Expert Tax Accountants in Melville

Property tax is billed by your municipality, not the CRA, so payment goes to the city or town that issued the bill. Most municipalities accept online or telephone banking once you add the property tax roll number as a payee, pre-authorised instalment plans, cheque, or payment at your bank. If your mortgage lender collects tax with your mortgage payment, the lender remits it for you. Condominium owners get their own bill, separate from monthly condo fees.

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.

Each municipality sets its own due dates, so they differ from city to city and no national rule applies. Most issue an interim bill early in the year and a final bill once the budget and rates are set, with each bill split into instalments. Many municipalities also offer monthly pre-authorised payment plans. Late amounts attract penalty and interest charged monthly on the balance, so confirm the dates printed on your own bill.

Sign in to My Account and open the sections for filed returns and notices, where past returns, notices of assessment, slips and carry-forward amounts can be viewed, printed or saved. Without online access, ask the CRA by phone or in writing at the tax centre shown on your notice, or ask whoever prepared the return for their copy. Keep your own records six years from the end of the last tax year they relate to.

Canada has no joint return. Each spouse or common-law partner files a separate T1, and there is no option to file as a couple. You must still report your marital status and your partner's net income on your own return, because benefits and several credits are worked out on combined family income. An inaccurate partner figure is a common cause of benefit reassessments later, so prepare the two returns together even though they remain separate filings.

A tax hike is an increase in a tax: a higher rate, a new levy, or a credit or threshold frozen or trimmed so more of your income is taxed. Hikes can be federal, provincial or municipal, and the effect on you depends entirely on which tax moved and when it takes effect. Announcements come through budgets and are confirmed in legislation. Check the CRA rate pages, or your province's, for what actually applies to a given tax year.

Insurance premiums are generally an exempt financial service, so no GST/HST is charged and the insurer cannot claim input tax credits on costs tied to that supply. Exempt is not the same as zero-rated: a zero-rated supply is taxed at 0% and still supports input tax credit recovery. Some related charges, such as certain administrative or brokerage services billed separately, can be taxable. Check the CRA's guidance on financial services for a specific product.

Several receipts fall outside income entirely: lottery and casual gambling winnings, GST/HST credit and Canada child benefit payments, most gifts and inheritances, life insurance death benefits, growth and withdrawals inside a TFSA, and the gain on a home that qualifies as your principal residence. Strike pay and most personal injury damages are also excluded. Nearly everything else is taxable, including tips, side income and crypto gains. The CRA publishes a list of amounts that are not taxed.

Two different things get called an exemption. Exempt supplies, such as most residential rent, many health and dental services and most financial services, carry no GST/HST and the supplier cannot claim input tax credits on related costs. Zero-rated supplies are taxed at 0% and the supplier still recovers input tax credits. Separately, a small supplier with taxable revenue at or under $30,000 for 2026 need not register or charge tax at all.

Not automatically. Rates change only when Parliament or a legislature enacts a change, and recent movement has gone both ways: the federal bottom bracket rate is 14% for 2026, and Ontario's small business rate falls from 3.2% to 2.2% effective 1 July 2026. What does change every year is bracket and credit indexing to inflation, which lifts the income thresholds. Check the CRA's rates page for the year you are filing.

There is no single figure, because the amount depends on your income, your province and which taxes are counted. Studies that quote an average usually bundle income tax, payroll contributions, sales tax and property tax together, which is why published numbers differ so widely. For your own position, divide the total tax shown on your notice of assessment by your total income to get your effective rate, then compare that with later years rather than with a national average.

A refund is applied against any balance you owe before anything is paid out, so an older amount owing is cleared first and only the remainder reaches you. Benefit and credit payments can be offset the same way. Where this year's return calculates a refund larger than the outstanding balance, the difference is paid to you. Filing online with direct deposit is the quickest route for whatever is left over.