowance, CPP on the earnings, and how losses are treated.

Zero-rated sales are taxable supplies that carry GST/HST at 0%. Basic groceries, prescription drugs, most medical devices, agricultural products and many exports are the common examples. The difference from exempt sales matters: on zero-rated sales you charge no tax but can still claim input tax credits on the GST/HST you paid on related costs, and those sales count toward the $30,000 small-supplier threshold for 2026. Exempt sales give you no input tax credits.

Net tax owing is your total tax payable for the year minus tax already withheld at source and certain credits, so it is roughly the balance left to pay when the return is filed. The CRA uses it to decide whether you must pay quarterly instalments, comparing the current year against the two before it. Cross the limit and instalment reminders follow. The current threshold and the calculation are set out on the CRA's instalment payments page.

A small business corporation is a Canadian-controlled private corporation that uses substantially all of its assets in an active business carried on mainly in Canada. The label matters because it opens access to the small business deduction, which for 2026 applies the 9% federal rate to the first $500,000 of active business income, and to the lifetime capital gains exemption on a share sale. Holding companies and passive investment corporations usually fail the asset test.

When you file electronically the software returns a confirmation number, which means the CRA received the return. Acceptance is the next step: the return is assessed and a notice of assessment issued, usually about two weeks after an online filing. CRA My Account shows the return status, the notice and any refund or balance owing. If nothing appears well past that window, confirm the submission actually transmitted rather than filing a second copy.

Your refund or balance is on the notice of assessment for the year, and in CRA My Account under that year's return. Both show the exact figure the CRA used. If you are calling and cannot verify your identity, the agent may ask for an amount from a line of a recent return instead, which you can read off the assessed copy in My Account. A refund can also differ from what your software predicted, because the CRA adjusts claims it disallows.

Double taxation is lawful, and relief comes through credits and treaties rather than exemption. A Canadian resident taxed abroad on foreign income normally claims a foreign tax credit, while Canada's tax treaties cap withholding and decide which country taxes first. Inside Canada, corporate profits paid out as dividends carry a gross-up and dividend tax credit so the combined burden approximates a single level of tax. US LLCs are a common trap, since Canada usually treats one as a corporation.

The refund or balance owing sits in the summary section at the end of the T1, after total credits are set against total tax payable. That is your own calculation, though, not the final word. The amount the CRA actually pays appears on your notice of assessment and in CRA My Account, and it can differ if slips, credits or an older balance changed the result. The notice sets out any change it made.