Small Business Tax Deadlines in Ontario: Month by Month

Small business tax doesn’t happen once a year. Payroll remittances, HST returns, information slips, instalments, annual returns: in most months, something’s due. Missed dates are one of the most common reasons small businesses get CRA penalties, and usually it isn’t a cash problem. Nobody knew the date was coming.

Below is a typical year of small business tax deadlines in Ontario, month by month. Everything assumes a December 31 fiscal year-end, since that’s what most small companies use. Is yours June 30? Then slide the corporate dates over. And remember your exact deadlines depend on how often you remit and how you’re set up, so treat this as a map, not gospel.

Every Month: Payroll and Monthly HST

Got employees? That includes you, if your corporation pays you a salary. Then payroll source deductions are the obligation that comes around most often. The typical small employer is a “regular remitter.” In plain English: whatever income tax, CPP and EI you held back from this month’s pay has to be at the CRA by the 15th of next month. A few very small employers can remit quarterly; bigger ones remit more often.

Monthly GST/HST filers have a return and payment due one month after each reporting period ends.

January

Close last year’s books. Every bank account, credit card and loan gets reconciled, no exceptions.
Start collecting the numbers for T4s (employment income) and T5s (dividends).
Firm up the corporation’s tax estimate for the year that just ended. The payment is coming up fast.

February

Last day of February: T4 and T4A slips and summaries are due, and recipients need their copies. T5 slips for dividends paid last calendar year have the same deadline.
End of February: corporate balance-due day for most corporations with a December year-end, two months after the year closed.

March

March 15: first quarterly instalment for individuals who have to pay instalments, sole proprietors included.
March 31: corporate balance-due day for qualifying Canadian-controlled private corporations, the ones that get three months.
Quarter-end: if you file GST/HST quarterly, start on the first-quarter return. It’s due a month later.
The Ontario Employer Health Tax annual return is generally due March 15 if your Ontario payroll is over the exemption.

April

April 30: any T1 balance owing is due for everyone, self-employed people included, even though their filing deadline comes later.
April 30: filing deadline for individuals who don’t have self-employment income.
End of April: quarterly filers owe their first-quarter HST return and payment.

May

Things quiet down. Use the breathing room to finish the corporation’s year-end financial statements so June isn’t a scramble for the T2. It’s also a sensible moment to check that this year’s instalments still line up with what you expect to earn.

June

June 15: T1 filing deadline for self-employed people and their spouses.
June 15: second quarterly instalment for individuals.
June 30: T2 filing deadline for corporations with a December 31 year-end.
Sole proprietors who file GST/HST annually with a December year-end generally have until June 15 to file, but payment is due April 30.

July to September

End of July: quarterly filers’ second-quarter HST return is due.
September 15: individuals’ third instalment of the year.
Mid-year check: is profit tracking higher or lower than you planned when you set the instalments? Adjust now while there’s time.

October and November

End of October: third-quarter HST return for quarterly filers.
Year-end planning: this is the window for owner pay, bonuses, big equipment purchases and dividend decisions. What you decide before December 31 can change this year’s tax. What you decide after usually can’t.

December

December 15: last quarterly instalment of the year for individuals.
Before December 31: settle salary and bonus amounts, pay any dividends you’ve planned, and make sure anything you’re buying for this year’s capital cost allowance is actually available for use.

Deadlines That Depend on Your Business

Ontario Annual Return

This one trips people up. Every Ontario corporation owes the Ontario Business Registry an annual return, and the clock for it starts on the day you incorporated, not at your tax year-end. It needs its own reminder.

Corporate Instalments

Over $3,000 of tax payable this year or last? Then the corporation is usually on monthly instalments, or quarterly ones if it qualifies as a small CCPC, each due on the final day of the month or quarter in its tax year.

Non-Calendar Year-Ends

Say your corporation’s year ends March 31. Then everything corporate shifts too. You’d pay by May 31 or June 30 and file the T2 by September 30.

How to Stay on Top of It

You don’t need software for this. Each January, type every date into a shared calendar with an alert two weeks out. Do the bookkeeping monthly. That way each return starts from reconciled numbers, and nobody’s guessing at 11 p.m. the night before.

Some owners don’t want to think about any of this, and they hand the calendar over completely. A small business tax accountant in Toronto or elsewhere will usually keep track of remittance and filing deadlines as part of a monthly service, and the owner just approves and pays.

Conclusion

The small business tax year has a rhythm to it. Payroll and HST every month. Slips in February. Balances and personal returns in spring. The T2 in June for December year-ends. Planning in the fall. No single deadline is hard. What hurts is three of them landing in the same fortnight while the books are behind. A calendar and up-to-date bookkeeping prevent exactly that.

Frequently Asked Questions

When are payroll remittances due?

For most small employers, by the 15th of the month after the month employees were paid.

When are T4 slips due?

By the last day of February after the calendar year ends, to the CRA and to employees.

When is a sole proprietor’s tax due?

The return is due June 15, but any balance owing has to be paid by April 30 or interest starts.

When is a corporation’s T2 due?

Six months after its tax year ends. Any tax owing is due two or three months after year-end.

A Year in Small Business Tax: What Your Accountant Handles Month by Month

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