All individuals who owe tax are required to file a T1. This can mean that you are not required to file a personal tax return if you do not owe tax. However, this can lead to confusion as the only reliable way to know if you owe tax is to prepare a tax return and once prepared it would seem silly not to file it. If you are operating your business as a proprietorship or personal partnership, your business earnings and expenses are reported on your personal income tax return.

Personal tax returns are always filed based on a calendar year. Personal income taxes are due by April 30th each year (you may be requested to pay quarterly installments during the year as well). The deadline for filing your T1 is also April 30th. If you have a sole proprietorship, then the deadline to file is extended to June 15th but your taxes are still due on April 30th. Therefore, you must ensure that if there are taxes owing they are fully paid by April 30th to avoid penalties and interest.

Federal tax and provincial (except Quebec) or territorial tax are calculated and collected on the personal income tax and the federal government distributes back to the provinces and territories their portion. Outside of Quebec, you submit one single return including pages for federal tax and pages that are specific to your province or territory. On those pages, the provincial or territorial tax will be calculated, along with tax credits, surtaxes and tax reductions that are specific to your province or territory. The main difference for residents of Quebec is that they have to submit their federal income tax return to the CRA and their provincial return to Revenu Quebec.