Filing taxes can be a stressful task. Do you know which forms you need? How to calculate your annual allowance? Or the deadline for filing? Here are some helpful links to get you through tax season.
Bookmark these CRA webpages
The Canadian Revenue Agency (CRA) has a lot of great resources which you can consult when preparing your small
business tax return. Start with the checklist for small businesses to find out what you need to do at different stages in the lifecycle of a business. If you are starting, maintaining, or closing your business, this is the place to find the relevant forms, publications, and videos.
Also check out the CRA’s Video Series called Reporting Business Income and Expenses. This 12-part video series covers tax-related issues such as buying an existing business, transferring personal assets to a new business, and eligible and ineligible business expenses. Information is presented in short, interview-style segments, 2-8 minutes long. Presenters will refer to a number of links in the videos, all of which are compiled on the related links page.
The CRA’s page of topics related to taxes for small businesses and the self-employed is a good source of information for filing deadlines, audits, and more.
Tips and tools
According to the CRA, 80% of Canadians filed their tax returns online last year. Explore some electronic filing options in the extremely thorough CBC News article How to File Your Tax Return Online.
Make sure to get the most back on your tax returns by browsing Canada Business Network’s list of tax refunds and credits for businesses.
Take advantage of the Scientific Research and Experimental Development (SR&ED) tax credit for your business’ research and development (R&D) activities. For an overview of SR&ED, check out our recent guest post on the subject from Erik Kaas, Everything You Always Wanted to Know About SR&ED but Were Afraid to Ask.
For some tips on preparing and staying organized for tax season, try these articles from RBC, Helping Small Business Owners Prepare for Tax Time, and the CBC, How to Stay Organized this Tax Season.
Did you know about the CRA Business Tax Reminder mobile app designed for small and medium-sized businesses? You can learn about some more helpful tax tools in the Vancouver Sun's article on Tax Apps and Desktop Software for Canada.
PHOTO CREDIT: money-256290_1280, created by jarmoluk on December 03, 2013. Image made available by Creative Commons Deed CC0. Last viewed on March 12, 2015.
PHOTO CREDIT: Untitled, created by Duckie Monster on January 25, 2008. Image made available by Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License. Last viewed on March 16, 2015.