Canada Tax Deadlines in 2026: Filing, Payment and Instalments

Canada tax deadlines depend on the return, the taxpayer and the year. The next canada tax deadline most individuals face is the 2026 personal income-tax return: file and pay by April 30, 2027, while a self-employed person (or their spouse or common-law partner) can generally file by June 15, 2027 (April 30, 2027 if the business expenditures were primarily tax-shelter investments) but still has to pay by April 30, 2027. For the 2025 return, most individuals had to file and pay by April 30, 2026.

Ontario has no separate personal income-tax deadline — the CRA administers the Ontario return on the same federal dates. For individuals, the Canadian tax year is generally the calendar year, January 1 to December 31, regardless of when the return is filed.

Which deadline applies to your 2025 return?

The spouse/common-law partner rule requires that you lived together at some point during the year. The June 15 rule does not apply where business expenditures are primarily the cost or capital cost of tax-shelter investments; CRA specifies April 30 for that case. See CRA’s self-employed guide.

A filing extension is not automatically a payment extension. A self-employed person who waited until June to file could still owe interest on an unpaid balance from the payment deadline. Use the CRA filing and payment dates for the return and situation involved.

Individual income-tax instalments during 2026

Instalments are payments toward income tax for the year in which you earn the income. CRA’s regular individual schedule is March 15, June 15, September 15 and December 15. Under the next-business-day rule, the March 15, 2026 Sunday payment could be made on Monday, March 16. The other regular dates in 2026 are June 15, September 15 and December 15.

As of October 2026, December 15 is the remaining regular quarterly date. People whose main source of income is self-employment income from farming or fishing have a different single December 31 schedule. The CRA instalment guidance explains the exceptions and links to calculation choices.

The usual trigger is net tax owing more than $3,000 for 2026 and for either 2025 or 2024; for Quebec the stated amount is $1,800. This is not the GST/HST small-supplier test and not the GST/HST instalment calculation. Check the actual CRA instalment reminder and the permitted calculation option before paying.

What to do if you missed a deadline

Gather the slips, business-income and expense records, and prior instalment payments for the right tax year. File the missing return and pay what you can rather than waiting solely because the full balance is unavailable. Review CRA’s personal income-tax interest and penalty guidance and contact CRA about payment options when needed. A penalty, interest charge, payment arrangement and taxpayer-relief decision have separate rules; none is automatically resolved by filing a late return.

Keep the filing confirmation and payment receipt. If you already filed and found an error, use the personal income-tax correction process rather than submitting a duplicate return. CRA’s dates page links to the relevant personal income-tax payment and interest guidance.

Late-filing penalty and interest

If you have a balance owing and file your personal return late, the CRA late-filing penalty is 5% of the balance owing, plus 1% for each full month the return is late, up to a maximum of 12 months. If you were penalized in any of the three previous years and received a demand to file, the repeated penalty is 10%, plus 2% for each full month late, up to a maximum of 20 months. Filing on time avoids this penalty even if you cannot pay the full balance immediately.

Other deadlines carry their own rules. Employers and payers must give T4/T5 slips to recipients and the CRA by the last day of February following the calendar year (next business day if that date falls on a weekend or holiday); see the CRA information-return filing dates and CRA guidance on distributing T5 slips. An RRSP contribution made in a tax year or in the first 60 days of the following year can be deducted for that tax year, up to your available RRSP deduction limit; see CRA’s RRSP contribution rules. A corporation that has to file a T2 return must file it within six months after its tax year-end, while the balance-due payment is generally due two months after year-end (three months for a CCPC that meets certain conditions); see the CRA business filing and payment deadlines.

GST/HST deadlines are a different calendar

A business’s GST/HST reporting period can be monthly, quarterly or annual. Monthly and quarterly filers generally file and pay one month after period end. Most annual filers generally have three months. The April 30 payment/June 15 filing exception applies to an annual individual sole proprietor with a December 31 fiscal year-end and business income for income-tax purposes. The same dates on a T1 calendar do not establish the GST/HST result. CRA’s GST/HST deadline rules set out the conditions.

Use the GST/HST filing deadline guide for that return and GST/HST instalments for advance business sales-tax payments. Payroll and corporation income-tax deadlines also have their own rules.

Deadlines for your 2026 tax return (filed in 2027)

A return for the 2026 tax year is generally filed in 2027. Most individuals must file and pay by April 30, 2027 (a Friday). If you or your spouse or common-law partner were self-employed in 2026, the general rule lets you file by June 15, 2027 (a Tuesday), but any balance owing is still due April 30, 2027. The same exceptions as the 2025 return apply: the tax-shelter exception moves the self-employed filing date to April 30, and a deceased person or other special situation follows the applicable CRA rule. Check CRA’s dates page closer to the 2027 filing season for any update to these dates.