Expert Tax Accountants in Richmond Hill

Not indefinitely. Property tax is collected by your municipality, which charges interest on arrears and can eventually register a tax arrears certificate and sell the property under provincial tax-sale rules. The permitted period of arrears is set by provincial legislation and varies, so ask your municipality for its schedule and payment options. Municipal arrears are separate from anything owing to the CRA, and paying one does not clear the other.

Report the amount shown on the slip from the school or granting body, then claim the scholarship exemption. For a student enrolled in a program that qualifies for the full-time education amount, scholarships, fellowships and bursaries connected to that program are usually fully exempt, so nothing remains in taxable income. Part-time students get a narrower exemption, and research grants are handled separately, net of eligible expenses. Check the CRA's page on scholarships, fellowships and bursaries for the year involved.

Yes. Tips and gratuities are taxable income in Ontario, whether they arrive through payroll, a card terminal, a tip pool or straight cash. Where your employer controls and distributes them, they are normally run through payroll with income tax, CPP and EI withheld. Tips paid to you directly are yours to report on your own return. Keep a running daily record, because unreported tips are a common focus of CRA review in hospitality.

Ontario auto insurance premiums carry no HST, because insurance is an exempt financial service rather than a taxable supply. Ontario has no PST; it does levy its own retail sales tax on certain premiums, mainly group life and health plans and some benefit-plan contributions, and automobile insurance premiums are not among them. That premium tax is not recoverable the way an input tax credit is. Confirm current details on the Ontario Ministry of Finance insurance premium page.

Register in Represent a Client from the CRA sign-in page; the RepID is issued straight away once your identity is confirmed. A RepID identifies you personally, a group identifier covers a team, and a business number is used where a firm acts. The identifier alone opens nothing: each client must then authorise you online from their own CRA account, or sign an AUT-01 for the CRA to process, before you can see their information.

Take-out and delivered prepared food is taxable in Ontario, so 13% HST normally applies. Ontario's point-of-sale rebate removes the provincial part on qualifying prepared food and beverages sold under a set dollar limit, leaving only the 5% federal part, which is why a small coffee-and-muffin order can show less tax than a large one. Basic groceries you take home, such as bread, milk and produce, are zero-rated and carry no GST/HST at all.

There is no federal rent rebate. Relief for renters comes through provincial credits claimed on your return, and eligibility turns on residency, family income and rent paid in the year. Ontario renters may qualify for the energy and property tax credit paid through the Ontario Trillium Benefit; Manitoba and Quebec run their own renter-related credits. You must file a return to receive any of them, even with no income, and keep proof of rent paid.

Line numbers appear on the T1 return itself and on your notice of assessment, and both are stored in CRA My Account under your tax returns. Line 10100 is employment income from your slips; line 31200 is the employment insurance premiums you paid. If the CRA asks for a line amount to verify your identity by phone, it wants the figure from a specific prior year's assessed return, so use the assessment for that exact year.

You charge the rate of the province where the supply is made, not where your business sits. For goods that is generally where they are delivered; for most services it is the customer's address in your records. So an Ontario business bills 13% to an Ontario customer, 5% GST to an Alberta customer and 15% to a New Brunswick customer. Quebec and the separate provincial sales tax provinces have their own registration rules worth checking.

An RRSP contribution is a deduction, so it lowers taxable income and saves tax at your marginal rate: the higher your top bracket, the more each dollar contributed is worth. Lower net income can also lift income-tested benefits. Each year's new room is 18% of prior-year earned income, capped at that year's dollar limit — $32,490 for 2025 and $33,810 for 2026 — then reduced by any pension adjustment; unused room carried forward from earlier years is added on top of that cap, so banked room can put your total well above the annual limit. You may contribute now and claim the deduction in a later, higher-income year.

Yes. Alcohol is not a basic grocery, so beer, wine and spirits carry the full 13% HST in Ontario, whether bought at the LCBO, a beer retailer, a grocery store or a bar or restaurant. The LCBO shelf price already includes provincial mark-ups and levies, with HST shown on the receipt as included or added at the till. The temporary federal break on alcohol over the 2024 to 2025 holiday period has ended.

Filing is required whenever tax is owing, and retirees are usually better off filing even with nothing to pay. The return is what calculates the GST/HST credit, the Guaranteed Income Supplement, provincial credits and the age and pension amounts, and it is where pension income splitting is elected. Filing on time also keeps income-tested payments flowing without interruption. For the 2025 tax year the deadline was 30 April 2026.