Tax payment dates in Ontario depend on which tax you owe. For personal income tax, the balance is due April 30 of the year after the tax year. HST, corporate income tax, payroll source deductions, the Employer Health Tax, and municipal property taxes each run on their own schedules, and missing any of them starts interest running quickly.
Personal Income Tax: April 30
If you owe on your personal return, the balance is due April 30 of the following year. For the 2025 tax year, that means April 30, 2026. The date applies to wages, investment income, rental income, and self-employment income alike.
Self-employed people and their spouses get until June 15 to file the return itself, but the payment deadline does not move. Any tax owing is still due April 30, and filing in June without having paid in April means interest on the balance for those extra weeks.
RRSP contributions that reduce your 2025 tax bill must be made by March 2, 2026. Contributing before that date lowers your balance owing and reduces what you need to send on April 30.
Quarterly Instalments for Individuals
If much of your income has no tax withheld at source, the CRA may require quarterly instalments during the year rather than a single April payment. You must pay instalments for 2026 if your net tax owing exceeds $3,000 in 2026 and also exceeded $3,000 in either 2025 or 2024.
The four instalment dates are:
- March 15
- June 15
- September 15
- December 15
The CRA sends reminders twice a year: one in February covering the March and June payments, and one in August covering September and December.
HST Payment Deadlines
Businesses registered for HST follow a schedule based on annual taxable supplies. Filing frequency is annual for $1.5 million or less, quarterly for more than $1.5 million up to $6 million, and monthly for more than $6 million.
Monthly and quarterly filers must submit both the return and payment one month after the reporting period ends. A quarter ending March 31 is due April 30.
Annual filers with a December 31 fiscal year-end and business income owe payment by April 30, even though the return itself isn’t due until June 15. Annual filers with any other year-end, or with no business income for the year, owe both the return and payment three months after their fiscal year-end.
Corporate Income Tax
Corporations must pay their balance before their return is due, which surprises some business owners. The general rule: corporate income tax is due two months after the end of the tax year.
Canadian-controlled private corporations get an extra month, pushing the balance-due day to three months after year-end, if they meet all three conditions: the corporation was a CCPC throughout the tax year, it claimed the small business deduction in the current or previous year, and its taxable income (or the combined taxable income of all associated corporations) did not exceed the business limit for the prior year.
The T2 return itself is not due until six months after the fiscal year-end. A corporation with a December 31 year-end pays any balance by the end of February (or end of March if it qualifies as a small CCPC), and files the return by June 30.
Corporate Instalments
Most corporations pay tax in monthly instalments, each due on the last day of the month. Smaller CCPCs with a perfect compliance history and combined taxable income of $500,000 or less, plus taxable capital employed in Canada of $10 million or less, can pay quarterly instead.
Payroll Source Deductions
Employers who withhold income tax, CPP contributions, and EI premiums remit on a schedule set by their average monthly withholding amount (AMWA) from two calendar years ago:
- Quarterly, for employers with AMWA under $3,000 and perfect compliance: April 15, July 15, October 15, and January 15.
- Monthly, for AMWA under $25,000: by the 15th of the following month.
- Twice monthly, for AMWA $25,000 to $99,999.99: first-half withholdings by the 25th of the same month; second-half withholdings by the 10th of the next month.
- Up to four times monthly, for AMWA $100,000 or more: within three working days after the 7th, 14th, 21st, and last day of each month.
Businesses that cease operations or go through bankruptcy must submit a final remittance within seven calendar days of the effective date.
Employer Health Tax
The Employer Health Tax is an Ontario payroll tax administered by the provincial Ministry of Finance, separate from CRA taxes. The annual return and payment are both due March 15 of the year following the calendar year.
Employers with total Ontario remuneration greater than $1.2 million must also pay monthly instalments during the year. Employers at or below $1.2 million pay the full amount with the annual return by March 15 and owe no instalments.
Property Tax
Property taxes are set and collected by your local municipality, not the CRA or the province. Most municipalities bill in two stages: an interim levy early in the year, based on a percentage of the previous year’s total, and a final levy in the summer once the municipal budget and provincial education tax rates are set. Larger cities such as Toronto and Ottawa split each levy into several instalments spread across the year.
Exact dates vary. Your municipality’s website or tax office has the schedule for your property. There is no single provincial date.
Tax Deadlines After a Death
When an Ontario resident dies, the legal representative’s payment deadline depends on the date of death:
- Death between January 1 and October 31: final return payment is due April 30 of the following year.
- Death between November 1 and December 31: payment is due six months after the date of death.
If the deceased or their spouse was self-employed, the filing deadline extends (to June 15 or six months after death), but the payment date does not move, and interest accrues on any unpaid balance.
If someone dies early in 2026 before filing their 2025 return, both filing and payment for that prior-year return extend to six months after the date of death. A surviving spouse’s 2025 filing deadline extends to match, but the spouse must still pay any 2025 balance by April 30, 2026, to avoid interest.
What Happens If You Pay Late
Interest on unpaid personal income tax starts May 1 and compounds daily. For the first quarter of 2026, the CRA’s prescribed rate on overdue balances is 7%. The rate resets every three months.
Filing a personal return late while owing a balance triggers a penalty of 5% of the unpaid amount, plus 1% for each full month the return is outstanding, up to 12 months. If the CRA issued a formal demand to file and you were charged a late-filing penalty in any of the three preceding years, the penalty doubles: 10% of the balance plus 2% per month, up to 20 months. Corporations face the same structure on the T2.
Instalment interest applies when you underpay or miss an instalment. An additional instalment penalty kicks in only if your instalment interest for 2026 exceeds $1,000, but interest itself accrues on any shortfall.
The HST late-filing penalty is 1% of the amount owing, plus 25% of that 1% for each complete month the return is late, up to 12 months. Interest on the unpaid balance runs on top.
Municipal property tax penalties are set locally and tend to be steep. Toronto, for example, charges 1.25% the day after default and another 1.25% on the first of each month the balance remains unpaid, and the city will not waive those charges. Other Ontario municipalities set their own rates under the Municipal Act, but the pattern is similar: penalties begin immediately and compound monthly.
Weekend and Holiday Rule
If a CRA due date lands on a Saturday, Sunday, or a public holiday the CRA recognizes, your payment and return are on time if the CRA receives them by the next business day. The rule covers personal, corporate, HST, and payroll deadlines. It does not apply to municipal property taxes, which follow whatever policy your local municipality sets.
How to Pay the CRA
The CRA accepts several payment methods:
- Online banking through your bank’s bill-payment feature. The CRA usually receives it the same or next business day.
- CRA My Payment, a one-time debit-card payment through the CRA website. Credit cards are not accepted. Payments are usually processed the same business day.
- Pre-authorized debit scheduled through CRA My Account, set up at least five business days before the withdrawal date.
- In person at a bank or credit union with a remittance voucher, or at an ATM.
- Canada Post retail locations, with a debit card or cash and a QR code from the CRA.
- By mail, with a cheque in Canadian funds, allowing enough time for delivery.
Processing time matters near a deadline. Online banking and My Payment are the fastest. A payment mailed on April 29 will not be considered received on April 30.