Budget-Friendly Shareholder Loan Audit Support for Canadian Businesses

Most tax saving comes from a short list of levers: contributing to an RRSP or a spousal RRSP, holding investments inside a TFSA, FHSA or RESP so growth is sheltered, claiming every deduction and credit you actually qualify for, and splitting income where the rules allow, such as pension income splitting. Business owners add expense timing and salary versus dividend planning. Order matters, so decide before year end rather than at filing time.

Canada has no single tax compliance certificate, so the right route depends on why you need one. An executor or trustee asks the CRA for a clearance certificate before distributing an estate. A non-resident selling Canadian property applies for a certificate of compliance. For tendering or lending, you usually authorise the CRA to confirm your account standing instead. Each route requires every return filed and every balance settled first, and clearance requests commonly take months.

The CRA charges compound daily interest on an unpaid balance from the day after the payment deadline until the balance is cleared. The charge uses the prescribed rate, which the CRA resets every calendar quarter, so it moves with market rates rather than staying fixed. Arrears interest is not deductible. Look up the current quarter on the CRA's prescribed interest rates page, and pay something against the balance to slow the daily charge.

Taxpayer information is anything the CRA holds that came from or was prepared about your tax affairs: returns, slips, assessments, balances and correspondence. The Income Tax Act binds the CRA to keep it confidential, so it cannot be released to a spouse, an accountant or a lender without your authorisation. You give that authorisation through My Account or a signed AUT-01. Sharing between the CRA and other government programs happens only where the law allows it.

For your own tax information, ask for a personal information request through the federal ATIP online portal, or submit the government's request form to the CRA's access to information office. Name the years and the type of record - notices of assessment, audit working papers, collections notes - because a narrow request is answered faster. Check CRA My Account first: slips, notices and account balances are already there at no cost.

A resort tax is a local levy on visitor spending, usually short-term accommodation and sometimes food or recreation, charged by a tourist municipality to fund local services and marketing. Canada uses the same idea under other names: municipal accommodation taxes and provincial tourism levies on hotel and short-term rental stays. GST or HST applies to the stay as well. Rates and what they cover are set locally, so check the municipality's or province's own published rules.

Most account questions are answered faster in My Account or My Business Account, where balances, notices, slips, benefit payments and instalment records are all visible without waiting on hold. For anything the portal will not show, call the individual or business enquiries line published on canada.ca, and have your social insurance or business number, a figure from a recent return and your address ready for the identity checks. An authorised representative can be added with the AUT-01.

There is no age at which Canadian tax stops. Pension income is taxable in the same way as employment income: OAS, CPP, registered retirement income fund withdrawals and most annuities all go on the T1. What changes is the mix of relief, since an age amount, the pension income credit and pension splitting with a spouse can cut the bill sharply, and CPP and EI premiums stop once you no longer have employment earnings.

Usually not on a private sale - an individual selling a used personal item is not making that sale in the course of a business, so no GST/HST applies in 2026 — and that holds even if the seller is registered for GST/HST for other work. Buy the same item from a registered dealer and the province's full rate applies: 13% in Ontario, 14% in Nova Scotia, and 15% in New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island. Some provinces tax private vehicle sales separately, so check the provincial rules.

Set aside enough to cover income tax at your combined federal and provincial marginal rate on net business income, plus CPP: for 2026 you pay both halves yourself, 5.95% each on earnings between the $3,500 basic exemption and the maximum pensionable earnings of $74,600, and a further 4% each on earnings in the second band from $74,600 to $85,000. Keep any GST/HST you collect in a separate account, because it was never your money. Moving a fixed percentage of every deposit aside, then truing it up each quarter, works well.

Before tax. The employment income box on a T4 is your gross pay for the year, before income tax, CPP and EI were withheld, and it includes taxable benefits your employer added. The amounts actually deducted appear in their own boxes and are credited against the tax calculated on your return, which is why a refund arises when withholding was higher than the tax you owe. Enter the boxes exactly as issued rather than your net deposits.

Those lines are not on the T4 slip. A T4 uses box numbers; lines in the 20000s and 40000s belong to the T1 personal return. Line 23400 is net income before adjustments, line 23500 is the social benefits repayment and line 43500 is total payable. All three are calculated from the slips and amounts entered on the return rather than copied off a T4, and the notice of assessment confirms the final figures.