CRA announces new tax filing extensions as part of COVID-19 relief measures

The federal government today announced tax filing extensions to help individual Canadians and businesses manage through the COVID-19 crisis.

Businesses, including self-employed individuals, will be allowed to defer GST/HST payments, as well as custom duties on imports, until June 30, 2020. The deferral generally applies to remittances that would be due between March and the end of May, 2020. Monthly, quarterly and annual GST/HST filers will qualify for the deferral.

The measure is intended to provide up to $30 billion in cash flow assistance to struggling businesses, helping them address heavy revenue losses, meet payroll and other operational expenses.

In addition, any tax filings due after March 18, 2020, have been extended until June 1, 2020. This includes T1134 and T2 filings. As the CRA confirmed in a release:

“These administrative income tax actions include the filing of returns, forms, elections, designations, and responses to information requests. Payment and remitting requirements are not covered by this announcement.”

Trust (T3), partnership filings and NR4 Information Returns due March 31, 2020, have been extended to May 1, 2020.

As we noted in a previous blog, the deadline for filing 2019 individual tax returns is now June 1, 2020, while personal and business income tax payments owing can be deferred until after August 31, 2020—including installments—without interest or penalties. Still, Canadians are being encouraged to file individual returns promptly to ensure they receive GST/HST, child benefit or other credits, which are calculated based on the prior year’s income.

Armando Iannuzzi, Co-Managing Partner