Unlike other countries, you may not always need to file a Canadian tax return. However, often times even if it's not mandatory to file, it's usually to your advantage to still file the return.
When you MUST file a tax return
You must file a tax return if:
You have a balance owing and have to pay tax for the year
You want to claim your refund
The CRA sent you a request to file a return
You want to claim the Canada workers benefit (CWB) and receive advanced Canada workers benefit (ACWB) payments in the year
You or your spouse or common-law partner want to receive social benefits and credits like Canada child benefit (CCB), GST⁄HST credit, Climate action incentive payment (CAIP), Guaranteed income supplement (GIS), etc.
You have not repaid all of the amounts you withdrew from your RRSP for the Home Buyers' Plan (HBP) or Lifelong Learning Plan (LLP)
You disposed of capital property (including a principal residence) in the year
You realized a taxable capital gain in the year
You have to repay all or part of your employment insurance (EI) benefits or old age security (OAS) benefits
You want to claim your RRSP contribution room for the year by reporting your income. This also applies to contribution room in a pooled registered pension plan (PRPP) or a specified pension plan (SPP).
You opened a First home savings account (FHSA) in 2023 and want to keep your FHSA participation room up to date.
You want to transfer your unused tuition fees or carry forward unused tuition, education and textbook amounts to a future year
You have to contribute to the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) for 2023 (if you are self employed and your total net self-employment income and pensionable employment income is more than $3,500)
You are registered for self-employment EI and paying EI premiums on self-employment income or other eligible earnings
You have incurred a non-capital loss (usually from a rental or self-employment loss) in the year that you want to be able to apply to other years
You want to report income that will allow you to increase your Canada training credit limit.
You and your spouse or common-law partner are jointly electing to split pension income
You want to carry forward the unused investment tax credit on expenditures you incurred during the current year to a future year
Note: If you are a newcomer to Canada or did not live in Canada for the full year you must still file a tax return if you meet the above criteria.
When you DO NOT need to file a tax return
You do not need to file a tax return if:
You are not claiming your refund and you do not have a balance owing
You do not want to receive any social benefits (like the GST/HST credit rebate, Canada Child Benefit, Climate Action Incentive, Ontario Trillium Benefit etc.)
Your self-employment income is less than $3,500 and you're not registered for self employment EI
You did not sell any securities or property during the year
You do not want your 18% RRSP contribution room for the year
Why file if I don't need to?
As you can see from the two lists above, even if you are not required to file your tax return because you have a refund, you will likely still want to file the return to have that refund paid back to you.
You MUST file a tax return if you want your refund paid back to you
No Income:
Even if you had no income you must to file a tax return to continue getting benefits and credits.
You MUST file a tax return if you want to receive/continue receiving social benefits and credits like the GST/HST credit rebate, Canada Child Benefit, Climate Action Incentive, Ontario Trillium Benefit, etc.
Students:
Even if you have low income or no income it is important that you file your tax return to claim your tuition credits. Unused tuition credits can be carried forward to future years to reduce your tax owing BUT tuition credits must first be claimed in the year you went to school.
These credits are extremely valuable and come in very handy once you graduate and your taxable income increases.
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