Expert Tax Accountants in Maple Ridge

Sales tax in British Columbia totals 12% for 2026: the 5% federal GST plus 7% provincial sales tax. BC is not harmonised, so the two run separately, with GST registered and filed with the CRA and PST with the province. A $100 taxable sale carries $5 GST and $7 PST. PST has its own exemptions, including most food for human consumption, so some sales take the 5% GST only.

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.

Yes. Severance is taxable in the year you receive it, and the employer withholds tax before paying it out. Amounts paid as salary continuance are taxed like regular employment income. A single lump sum has a flat withholding rate applied, which is only a prepayment against the tax finally calculated on your return, so a balance can still be owing. Part of a retiring allowance may qualify for a direct transfer to an RRSP, which defers the tax.

Canada taxes residents on their worldwide income for the calendar year, reported by the taxpayer on a T1 return. Employers and other payers withhold tax through the year, and the return reconciles what was withheld against what is owed, producing a refund or a balance to pay. Rates are progressive and layered, federal plus provincial. Deductions lower taxable income and credits lower the tax itself. The 2025 return was due 30 April 2026.

British Columbia sends every registered owner of residential property in a designated taxable area a letter with a declaration code and letter ID. Use those to declare online, or by phone, for each owner on title separately - a spouse cannot declare for both. You state how the home was used during the calendar year and claim an exemption if one fits; most owners are exempt but still must declare. Miss it and the tax is assessed.

Canada has no joint return, so each spouse files their own T1. You still report each other's details, because the CRA combines family net income to work out the GST/HST credit, the Canada child benefit and several income-tested credits. Filing at the same time helps: transferred credits, the spouse or common-law partner amount and pooled medical or donation claims only work correctly when both returns line up. One partner not filing can stall the family's benefit payments.

It is an annual British Columbia tax on residential property in designated urban areas that sits empty. Every owner of residential property in those areas has to file a declaration each year, even when fully exempt, or be billed by default. The usual exemptions are using the home as your principal residence or renting it to a tenant for at least the minimum period the rules require. The rate differs for Canadian residents and foreign owners.

Basic groceries are zero-rated, so no GST/HST is charged on bread, milk, vegetables, meat and similar staples. Restaurant meals, catering, most snack foods, candy, carbonated drinks and food sold heated or ready to eat are taxable at the provincial rate: 13% in Ontario, 14% in Nova Scotia since 1 April 2025, or 5% GST where there is no HST. Some provinces rebate the provincial part on qualifying prepared food.

12% for 2026. Vancouver charges no city sales tax, so a purchase there carries British Columbia's 7% provincial sales tax on top of the 5% federal GST. Provincial sales tax does not reach everything: many basic groceries and some services fall outside it, so a receipt can show only the 5% GST. Certain supplies are zero-rated or exempt from GST as well, which is why a total can sit below the headline 12%.

Yes. On top of the general 1%, 2% and 3% bands, British Columbia charges a further 2% on the portion of a residential property's fair market value above $3,000,000, so that top slice is taxed at 5% in total for 2026. On a mixed-use property the extra 2% applies only to the residential part. It is separate from the additional tax on foreign buyers, which can apply as well.

Your T4 reports more than base pay. Overtime, bonuses, commissions, vacation pay, tips your employer processed and taxable benefits are all folded in, including employer-paid life insurance, a company vehicle available for personal use, most allowances, and gifts beyond what the CRA treats as non-taxable. Some benefits are also itemised separately on the slip while still sitting inside the total. Payroll RRSP contributions cut the tax withheld, not the income reported.

Online sellers charge the sales tax of the province where the goods or service are delivered, not where the business sits. For 2026 that means GST 5% alone in Alberta and the territories, HST 13% in Ontario, 15% in New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island, and 14% in Nova Scotia, down from 15% on 1 April 2025. British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Quebec add PST, RST or QST on top of the GST. Large foreign platforms and digital subscription providers must register and charge tax too.