If you've got any questions that aren't answered here, or you'd like to talk to someone about your refund now, Chat Live online with our staff visa instant messenger.

FAQs for Residents

How do I know if I need to file a Canadian tax return?

You must file a tax return if any of the following situations apply:


  •  You have to pay tax.
  •  Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) sent you a request to file a return
  •  You and your spouse or common-law partner elected to split pension income
  •  You received Working Income Tax Benefit (WITB) advance payments
  •  You have to contribute to the Canada Pension Plan (CPP)
  •  You are paying Employment Insurance premiums on self-employment and other eligible earnings
Even if none of these requirements apply, you may still want to file a return if any of the following situations apply:
  •  You want to claim a refund
  •  You want to claim the WITB.
  •  You want to apply for the GST/HST credit (including any related provincial credit).
  •  You or your spouse or common-law partner want to begin or continue receiving Canada Child Tax Benefit payments
  •  You want to carry forward or transfer the unused part of your tuition, education, and textbook amounts

When do I have to file my Canadian tax return?

There are a number of dates during the year when Canadian tax returns are due to be filed or payments are due to be paid:
Income tax return
Generally, your return for 2016 has to be filed on or before April 30, 2017.

Self-employed persons
If you or your spouse or common-law partner ran a business in 2016 (other than a business whose expenditures are primarily in connection with a tax shelter), your return for 2016 has to be filed on or before June 15, 2017. However, if you have a balance owing for 2016, you still have to pay it on or before April 30, 2017.

GST/HST credit payments
If you qualify for GST based on the information on your 2016 income tax return, GST/HST credit payments are generally issued on the 5th day of each quarter.

July 5, 2016
October 5, 2016
January 5, 2017
April 5, 2017

Canada Child Tax Benefit payments
Benefits are paid over a 12 month period from July of one year to June of the next year. Generally, payments are made on the 20th of each month

CCTB payment dates

July 20, 2016
August 19, 2016
September 20, 2016
October 20, 2016
November 18, 2016
December 13, 2016
January 20, 2017
February 20, 2017
March 20, 2017
April 20, 2017
May 18, 2017
June 20, 2017

Will I get a tax refund?

You may. We find that one in three Canadian citizens or residents have overpaid tax and is eligible to claim a tax refund. Taxback.com will get you back as much overpaid Canadian tax as is legally possible.

You can get a refund if you:

  • had too much tax withheld;
  • paid more installments than necessary; or
  • are eligible to claim extra refundable credits.

The average refund we get for our Canadian tax clients is $1104.

When can I expect my tax refund?

You can watch the step-by-step progress of your application on your online account.

It'll go something like this:
Once we get your documents it takes us just 2 working days to prepare your Canadian tax return. This involves:

  • Receiving and checking the documents
  • Estimating your refund
  • Completing your forms
  • Sending them to the tax office / Preparing your return

The Canadian Revenue Agency can process returns filed electronically in as little as eight business days. For other returns it can take 4-6 weeks.

How does taxback.com work?

Here's how our easy three-step service works:
1. Register online or use our FREE tax refund calculator and then download the TaxPack for Canadian tax returns.
2. Send us your documents and signed forms. We'll estimate your refund and give you an online tracking account. If you're missing any documents we can get replacements for you.
3. Pay our fee.
4. Relax while we prepare and file your tax return.

How do I know what's happening with my tax return?

You can follow the progress of your Canada tax return on your online tracking account. This allows you to see every step of your application. As soon as we have your refund we'll contact you to sort out the best way to get your money straight to you.
Rather talk to a human being? We have our own taxback.com staff available to talk to you in 27 taxback.com offices in 20 different countries. Click here to find your local office number or use our Live Chat.

What are the advantages of using taxback.com?

