CRA small-business filing requirements: your first-year checklist (2026)

Nobody hands you the list when you incorporate. You register the company, open a bank account, and start working — and then, months later, you find out there were deadlines you were supposed to know about.

None of it is hard. It’s just a set of separate obligations, each with its own timing. Here’s the whole list, in plain English.

1. What corporate tax return does my company have to file?

Once you incorporate, your company is its own taxpayer. It has to file a T2 corporate income tax return every year — even if it made no money or lost money. There is no “too small to file.”

• Filing deadline: within six months of your fiscal year-end. If your year ends December 31, the T2 is due June 30.
• Payment is due earlier than filing: any tax owed is generally due two months after year-end (three months for many CCPCs claiming the small business deduction). Yes — you have to pay before you have to file.
• The good news on the rate: a Canadian-controlled private corporation pays a low small-business rate on its first $500,000 of active business income. In Ontario that combined rate is 12.2% in early 2026, and Ontario is cutting its share so the combined rate drops to 11.2% from July 1, 2026 (a blended ~11.7% for the 2026 calendar year). Profit above $500,000 is taxed at about 26.5%.

2. When do I have to register for GST/HST?

You must register for GST/HST once your taxable sales cross $30,000 — measured either in a single calendar quarter or over four consecutive quarters. Below that, you’re a “small supplier” and registration is optional.

A few things owners get wrong:

• The clock can start fast. Cross $30,000 in a single quarter and you’re registered from the day of the sale that pushed you over — no grace period.
• The threshold isn’t indexed. It’s been $30,000 for years and hasn’t moved with inflation, so more small businesses hit it every year.
• Registering voluntarily can pay off. Once registered, you can claim back the GST/HST you paid on business expenses (input tax credits). For a business with real costs, that’s often worth registering before you’re forced to.
• After registering, you file returns monthly, quarterly, or annually depending on your assigned frequency — and remit the tax you collected, minus your input tax credits. In Ontario that’s 13% HST on most sales.

3. When do I need a payroll account?

The day you pay yourself or anyone else a salary, you need a payroll (RP) account and you have to withhold and remit source deductions.

• What you withhold: income tax, CPP (5.95% employee + 5.95% employer on 2026 earnings from $3,500 to $74,600, plus CPP2 at 4% up to $85,000), and EI where it applies (2026 employee rate $1.63 per $100 up to $68,900 of insurable earnings; the employer pays 1.4×).
• When you remit: most new small employers remit monthly, by the 15th of the following month.
• Note: if you pay yourself only in dividends, you don’t need a payroll account — but you also give up CPP and RRSP room. See how to pay yourself from your corporation for the full trade-off.

The whole calendar, in one place. Countet tracks every CRA deadline for you — T2, sales tax, payroll — sets the money aside as you earn, and generates the slips from data that’s already in your books. Start free →

4. What year-end slips do I have to issue?

By the end of February each year:

• T4 slips for anyone (including you) who received a salary.
• T5 slips for anyone who received dividends.
• T4A slips for certain contractor payments (generally $500 or more).

These have to agree with what actually flowed through your books during the year — which is exactly where a stitched-together setup falls apart, because the payroll app and the accounting app rarely tell the same story. (If you’re weighing that stack, see the real cost of running payroll on Wave, QuickBooks, and Wagepoint.)

5. Don’t forget your personal return

Incorporating doesn’t remove your personal T1 — it adds a corporate return on top. Your salary (T4) and dividends (T5) flow onto your personal return, and if you took dividends you may owe personal tax that wasn’t withheld along the way.

This is the classic first-year surprise: a healthy dividend in one year, a five-figure personal tax bill the next April.

The quick checklist

• File a T2 every year — within 6 months of year-end; pay any tax owing within 2–3 months.
• Register for GST/HST at $30,000 in sales (or voluntarily to claim input tax credits); then file and remit on schedule.
• Open a payroll account and remit source deductions if you pay any salary.
• Issue T4 / T5 / T4A slips by the end of February.
• File your personal T1, and set money aside for tax on any dividends.
• Set aside sales tax and income tax as you earn — the single best habit for avoiding an April surprise.

None of this is hard. It’s just a lot of separate deadlines, and no one sends you the list when you incorporate. Countet keeps the whole calendar in one place — it tells you what you owe the CRA and when, sets the money aside as you go, and generates the slips from data that’s already in your books.