The tax deadline for self-employed Canadians is days away. What to know

The deadline for self-employed individuals is June 16 in 2025, and waiting until the last minute may mean missing important details.

The tax filing deadline for most Canadians this year was April 30, but there is still a bit more time given to individuals who are self-employed or have a spouse or common-law partner who is self-employed.

But the clock is ticking with just days to go, and it is critical to make sure that returns are filed on time and accurately, experts say.

“They get a bit of extra time (compared with individuals filing in April) just because it’s a little more involved preparing these returns … to calculate business income and do all the accounting,” says Ryan Minor, director of tax at Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada.

“The final payment is still due April 30. So in April, they should estimate the amount of taxes that are owing and send it in, even though the returns are due a little bit later.”

This means that although there are still a few days to submit the returns to the Canada Revenue Agency, the amount that may be owed would have still been due by April 30 of this year, and not paying or filing on time could mean significant fees on top of the original amount owed.

“The penalties (for missing a deadline) are horrendous — a five per cent penalty off the top for missing the deadline, and upward from there,” Minor says.

There are also a lot of areas that business owners and self-employed individuals may be overlooking, and filers need to be sure they cover all the necessary areas with time to spare.

“Certain things are commonly missed, like a home office expense, automobile expenses, capital cost allowance, where businesses might buy equipment or what they (the CRA) call these ‘capital assets,’ there are expenses that have limitations like meals and entertainment, there’s so many rules,” Minor says.