Tax Filing Deadlines               

Individuals:

• The deadline for filing personal income tax returns is postponed to June 1, 2020, if the filing deadline would have been April 30, 2020. There is no change to the filing deadline of June 15, 2020, for self-employed individuals.

Businesses:

• No announcements were made regarding the filing deadlines of corporate income tax returns, which are still due six months after year-end.

Other:

• For trusts having a taxation year ending on December 31, 2019, the return filing due date will be deferred until May 1, 2020. Off-calendar year-end testamentary trusts do not appear to qualify for the extension.
• No announcements were made relating to partnership returns, some of which are still due on March 31, 2020.
• GST and HST tax payments on imports will also be deferred until June.

Income Tax Amounts Owing

• The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) will allow all taxpayers to defer until September 1, 2020, the payment of any income tax amounts that become owing on or after March 18, 2020. This relief would apply to tax balances due as well as installments. No interest or penalties will accumulate on these amounts during this period.
• Taxpayers with taxes already due (for example, three months after a November 30 year-end) will not qualify for a deferral. Installments that should have been paid up until today are also not covered by the deferral relief.
• From a provincial perspective, Quebec and Alberta are the only two provinces that collect taxes directly, rather than having collection done federally. Quebec has announced a deferral of taxes owing until July 31, 2020; Alberta has made no announcements to date.

Post Assessment Audits

The CRA will not contact any small or medium businesses to initiate any post-assessment GST / HST or income tax audits for the next four weeks. For most businesses, the CRA will temporarily suspend audit interaction with taxpayers and representatives.

Use of Electronic Signatures

As a temporary administrative measure, the federal government will recognize electronic signatures as having met the signature requirements of the Income Tax Act for taxpayers signing Forms T183 and T183Corp only.