Tagged by basis
Whether an item is a legal obligation, a registration, or a judgment call, so you can see what's genuinely mandatory and what can wait.
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Incorporating doesn't open your CRA accounts.
A Business Number and a corporate tax account usually arrive on their own. GST/HST, payroll, and the provincial registrations do not. You have to trigger each one, on its own timing, and nothing tells you when you've missed one. This checklist is that prompt.
Nothing sends you a reminder.
The certificate arrives and the corporation exists. What doesn't arrive is a list of what the CRA and your province now expect from it, because the obligations start on their own triggers, not on a schedule anyone sends you.
The bill for that shows up later, and it's usually interest and penalties on something that would have taken ten minutes to set up at the right moment.
First year, start to finish
Seven stages of first-year tax setup.
Each item says what triggers it, what the deadline is, and what the penalty is for being late, with a link to the CRA or provincial source behind it.
Business Number & program accounts
What you actually get when the corporation is created, and which accounts still have to be opened by hand.
GST/HST
When registration becomes mandatory rather than optional, and what choosing to register early costs and buys.
Payroll & source deductions
What has to exist before the first paycheque, including your own, and the remittance schedule that follows it.
Corporate income tax (T2)
Picking a year end, what the first return covers, and the instalment question that catches most second-year corporations.
Money, records & the shareholder
Salary versus dividends, the shareholder loan account, and the records that make either defensible later.
Provincial & other registrations
The registrations that sit outside the CRA entirely and are easy to miss because nothing prompts you for them.
Deadlines & ongoing
What recurs every year once the setup is done, and what the penalty is for each one arriving late.
Capital Toolkit is an automated service. It provides general information, not legal, tax or accounting advice, and it does not replace your own lawyer or accountant. Have a qualified professional review any document before you rely on it, sign it or file it.
Rates, thresholds, and deadlines change every year. Confirm the current figures using the official sources linked inside the tool, and take anything specific to your situation to your own CPA.
What the tool gives you.
Triggers and deadlines
Each item states what starts the clock rather than just naming the account, because the trigger is the part people miss.
Official sources
Every requirement links back to the CRA or provincial page it came from, so you can confirm the current figure yourself.
Progress that persists
Work through it across several sittings. Progress is stored in your own browser on that device, never sent to us, no account involved.
The shareholder questions
Salary versus dividends and the shareholder loan account are covered as setup decisions, not afterthoughts, they're easier to get right early.
Beyond the CRA
The provincial registrations that sit outside the CRA entirely, which are the easiest to miss because nothing prompts you for them.
Haven't incorporated yet?
This checklist deliberately starts after the Certificate of Incorporation. The Incorporation Checklist covers everything before it. The two are meant to be worked in sequence.
Questions people ask first.
Find out what you've missed.
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