Expert Tax Accountants in Lacombe

For the 2025 tax year the filing and payment deadline is 30 April 2026. If you or your spouse were self-employed, the filing deadline moves to 15 June 2026, but any balance owing is still due 30 April 2026. Interest starts the day after the payment deadline, and a late-filing penalty applies on top when a return with a balance owing is filed late. File on time even with nothing owing, because income-tested benefits are recalculated from the filed return.

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.

Pay through your bank's online banking by adding the CRA as a payee and choosing the right account and year, through My Payment with a debit card, by pre-authorised debit scheduled in My Account, by credit card through a third-party provider that charges its own fee, or at a bank counter with a remittance voucher. For 2025 personal returns the payment deadline was 30 April 2026, including for the self-employed, and interest runs daily on anything unpaid after that.

There is no single percentage. Canada uses graduated brackets, so the rate climbs as income climbs and each rate applies only to the income falling inside its own bracket. Your total combines a federal bracket with your province's bracket and is then reduced by credits, which is why two people on the same salary in different provinces pay different amounts. The share withheld from a paycheque also covers CPP or QPP and EI. Check the CRA bracket table for the year concerned.

For 2026 the CPP contribution rate is 5.95% for the employee and 5.95% for the employer, charged on pensionable earnings between the $3,500 basic exemption and the year's maximum pensionable earnings of $74,600. That caps each side at $4,230.45. Self-employed people pay both halves, up to $8,460.90 for 2026. Earnings above $74,600 attract a separate second contribution instead. The CRA resets these amounts every January, so always check the current year.

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.

Total your income, subtract deductions such as RRSP contributions and child care, apply your credits, then compare the resulting tax with the tax already withheld on your slips and any instalments paid. Tax software runs that comparison as you enter slips and shows a running balance before you submit. After filing, the notice of assessment confirms the figure, and CRA My Account shows the refund or amount owing and where it stands.

Sign in to CRA My Account and check the uncashed cheques list, your balance, and whether any returns are still outstanding, since a refund is only issued once a return is assessed. Missing returns also stop benefit and credit payments. An old CRA cheque never expires; you ask for it to be reissued. Forgotten bank, insurance or pension balances sit with provincial unclaimed-property registries rather than the CRA, so check those separately.

Sometimes. The CRA pays refund interest when it holds your overpayment beyond the point its rules set, broadly the latest of the day after the balance-due date, the day you filed the return, and the day the overpayment arose. No interest is paid on a refund issued promptly after an on-time return, and an online return is usually processed in about two weeks. Refund interest received is itself taxable income.

Tax compliance status describes whether every return you are required to file has been filed and every balance paid. The CRA does not publish a score, but your filing and balance history sits in My Account or My Business Account. Lenders, government contract programs and some licensing bodies ask for confirmation, and the CRA can verify compliance on request. Clear unfiled returns and arrears first, because a single missing return blocks confirmation.

Yes. CRA My Account holds your notices of assessment and reassessment, lets you view returns for a number of prior years, and lists the slips the CRA received, such as T4, T4A and T5. Keep in mind these are the CRA's records of what was assessed, not the file your software produced, so figures can differ if the return was adjusted. Records supporting a return should be kept six years from the end of the last tax year they relate to.

In most Canadian municipalities the property tax year is the calendar year, so the levy covers the whole of that year even when the bill arrives months later. Assessment runs on its own cycle: a provincial assessment authority values your property as of a fixed valuation date, and that value is then applied for one or more tax years. When a property changes hands mid-year, the lawyers adjust the tax between buyer and seller on closing.