Form T2125, Statement of Business or Professional Activities, reports an individual’s business or professional income and expenses with the T1 income-tax return. It is not a GST/HST return and does not calculate a person’s final income-tax balance on its own.
Who needs to fill out a T2125?
Sole proprietors, freelancers and independent contractors who earn business or professional income generally report it on Form T2125 with their T1 return. The same applies to gig and platform workers and to self-employed commission earners: income from driving, delivery, freelance platforms or commission sales counts if it comes from a business or professional activity. Partners in a partnership report their share of the partnership’s income the same way. There is no minimum amount of business income before reporting is required.
Employment income is not automatically self-employment income, and a person can be an employee for one activity and self-employed for another at the same time; each income source is reported where it belongs. Anyone running two or more unrelated businesses or professional activities completes a separate T2125 for each one, all filed with the same T1.
Do I need to fill out a T2125 if I have a T4A?
A T4A slip’s box 048 reports fees paid for services, but the slip by itself does not decide whether that income is business income — the nature of the work and the facts of the arrangement do. Income from a business or professional activity is still reportable even without any slip at all. Keep each T4A together with invoices and other records, and avoid counting the same fees twice when more than one slip or client is involved. Once the business or professional nature of the income is established, report it with the related expenses on Form T2125. CRA: T4A box 048, fees for services.
Download the right current form
CRA’s T2125 page provides the 2025 accessible fillable PDF, standard-print PDF and large-print PDF. Download the version for the tax year being filed and open a fillable PDF in Acrobat Reader as CRA instructs. Keep CRA’s T4002 self-employed guide open for the instructions behind the form labels.
| Part / section | What goes there | Key amounts / lines |
|---|---|---|
| Identification | Business or professional activity, name, address, fiscal period, industry code, business number (if any) | — |
| Part 3A – business income | Adjusted gross sales from business records | Amount 3G → line 8000 |
| Part 3B – professional income | Adjusted professional fees from professional records | Amount 3N → line 8000 |
| Other income | Income not already included in amount 3G or 3N | Line 8230 |
| Gross income | Line 8000, plus any prior-year reserve, plus line 8230 | Reserve on line 8290 → total on line 8299 |
| Expenses | Advertising, office, rent, salaries/wages/benefits, travel, utilities and other labelled categories | 8521, 8810, 8910, 9060, 9200, 9220 → total line 9368 |
| Net income before adjustments | Gross income minus total expenses | Line 9369 |
| CCA, business-use-of-home, motor vehicle | Separate sections and schedules, only if they apply | Their own lines |
Work through the T2125 in sequence
- Set up the business identification section. Enter the business or professional activity, business name and address, fiscal period, industry code and the information the form asks for about the business. Use the same fiscal period when sorting invoices, sales records and expense records.
- Complete Part 3A or Part 3B from source records first. Use the business-income or professional-income part that applies. Carry its adjusted gross sales (amount 3G) or adjusted professional fees (amount 3N) to line 8000, then report any other income on line 8230; line 8299 includes line 8000, any prior-year reserve reported on line 8290, and line 8230. A business that buys goods for resale should complete the form’s cost-of-goods-sold section from opening inventory, purchases and closing inventory records rather than treating inventory purchases as an ordinary operating expense.
- Enter supported operating expenses in their labelled categories. For example, the current form has lines for advertising (8521), office expenses (8810), rent (8910), salaries, wages and benefits (9060), travel (9200) and utilities (9220). Retain invoices, receipts and a record of business purpose; do not put a personal expense into a business category. A separate guide explains which business expenses CRA allows for GST/HST input tax credits and how that differs from the income-tax deduction on this form.
- Use the separate sections only when they apply. Business-use-of-home, motor-vehicle and capital-cost-allowance entries need their own records and allocations. Do not invent a CCA claim or a personal-use percentage just to complete the form.
- Reconcile before carrying the result to the return. Compare sales to invoices and deposits, review refunds and owner draws, total the expense lines, and follow the form’s net-income or loss calculations. The T2125 result is business or professional income information for the T1, not an annual income-tax calculation. Keep the supporting records for at least six years from the end of the tax year they relate to. CRA: keeping business records.
Keep GST/HST records separate from the T2125 workflow
Use the GST/HST return and T2125 for their different jobs. Reconcile sales-tax reports to invoices and expense records, then follow the current T4002 instructions for the income-tax treatment of amounts for which GST/HST was paid, collected or may be recoverable. Do not copy a GST/HST return total into an expense or income line without checking the records and the applicable instruction.
Small non-inventory example
Assume a consultant’s records show $12,000 in fees, no other income, $300 advertising, $500 office expenses and $1,200 rent. In this simple illustration, Part 3B produces $12,000 of adjusted professional fees on amount 3N, which is carried to line 8000. There is no prior-year reserve on line 8290, $0 goes on line 8230 and $12,000 goes on line 8299. The three shown expenses total $2,000 on the relevant expense lines and on the total-expenses line 9368, leaving $10,000 at line 9369, net income (loss) before adjustments. No vehicle, CCA or home-office claim is included in this simplified example. It does not determine the person’s taxable income or tax owing.
T2125 deadline and Quebec filers
For a 2025 T1 return, CRA’s deadline for someone carrying on a business — or their spouse or common-law partner — is generally June 15, 2026, with an exception where the business’s expenditures relate mostly to a tax shelter investment. Any balance owing is still due April 30, 2026, regardless of the filing deadline; see our tax deadlines guide for the current year’s dates and exceptions. CRA: filing dates for the 2025 tax return.
Québec residents who report business or professional income on Form T2125 generally also file Revenu Québec form TP-80-V with their provincial return; farmers and fishers use a different form. Check the Revenu Québec instructions for form TP-80-V for the year being filed.