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A tax return refers to the forms an individual or a corporation must submit to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) if earning an income in Canada. The Canadian income tax year starts in January and runs through December, and includes all taxable income and tax credits.
Individuals and corporations are taxed on both the federal level and on the provincial or territorial level. If you’re an individual (except for Québec residents), you can file a single tax return with the CRA that includes both federal and provincial taxes. Québec residents will need to file a separate provincial income tax return with Revenu Québec in addition to their federal tax return.
If you work in Canada, your employers must deduct income tax and Canadian Pension Plan/Québec Pension Plan and Employment Insurance (EI) premiums from your wages, then remit them to the CRA. Deductions are based on an individual completing the federal and provincial/territorial TD1 forms.
Each individual is responsible for filing their own tax return. Filing an income tax return can be done using a tax preparation service or individual, such as an accountant, or a tax preparation software.
You should file a tax return in Canada if you live and work in Canada, or if you immigrated and settled as a resident in Canada.
You should also file a tax return if you’re considered a factual resident of Canada, meaning you’re still considered a Canadian resident for income tax purposes. This applies to anyone who is on a temporary work assignment outside of Canada, attending school in another country, spends part of the year in another country, or is commuting for work from Canada to the U.S.
If you’re appointed the legal representative for someone who has died, you will have to file a final return for the deceased.
Individuals who lived in Canada for 183 days or more during a tax year may be deemed residents of Canada and are subject to federal taxation. This includes international students who attend a Canadian college or university.
Additional rules apply to non-residents of Canada, including those with rental income from Canadian properties, and seasonal workers. Check with the CRA to find out what your tax obligations may be if you live in Canada temporarily or permanently, or if you leave the country.
Individuals can either use a tax preparer, such as an accountant, or do their own tax return using tax return software.
If you choose to have your taxes prepared by a professional, you will need to have all relevant documents ready to go before your appointment. Professional tax preparers file personal tax returns using the CRA’s EFILE system. If you use tax return software, such as Wealthsimple Tax, you will use CRA’s NETFILE system to file your tax return.
Tax preparation software comes with a tax return calculator that tallies up your refund or taxes owed as you go through the prompts. Your CRA tax return filing must include all earned income for the tax year — from January through December. The standard Canada tax return deadline is April 30 of each year for the previous year’s return. If you or your spouse are self-employed, the deadline is June 15. (Note that any amount owing to the CRA must be paid by April 30, regardless of filer status.)
Not everyone is eligible to file a tax return in Canada. You should file a tax return in Canada if you live and work there, or if you immigrated and settled there. If you are on a temporary work assignment in Canada or are an international student, you may have to file a tax return.
Check out the CRA qualifications for who needs to file a tax return.
To file a tax return in Canada, you need to go to a tax preparer, such as an accountant, or use tax preparation software such as Wealthsimple Tax. Tax preparation software makes it easy to file your return, as long as you follow all the steps and have all of your documents ready to go. Ensure you have all documents needed for a tax return in Canada (check out the list below to ensure you don’t leave out anything) and follow all the steps and prompts closely.
To calculate your tax return, you need all T4 slips and other relevant slips from your employer or other sources of income.
A tax professional, such as an accountant, can help you calculate your tax return for a given tax year for a fee, then file your return for you. Alternatively, you can use one of the NETFILE-certified tax preparation software options to calculate your tax return and file it with the CRA.
There are several ways to pay tax returns online in full or over a period of time. The deadline to pay the taxes you owe for the 2023 tax year is April 30, 2024.
To pay your tax return online, you can use one of the following options:
You can also pay CRA in person or by mail. Note that the CRA does not accept cryptocurrency, gift cards, or cash for tax return payment by mail.
If you want to mail your tax return, you will need to select the right tax centre. This depends on the province, territory, or area where you live.
For residents who live in Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Northwest Territories, Yukon, or the following cities in Ontario: Hamilton, Kitchener, Waterloo, London, Thunder Bay, or Windsor, mail your return to:
Winnipeg Tax Centre
Post Office Box 14001
Winnipeg MB R3C 3M3
Residents of New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Nunavut, Prince Edward Island; the following cities in Ontario: Barrie, Belleville, Kingston, Ottawa, Peterborough, St. Catharines, Sudbury, or Toronto; and the following cities in Québec: Montréal, Outaouais, or Sherbrooke, mail your return to:
Sudbury Tax Centre
1050 Notre Dame Avenue
Sudbury ON P3A 5C2
For Québec residents of all areas other than Montréal, Outaouais, or Sherbrooke, mail your return to:
Jonquière Tax Centre
2251 René-Lévesque Boulevard
Jonquière QC G7S 5J2
If you are a non-resident and need to mail your income tax return, the tax centre mailing address depends on your country of residence.
Non-resident individuals who live in USA, United Kingdom, France, Netherlands, Denmark, Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Yukon, or in the following cities in Ontario: Belleville, Hamilton, Kingston, Kitchener, Waterloo, London, Ottawa, Peterborough, St. Catharines, Thunder Bay, or Windsor, should mail their tax return to:
Winnipeg Tax Centre
Post Office Box 14001
Winnipeg MB R3C 3M3
Non-residents who live in countries other than the ones listed above, or reside in Canada in New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Québec, or Barrie, Sudbury, or Toronto in Ontario, should mail their tax return to:
Sudbury Tax Centre
1050 Notre Dame Avenue
Sudbury ON P3A 5C2
Fax: 705-671-3994 and
Please note: Because of international mail delays right now, the CRA is temporarily accepting non-resident income tax returns through fax.
The deadline to file taxes for 2023 in Canada is April 30, 2024. The deadline to file personal income taxes in Canada for both residents and non-residents is April 30 of each year.
If you or your partner are self-employed, the deadline to file a tax return is June 15, 2024. However, if you owe any taxes, regardless of employment status, they must be paid on or before April 30, 2024, to avoid interest or penalties.
If you are filing taxes for a deceased person, the filing deadline may vary.
Processing times for your tax return depend on how you filed it. For tax returns filed online, the CRA strives to process most electronically filed returns within two to four weeks and paper filed returns within eight weeks.
You can expect to get your tax refund within this time period. This timeline is only valid for tax returns completed on or before their due date. If you select to receive your refund through direct deposit, you will get it faster than a check in the mail.
If you live outside of Canada and file a non-resident personal income tax return, your return may take up to 16 weeks.
In addition, returns selected for a detailed review may take longer.
If you need a copy of your notice of assessment or tax slips from previous years, you can get those from the CRA website. You can sign into your "My Account" or use the CRA mobile app to view it.
For copies of a previous year’s tax return, how you get it will depend on how you filed it. If you used a tax preparation service, you should be able to access PDFs through that service. If you used a preparation service or an accountant, you can contact them to get a copy of your tax return.
Before you start working on your tax return, you’ll need to gather a few things.
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