Incorporating replaces one annual deadline with a set of recurring ones. None of them are difficult. Missing them is expensive, and the penalties are entirely mechanical, which means they are entirely avoidable.
Here is the year, in the order it arrives.
The distinction that catches everyone
Filing a return and paying the tax are two different deadlines, and the payment one usually comes first.
Your T2 corporate return is due six months after your fiscal year end. The tax owing is generally due three months after year end for a Canadian controlled private corporation claiming the small business deduction, and two months for corporations that do not. So a corporation with a June 30 year end pays by September 30 and files by December 31.
You can be perfectly on time for filing and still be paying interest, because the money was due three months earlier.
The practical answer is to have the books close enough to accurate at year end that a reasonable payment can be made on the payment deadline, then finalise and file afterwards.
Monthly
Payroll source deductions. If the corporation pays you or anyone else a salary, deductions are remitted to CRA, and for most new corporations that is due by the fifteenth of the month following the pay. This is the deadline that penalises fastest. Set it up as an automatic payment and stop thinking about it.
Quarterly
Personal tax instalments. Once you have owed more than a modest amount on filing for two consecutive years, CRA expects instalments, generally due in March, June, September and December. Physicians taking dividends are the classic case, because nothing is withheld at source.
Corporate instalments. New corporations often escape these in the first year, but they typically begin once there is a tax history. Monthly or quarterly depending on your situation.
Annually, driven by the calendar
End of February. T4 slips for anyone the corporation paid a salary, and T5 slips for dividends paid during the previous calendar year. Both are filed with CRA and issued to recipients. Note that these follow the calendar year regardless of what your corporate year end is, which is a common source of confusion.
March 1 or thereabouts. The RRSP contribution deadline for the previous tax year. Relevant only if you paid yourself a salary, since dividends do not create RRSP room.
April 30. Personal T1 returns are due, and any personal balance owing is due, for you and your spouse.
June 15. If you or your spouse still have self employed income, the filing deadline moves to June 15. The payment deadline does not move. It stays April 30.
Annually, driven by your year end
Two or three months after year end. Corporate tax payment due, as described above.
Six months after year end. T2 corporate return due, with financial statements.
Within six months of year end. Most provinces require an annual information return alongside the T2.
Annually, on its own schedule. Your certificate of authorization from the College renews. It is not a tax filing, but the corporation cannot properly practise without it current, so it belongs on the same calendar.
Why your year end date matters more than it looks
A new corporation can choose any fiscal year end within its first year. Choosing something other than December 31 has two real advantages. It can defer tax on your first period of corporate income, sometimes substantially. And it separates your corporate work from the personal filing season, which means your accountant is looking at your year end in a quiet month rather than in the middle of April.
Changing it later requires CRA permission and a reason. Getting it right at the start costs nothing.
A working rhythm that prevents all of this. Books reconciled monthly. Payroll on automatic. A compensation review two months before year end while decisions can still be made. Statements and return prepared in the window between the payment deadline and the filing deadline. Nothing about that year is dramatic.
The Incorporated Physician's First Year Checklist
Includes a one page version of this calendar you can print or hand to whoever manages your practice admin.
Send us your fiscal year end and we will map your specific dates, corporate and personal, on a single page.