CRA business day deadlines: GST/HST and corporate dates

What to take away

For CRA business day deadlines, the due date is fixed by law first and shifted second. Business days never enter the count. That order applies to a corporate return, a balance owing and a GST/HST remittance alike, and reversing it lands on the wrong answer.

The statute names the date

Subsection 150(1) of the Income Tax Act requires a corporation to file within six months of its year end, and most individuals to file by April 30. A corporation files a T2 Corporation Income Tax Return. Section 248(1) carries the definitions the rest of the Act leans on.

The Act never asks you to count 20 or 22 business days. It names a date, and a separate statute decides what happens when that date is a Saturday.

That statute is the Interpretation Act. Section 2 defines a holiday, and section 26 says that where a time limit expires on a holiday, the act may be done on the next day that is not a holiday.

Filing and payment run on separate clocks

Two obligations usually run side by side. The filing clock governs the return, and the payment clock governs the balance owing. For a corporation the payment date comes first, at two months after year end, or three months where the small business deduction conditions are met.

Interest runs from the payment date even when the return arrives on time, while a failure-to-file penalty is a separate charge. Each date is tested for weekends and holidays on its own.

Which holidays move a CRA date

The CRA publishes its own public holiday list. Use that list, not a provincial employment standards page, when you test a filing or remittance date. A provincial holiday that is not on the list does nothing to a federal deadline.

The list covers the federal public service. It includes New Year's Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, Victoria Day, Canada Day and Labour Day. It also names the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, Thanksgiving, Remembrance Day, Christmas Day and Boxing Day. Family Day is observed in several provinces and is absent from the CRA list.

When a listed holiday falls on a Saturday or Sunday, observance moves, and the CRA list reflects the move.

Test a due date in five steps

Work through these steps in order whenever a deadline is close.

A due date printed in January is a starting point. It is not a final answer until the calendar for that year is checked.

The shift can compound. A date of Saturday moves to Monday, and a Monday that is also a listed holiday moves the deadline to Tuesday. Nothing fixes the size of the shift in advance, and how one closure ripples through a count is easy to underestimate.

Worked cases: an April 30 return and a June 30 year end

Take a tax year ending December 31. The T1 return and the balance are due April 30. If that date is a Saturday, both move to the Monday. A listed holiday on that Monday pushes both to the Tuesday.

A corporation with a June 30 year end files by December 31 and pays by August 31. The return date is tested on its own, and the payment date is tested on its own, so one may move while the other does not.

A self-employed filer files by June 15 while the balance stays due April 30. That six-week gap is where interest charges begin. This is a filing and payment-date distinction, not a business-day count; the separate guide to adding business days covers count conventions.

GST/HST remittances by reporting period

The Excise Tax Act governs GST/HST reporting and remittance obligations, and the reporting period sets the deadline. As the CRA's GST/HST reporting deadlines state, a monthly filer remits one month after the period ends, and a quarterly filer does the same after each quarter. Most annual filers must file and pay three months after the fiscal year end. Annual filers who are individuals with business income can have different filing and payment dates.

An annual filer with a December 31 year end generally remits by March 31 of the following year. One month after is a calendar month, not a business-day count. Find the date, then apply the holiday test. A GST/HST filing and its remittance usually share one date, so a single shift moves both.

Where payroll and T4 dates differ

Payroll runs on its own schedule, set by your remitter type rather than your year end. The CRA assigns that type from your average monthly withholding, and your own assignment appears in My Business Account. The payroll side of the count is covered in its own guide.

Threshold remitters are the group whose rule names business days outright. Where a due date lands on a Saturday, Sunday or public holiday, the remittance is due on the next business day.

T4 slips and the T4 summary are information returns. They are due by the last day of February after the calendar year, and the same weekend and holiday shift applies. Quebec payroll adds civil law holiday counting, which the Montreal payroll and Quebec holidays article explains.

Common questions