Pocket-Friendly Year-End Closing Services for Canadian Businesses

Most people pay through online or telephone banking, adding the CRA as a payee and choosing the exact account and year, such as a personal balance owing or an instalment. The alternatives are CRA My Payment with a debit card, pre-authorised debit scheduled in My Account, a credit card or e-transfer through a third-party provider that charges its own fee, or paying at your bank with a remittance voucher. For the 2025 tax year the balance was due 30 April 2026.

Rent on your home is not deductible on a Canadian return. Two situations change that. Self-employed people, and employees who meet the work-space-in-the-home conditions, may claim the share of rent tied to the area used for work. Several provinces also run a property tax or rent based credit, applied for on the provincial schedule filed with your T1, where rent paid affects the amount. Keep receipts and your landlord's details either way.

There is no fixed percentage. Your employer withholds federal income tax, where 2026 brackets start at 14%, plus provincial tax, CPP at 5.95% on earnings between the $3,500 exemption and the $74,600 ceiling, and EI at $1.63 per $100 of insurable earnings up to $68,900. Credits claimed on your TD1 reduce the income tax part. Higher earners also pay CPP2 at 4% on earnings between the ceiling and $85,000 for 2026.

The lowest federal rate is 14% for 2026 and later years, down from 15%. The cut took effect 1 July 2025, so the 2025 tax year uses a blended 14.5% on the first $57,375 of taxable income. Because non-refundable credits such as the basic personal amount are claimed at the lowest rate, each credit is worth slightly less per dollar than before, which offsets part of the saving.

A Canadian business can face corporate income tax federally and provincially, GST/HST or provincial sales tax on what it sells, payroll withholding with employer CPP and EI, property tax on premises it owns, and payroll or health levies in some provinces. An unincorporated business reports its profit on a T2125 with the owner's T1 instead of paying corporate tax. Which ones apply depends on structure, where you operate, and whether you have employees.

For a return filed online the CRA usually issues the refund in about two weeks. A non-resident return can take up to sixteen weeks. Timing slips if the CRA reviews a claim and asks for receipts, if the return is filed on paper, or if the refund is applied against an existing balance or a debt to another government program. Setting up direct deposit in CRA My Account is the fastest way to receive it.

Most employees do, because payroll withholding is set to slightly over-collect and many credits and deductions are only applied once the return is filed. A refund is not a bonus; it is your own money coming back after over-withholding. People with self-employment, investment income or several part-time jobs often owe instead, because no single payer withholds enough across the whole year. Filing is what settles the difference either way.

Land transfer tax is provincial and is charged on the purchase price, usually on a graduated scale, so the cost depends on the province and the price. Buyers in Toronto pay a municipal land transfer tax on top of Ontario's. Alberta, Saskatchewan and the territories charge registration or transfer fees instead of a full tax. Several provinces offer first-time buyer rebates, and non-resident buyers can face extra tax. Use your province's own calculator before closing.

It is a quarterly payment for lower and modest income residents of Canada for tax purposes, and you get it by filing a return; for most people there is no separate application. Eligibility turns on the CRA's age and family conditions, broadly an adult, or younger if you have a spouse, common-law partner or a child living with you. The amount depends on family net income and the number of children, so both spouses must file.

Register for a business number with the CRA and add a payroll program account to it. You can do this through Business Registration Online, by phone or by mail. Set the account up before your first pay date, because remittances and T4 slips are filed under that number. Have ready the legal name, the business address, the date of your first payment to an employee and your expected remitting frequency.

Canada has no personal exemption in the American sense. The equivalent is the basic personal amount, a non-refundable credit every resident can claim, which cancels federal tax on a first slice of income, and each province has its own version at a different level. The federal amount is indexed annually and is reduced for taxpayers in the top bracket. It is applied automatically when you file, so there is nothing to elect or apply for.

Start from accounting profit and adjust to taxable income: add back disallowed amounts, swap book depreciation for capital cost allowance, and apply loss carry-forwards. For the 2025 and 2026 tax years, apply 9% to active business income within a Canadian-controlled private corporation's $500,000 business limit, which shrinks where the associated group has passive investment income above $50,000 or taxable capital above $10 million, and 15% above that limit and to any corporation that is not a CCPC. Then add provincial tax where the corporation has a permanent establishment.