Expert Tax Accountants in St. John's

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.

CRA online filing for 2025 returns opened 23 February 2026 and closes 29 January 2027. Most people file between late February and the 30 April 2026 deadline, and that stretch is what tax season refers to. You can gather documents and prepare a return earlier, but it cannot be sent electronically before the system opens. Employment and investment slips such as T4 and T5 are issued by payers early in the year, and the CRA's Auto-fill service can pull the ones it already holds once you have set up My Account.

As the rules stand for the 2025 tax year filed in 2026, the late-filing penalty is 5% of the balance owing plus 1% of that balance for each full month the return is late, to a maximum of 12 months, so 17% at worst. It rises to 10% plus 2% per month for up to 20 months, a 50% maximum, but only where the CRA formally demanded the return and had already charged a late-filing penalty for any of the three preceding tax years. Interest compounds daily.

Taxable income is what is left after you total the income the tax rules include and subtract the deductions you are allowed. Employment and self-employment earnings, most pensions, EI and CPP benefits, interest, dividends, rental profit, the taxable portion of capital gains, RRSP and RRIF withdrawals and most taxable benefits from work all go into the total. Tax is then calculated on that figure and reduced by non-refundable credits such as the basic personal amount.

Canada uses a progressive system, so only the income falling inside a bracket is taxed at that bracket's rate. Moving into a higher bracket never raises the tax on the income below it. You face a federal set of brackets plus a provincial or territorial set, and both are indexed most years. Credits, starting with the basic personal amount, then reduce the calculated tax. Look up the brackets for the specific tax year before planning around them.

Interest on a student loan gives a non-refundable tax credit, not a deduction, and only the interest counts: repaying principal claims nothing. The loan has to come from a federal or provincial government student loan program, so interest on a line of credit, a bank loan or money borrowed from family does not qualify. Interest you cannot use because you owe no tax may be carried forward and claimed in a later year instead of being lost.

Non-taxable income is money you receive that never enters taxable income. Common examples are lottery and most gambling winnings, gifts and inheritances, growth and withdrawals inside a TFSA, the GST/HST credit and Canada child benefit, most life insurance death benefits, and child support under current-rule agreements. A few amounts are reported and then deducted, such as workers' compensation and social assistance, because they still affect benefit calculations, so report anything that arrives on a slip even when no tax results.

No - basic groceries are zero-rated, taxed at 0% in 2026, so bread, milk, vegetables and most unprepared food carry no GST/HST. Zero-rated is not the same as exempt: a grocer selling zero-rated food still claims input tax credits on rent, equipment and other costs, which a supplier of exempt goods cannot. Snack foods, restaurant meals and many prepared items fall outside basic groceries and are taxed at the full rate.

Box 14 is gross employment income, not net. It shows total pay before income tax, CPP and EI were withheld, and it already includes most taxable benefits and any tips the employer controlled and paid out. The amounts withheld sit in their own boxes further along the slip. Net income is something you calculate on the T1 after deductions such as RRSP contributions and union dues, so it will not match box 14.

Slips issued to you, including T5s, appear under tax information slips in CRA My Account once the issuer files them, usually by early March for the prior year. You can also pull them into most certified software with Auto-fill my return. A slip that has not been filed yet will not show, so report the income from your own records if you know the amount. Missing a slip does not excuse leaving the income off.

No GST or HST is charged on long-term residential rent: a lease of a home for a month or more is exempt, which is why your rent has no tax line. Short-term accommodation is different, since stays under a month can be taxable, and a landlord over the $30,000 small-supplier threshold must charge GST/HST on them. Some municipalities also add their own accommodation tax. Provincial sales tax does not apply to residential rent.

Property tax is billed by the municipality, normally as an interim bill early in the year and a final bill once the budget and rate are set. Most municipalities then offer several instalment dates or a monthly pre-authorised plan, and many mortgage lenders collect the tax with the mortgage payment and remit it on your behalf. The number of instalments and the due dates vary by municipality, so work from your own tax bill.