COVID-19: Canada, Measures for Businesses and Individuals – 1
We’ve prepared for you a summary of the various business and tax measures announced by the government in response to COVID-19.
The Government has announced new tax filing deadlines in light of COVID-19.
The Federal and Quebec governments announced the following tax relief measures effective March 18, 2020, in response to COVID-19. We’ve compiled them here for your reference:
Trusts
- The March 30th filing deadline for trusts with a December 31, 2019 taxation year has been extended to May 1, 2020.
- The deadline for the payment of any balance of tax for a December 31, 2019 taxation year as well as the payment of installments which would otherwise be due or payable between March 18, 2020 and August 31, 2020 has been extended until at least August 31, 2020.
Individuals
- The April 30th filing deadline for the 2019 taxation year has been extended to June 1, 2020.
- The deadline for the payment of any balance of tax for the 2019 taxation year as well as the payment of installments which would otherwise be due or payable between March 18, 2020 and August 31, 2020 has been extended until at least August 31, 2020.
- For Quebec, the same extensions will apply to payments for QPP, QPIP, HSF and the Quebec drug insurance plan.
Corporations
- The deadline for the payment of any balance of tax or the payment of installments which would otherwise be due or payable between March 18, 2020 and August 31, 2020 has been extended until at least August 31, 2020.
- There will be no post-assessment income tax, QST or GST audits initiated for small and medium businesses and most ongoing audits and collection measures in all businesses will be suspended.
Partnerships
- For Quebec only, the March 31 filing deadline for partnerships has been extended to May 1, 2020.
Other
- CRA and RQ will be accepting electronic signatures on certain tax forms.
- No relief measures announced for the following filing deadlines:
- Partnerships (Federal only) and corporation tax returns
- Non-resident tax withholding, remitting and reporting (NR4)
- Information returns relating to controlled and non-controlled foreign affiliates (T1134)
- Remittance of GST and QST
- Remittance for deductions at source (DAS)
U.S.
- The U.S. government announced a 90-day (interest and penalty free) postponement for payments only. All tax filings maintain their usual deadline.