Thousands of people choose our service because:

  • We get you the maximum legal refund
  • FREE online refund estimations
  • Every customer gets a Personal Online Tracking Account you can follow your tax return every step of the way
  • All our Canadian tax returns are legal and compliant with Canada's tax laws.
  • Document retrieval service
  • 24-hour customer support and tax refund help
  • Free phone, free fax, free post, free online tax help with our live chat!
  • No language barriers - our services are available in: Bulgarian, Chinese, Chinese-Taiwanese, Croatian, Czech, Dutch, English, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Spanish, Thai, Turkish, and Ukrainian.

How much will it cost?

Canadian Tax Services for Canadians

Fee payment is required upfront and additional fees may apply for more complicated tax returns.

Tax Return Service Fee
Individual TR Filing fee- Basic $85
Individual TR Filing fee- Advanced $125
Individual TR Filing fee- Advanced +SE $150
Extra Volume fee- if over 20 receipts $20
Investment and rental income TR filing fee $300
Family TR filing fee basic $135
Family TR Filing fee- Advanced $210
Family TR Filing fee- Advanced +SE $270

I'm missing some of the documents I need to apply for my tax refund. What can I do?

We know it's easy to lose documents or to not even receive them in the first place. That's why we have a dedicated document retrieval team who deal with employers all over the world and can organise replacement documents for you.
You'll find a declaration form authorising us to do this in your Canada TaxPack, or if you no longer have it, click here to download another one.

What slips or documentation am I likely to receive?

Slips or documentation are prepared by your employer, payer, or administrator. You should have received most of your slips and receipts by the end of February. If you have not received, or have lost or misplaced a slip for the current year, you have to ask your employer, or the issuer of the slip, for a copy.
The following is a list of some of the slips you may receive:

  • T4, Statement of Remuneration Paid
  • T4A, Statement of Pension, Retirement, Annuity, and Other Income
  • T4A(OAS), Statement of Old Age Security
  • T4A(P), Statement of Canada Pension Plan Benefits
  • T4E, Statement of Employment Insurance and Other Benefits
  • T4RSP, Statement of RRSP Income
  • T5007, Statement of Benefits
  • RC62, Universal Child Care Benefit statement
  • RC210, Working Income Tax Benefit Advance Payments Statement

What is a final payslip?

We can use either your final payslip or your T4 to claim back Canadian tax for you. Your final payslip is the payslip attached to your last pay cheque. It shows your earnings and how much tax you've paid.
If you don't have your final payslip or your T4, our document retrieval team can help get copies for you.

I can't find my Social Insurance Number - what can I do?

To claim your Canadian tax rebate we'll need your Social Insurance Number. If you don't have it, ask your employer or slip preparer as they should have a record of your number.

Can I do it myself?

Every tax office in the world is set up to accept applications directly from taxpayers so yes, you can file your return yourself. The reality is though once you submit it, there's no updating process and no feedback until you get a yes or a no, which is frustrating and very worrying.
Preparing your Canadian tax return will involve getting all the tax forms and trying to put all the information together properly and it's not as easy as it looks.
The tax system in Canada is very complex and filing their own tax return is a challenge that many Canadian citizens don't even attempt themselves. With our service, you can rest assured that your tax return is correct and above all, compliant. You can also check if you’re due a tax refund by using the FREE online refund calculator

What's the difference between filing my tax return and getting my tax refund?

We file your Canadian tax return in order to organise your tax refund.
A tax return is the annual submission of tax forms documenting your earnings, taxes paid, deductable expenses and allowances that you send to the tax office for review. They review it according to the information submitted by your employer and the current laws that apply to your case.
If you get a tax refund, this means the tax office review found you had overpaid tax and were due some back.
Our estimate of your refund is based on our prediction of what the tax office will decide when they review your tax return - providing they have the same information as us.

Can you guarantee that I'll receive the refund amount you estimated for me?

No, but we do guarantee to get you the most money back that we legally can.
Our estimate is based on your documents and our experience in filing thousands of tax returns every week since 1996. Naturally, the Canadian tax authority has the final decision in your tax refund based on their systems and tax codes.

