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Canadian tax filing deadlines for 2024

Canadian tax filing deadlines for 2024

Tax season is in full swing, which means there’s no better time to let you know when the important tax filing deadlines are happening, for individuals and businesses alike. As you’ve most likely heard by now, in light of the current COVID-19 pandemic, the Canadian government made some recent changes to a few tax deadlines for this tax year.

For example, most years, the deadline to file your taxes as an individual is by midnight on April 30th. It’s also the final date to pay any taxes owing without incurring penalties.

Important tax deadlines

  1. The deadline for filing personal taxes is April 30th, 2022.
  2. For small businesses, the filing deadline is June 15th, 2022.
  3. The deadline for paying any taxes owed on all personal tax returns is April 30th, 2022.

Reasons to still file prior to April 30th

Many Canadian individuals and families should still consider filing by April 30th, for two reasons.

For starters, if you’re in line for a tax refund, the sooner you file, the sooner you get your cheque from the CRA. Also, for families who receive income-tested benefits, such as the monthly Child Care Benefit (CCB) and/or quarterly GST credit, filing prior to April 30th ensures that your new benefit amounts will be included prior to the annual rollover date in July. Remember, if you end up owing money, you’ll still have until August 31st to pay your taxes.

Other important tax filing dates

Below is a list of other important tax dates for the 2021 tax year. Keeping these in mind will help you plan more effectively while potentially reducing your tax liability.

Feb 21st, 2022: NETFILE opens. For the 2021 tax year, Feb 24th was the first date that you could access the NETFILE system to send your return to the CRA for processing. While the date has now passed, keep it in mind for next year, as it should fall around the same period in 2021.

March 1st, 2022: The deadline this year for contributing to your RRSP for the previous tax filing year (2021). Each year, the RRSP deadline falls on March 1st, unless that happens to be a weekend. If so, the deadline shifts to the next business day.

June 15th, 2022: This is the date by which self-employed persons must file their tax returns. While you can wait until June 15th to file, any taxes owing must be paid by April 30th.

Jan 31 / April 30 / July 31 / November 30: For businesses filing Goods and Services Tax / Harmonized Services Tax, payments must be remitted quarterly by these dates.

March 15 / June 15 / September 15 / December 15: If you’re a business owner making quarterly installments on your income tax payments, these are the quarterly deadlines you’ll need to adhere to. Quarterly installments can be easier, in terms of cash flow, than having to pay in one annual sum.

How tax penalties are calculated

If you don’t pay your tax owing prior to the deadline, you will be subject to the following penalties:

A one-time penalty of 5% on the full amount owing, followed by 1% of your balance owing each month for up to 12 months. For example, if you had a balance owing of $3000 and were 4 months late in paying, your penalty would be $270.

$3000 X 5% = $150

$3000 X 1% X 4 months = $120

Total penalty, $270.

But what if you happened to be really negligent (or forgetful), and miss the tax deadline for more than 12 months? In that case, you would incur a doubling of the penalties listed above. In other words, the one-time penalty would jump to 10%, while the monthly charge would increase to 2% for up to 20 months. As you can see, it’s not a good idea to avoid paying your income tax.

Where can I file my taxes online?

If you haven’t filed your taxes yet, the good news is that there are a number of online tax return programs that can help you get it done. Here at MapleMoney, we recommend WealthSimple Tax for free tax filing, while TurboTax and H&R Block are great paid options for 2022.

Both of these programs allow you to file your return instantly via NETFILE, the CRA’s highly secure electronic tax filing service. For more information, check out this post on the top free tax return software programs for Canadians, updated for 2022.

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