Self-employed tax deadline in Canada: June 15 to file, April 30 to pay

The two self-employed tax deadlines in Canada

If you earned business or professional income in 2026, the CRA gives you until Tuesday, June 15, 2027 to file your T1 return. It does not give you until June 15 to pay. Any balance owing for 2026 is due Friday, April 30, 2027, the same day employees pay.

That split is the main thing to plan around. The extra six weeks exist because business records, Form T2125 and capital cost allowance schedules take longer to finish, not because the CRA is willing to wait for its money.

Who qualifies for the June 15 tax return deadline

You qualify if you carried on a business in the year, whether as a sole proprietor, a partner in a partnership, a freelancer, or a ride-share or delivery driver. The date also applies to your spouse or common-law partner, so a salaried spouse of a contractor can file on June 15 as well.

• Qualifies: consultants, trades, freelancers, commission salespeople reporting on T2125, gig and delivery workers, farmers and fishers.
• Qualifies through a partner: the spouse or common-law partner of any of the above.
• Does not qualify: people whose only extra income is rental income, interest, dividends or capital gains. Rental income on its own is not a business.
• Does not qualify: a self-employed person whose business expenditures are mainly in tax shelters. That return is due April 30.

Incorporated business owners are a different case. A corporation files its own T2 on its own schedule; the owner's personal T1 follows the April 30 rule unless the owner also has unincorporated business income.

Do self-employed people pay interest after April 30?

Yes. Interest on unpaid 2026 tax starts on May 1, 2027 and compounds daily, whether or not your return is due yet. The rate is the CRA's prescribed rate for overdue taxes, which is 7% for October to December 2026. The rate for spring 2027 is not yet announced; the CRA publishes each quarter's rate before that quarter begins.

Worked example: paying on June 15 instead of April 30

Say you owe $5,000 for 2026 and pay it with your return on June 15. That is 46 days of interest. At 7% compounded daily the cost is about $44. It is not a disaster, but it is avoidable. Filing on June 15 does not add a late-filing penalty, because the return is on time.

Self-employed taxes due in Canada: what the balance includes

The April 30 amount is usually larger than first-time freelancers expect, because no employer withheld anything during the year. The balance normally combines three pieces.

The CPP example is simple arithmetic: $60,000 minus the $3,500 basic exemption is $56,500, and 11.9% of that is $6,723.50. At or above $74,600 of net earnings the regular CPP amount reaches its 2026 maximum of $8,460.90. Our CPP for self-employed page explains the deduction and credit that offset part of this.

Instalments: the deadlines that come after June 15

Once your balance owing grows, the CRA stops waiting for April. You must pay 2027 tax by quarterly instalments if your net tax owing is more than $3,000 ($1,800 in Quebec) for 2027 and was also more than that in either 2026 or 2025.

The CRA mails instalment reminders (form INNS1) in February for the March and June payments and in August for the September and December payments. People whose main income is from farming or fishing make a single instalment by December 31 instead. The tax instalments page covers the three ways to calculate the amounts.

GST/HST dates for the same business

If your business is registered for GST/HST, its return is separate from your T1. An individual annual filer with a December 31 fiscal year end pays GST/HST by April 30 and files by June 15, which lines up with the income tax dates. Quarterly and monthly filers file and pay within one month after each period ends.

For a full list of what a sole proprietor reports, including T2125 and deductible expenses, start with our self-employed taxes in Canada guide. For every other date in the season, see the tax deadline Canada calendar, and for the filing mechanics, how to file a tax return in Canada.