Affordable Unfiled Tax Return Services for Canadian Businesses and Individuals

If you owe nothing, no penalty applies, but a refund and benefit payments such as the Canada child benefit and the GST/HST credit are held up until the return is processed. If you owe, a late-filing penalty is charged and interest runs on the balance and compounds daily from the day after the due date. For the 2025 tax year the deadline was 30 April 2026. File even if you cannot pay, because the penalty is driven by filing, not payment.

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.

A TD1 Personal Tax Credits Return tells your employer which personal credits to build into your income tax withholding, so the right amount comes off each pay. You normally complete a federal TD1 and a provincial or territorial TD1 when you start a job. File a fresh pair whenever your situation changes, for instance a new dependant, tuition, or a second employer, where you should not claim the basic personal amount twice.

Yes. Nothing blocks filing a very late personal return, and the CRA will process a 2015 T1 that was never filed. Expect interest and a late-filing penalty on any balance owing. A refund is a different matter: the CRA's power to issue one for a year that old runs out, so read the CRA taxpayer relief page before counting on money back. Filing still matters for benefit entitlement, and unfiled years can bring an arbitrary assessment.

Those are American terms. The Canadian equivalent is the personal tax credits return you complete for an employer, claiming the federal and provincial basic personal amount plus any other credits you qualify for, such as tuition or the disability amount. Your employer uses it to set the tax withheld from each paycheque. The federal basic personal amount for 2026 is $16,452, tapering to $14,829 as net income runs from $181,440 to $258,482.

Start by claiming everything you are entitled to: RRSP contributions, child care, moving and employment expenses, self-employment costs, tuition, medical expenses, donations and the credits that follow your family situation. Timing helps too, such as deferring a bonus or triggering a capital loss against a gain. Pension income splitting and spousal RRSP contributions move income to a lower-rate spouse. For a business, incorporating and planning how money is drawn out matters. Leaving income unreported is evasion, not planning.

No. CRA collections officers cannot arrest anyone. What they can do, after sending a legal warning, is garnish wages, freeze and take funds from bank accounts, register a lien against property and offset your benefit payments. Arrest belongs to criminal tax evasion or fraud cases, which are investigated separately, charged by police and prosecuted in court. If you cannot pay a balance, contact the CRA about a payment arrangement before collection action starts.

Usually yes. Termination pay and pay in lieu of notice sit on your T4 with the rest of your employment income. A retiring allowance is reported separately, either in its own box on the T4 or on a T4A depending on how the employer runs it, with eligible and non-eligible portions shown apart. Legal fees you recovered may appear too. Compare the slips with your settlement letter and file the slip figures, not your own estimate.

You cannot write off the income itself, but you deduct the costs of earning it. Common current expenses are mortgage interest (not principal), property tax, insurance, utilities you pay, condo fees, advertising, property management, and repairs that maintain the property. Improvements that better the property are capital and depreciated instead. Only the rented portion counts where you also live there. Keep invoices for six years from the end of the tax year they relate to.

Yes, it can. The CRA contacts employers directly in a payroll review or audit, to confirm employment and earnings reported on a T4, or to serve a requirement to pay that garnishes wages when a personal tax debt is unpaid and collection steps have started. It will not discuss the details of your personal return with your employer. If you owe, arranging payment with the CRA first usually stops that step.

Canada Student Grants arrive on a T4A and fall under the same scholarship exemption, so a full-time student in a qualifying programme who is eligible for the education amount generally pays no tax on them. Part-time students get a smaller exemption tied to tuition and required materials. Student loans are not income at all, so only the grant portion is ever reportable. Keep the slip even when the exemption reduces the taxable amount to nil.

A stipend is taxed according to what it actually pays for. Amounts for work performed are employment or self-employment income and fully taxable. A research or training stipend paid to a student can fall under the scholarship and bursary exemption if it relates to a qualifying program, while post-doctoral stipends are taxable. Check the slip: a T4 points to employment, a T4A to a fellowship or other income.