Plain-language answers to owner-manager tax questions.

• T2 corporate return

  6 months after year-end

  The return is due six months after the end of your fiscal year. The balance of tax owing is generally due two months after year-end — three months for many CCPCs that claimed the small-business deduction. For most corporations the payment deadline therefore arrives well before the filing one.

• T1 personal return

  April 30

  April 30 for most individuals. If you or your spouse or common-law partner carried on a business during the year, the filing deadline moves to June 15 — but any balance owing is still due April 30.

• T4 and T5 slips

  Last day of February

  Payroll (T4) and dividend (T5) slips are filed with the CRA and given to the employee or shareholder by the last day of February following the calendar year they cover. Late information returns generally carry a per-slip penalty.

• T5018 contract payments

  6 months after period end

  Businesses whose main activity is construction generally file a T5018 information return for payments made to subcontractors for construction services. It is due six months after the end of the reporting period — you choose the calendar year or your fiscal period, and the CRA generally expects you to stay on the one you picked. Payments totalling more than $500 to a subcontractor in the period are generally reportable, and late information returns generally carry a per-slip penalty.

• GST/HST return

  1 month after period end

  Monthly and quarterly filers file and pay one month after the reporting period ends. Annual filers generally have three months after their fiscal year-end — except that an individual filing annually with a December 31 year-end has until June 15 to file, with payment still due April 30.

• Corporate instalments

  Monthly or quarterly

  Most corporations pay monthly instalments, due the last day of each month of the tax year. Eligible small CCPCs with a clean compliance history can generally pay quarterly instead. Instalments are generally not required where total tax payable for the year is $3,000 or less.

• Owner personal instalments

  15th of Mar, Jun, Sep, Dec

  The CRA generally asks for personal instalments once net tax owing is more than $3,000 ($1,800 for Quebec residents) in the current year and in either of the two years before it. Instalment reminders go out in February and August.

A due date that lands on a weekend or a public holiday the CRA recognizes is generally met if the return or payment arrives the next business day. Provincial filings run on their own calendars — Alberta’s AT1 and Revenu Québec returns in particular. These are the general rules; your year-end, filer type and province set your actual dates. We build your filing calendar from them during onboarding and track every date on it.