FAQs for Non-Residents

When can I get my tax back?

The Canadian tax year is from January 1st to December 31st and you have up to ten years to claim a tax refund from Canada.

For 2016 Canada tax refunds: If you're working in Canada this year we can apply for your tax refund from mid February 2017. Register online today and send us your documents when you finish work so we can claim your tax back as soon as possible.

For 2012 – 2015 Canadian tax refunds: If you worked in Canada anytime between 2012 and 2015 we can claim your Canadian tax back now! For years prior to 2012, please apply for your tax refund now and we will let you know if you meet the Tax Office's requirements for a tax refund. For years prior to 2012, get in touch and we will check if you meet the Tax Office’s requirements for a tax refund.

How much money will I get back?

Taxback.com will get you back as much overpaid Canadian tax as is legally possible. That amount depends on factors like:

  • Your visa
  • Your earnings
  • How long you worked for
  • How much time you spent skiing instead of working

The average refund we get for our Canadian non-residents is $998.

Try our FREE online tax refund calculator to see how much cash you could get back!

How long will it take to receive my Canadian tax refund? Where's my refund?

As soon as we have it, you'll have it, because we contact you immediately when we receive your refund from the tax office to organise the easiest way to get it to you.

You can watch the step-by-step progress of your application on your online account. It'll go something like this:

Once we get your documents it takes us just one working week to prepare your Canadian tax return. This involves:

  • Receiving and checking the documents
  • Estimating your refund
  • Completing your forms
  • Sending them to the tax office

Once at the Canadian Revenue Agency, your application takes between two and six months for the tax office to process, depending on how busy they are. But don't worry - our tax team will keep chasing the tax office to see how your application is progressing.

As soon as the tax office sends us your refund we'll contact you to sort out the best way to get your cash straight to you.

The total estimated time for your Canadian tax rebate is 2-6 months.

How do I know what's happening with my tax return?

You can follow the progress of your Canada tax return on your online tracking account. This allows you to see every step of your application. As soon as we have your refund we'll contact you to sort out the best way to get your money straight to you.

Rather talk to a person? We have our own taxback.com staff available to talk to you in 27 taxback.com offices in 20 different countries. Click here to find your local office number or use our Live Chat.

What are the advantages of using taxback.com?

Thousands of people choose our service because:

  • We get you the maximum legal refund
  • FREE online refund estimations
  • Every customer gets a Personal Online Tracking Account – you can follow your tax return every step of the way
  • All our Canadian tax returns are legal and compliant with Canada's tax laws.
  • Document retrieval service
  • 24-hour customer support and tax refund help
  • Free phone, free fax, free post, free online tax help with our live chat!
  • Multi-lingual service
  • Money sent worldwide and in your local currency.

How much will it cost?

Canadian Tax Services for non-Canadians

No upfront fee payment is required. Essentially, you never have to put your hand in your pocket as we only deduct our fee from the refund amount once it has been secured from the tax office.

For Canadian tax refunds we charge per tax year 12,5% + handling fee of the refund received subject to a minimum fee of $62,50 + handling fee.

If you require document retrieval services for your Canada tax refund, our fee for this is CA$20 + handling fee per document.

Oops - I lost my documents/Help - I never got my documents – what do I do?

We know it's easy to lose documents in the move back home or to not even receive them in the first place. That's why we have a dedicated document retrieval team who deal with employers all over the world and can organise replacement documents for you.

You'll find a declaration form authorising us to do this in your Canada TaxPack, or if you no longer have it, click here to download another one.

What is a T4?

To file your Canadian tax return we'll need either your T4 or your final payslip. The T4 is the official government form you'll receive from your employer at the end of the tax year. It outlines your earnings and the amount of tax you paid. You should receive it by the end of February but if you don't, it's no problem - our document retrieval team can sort it out for you.

What is a final cumulative payslip?

We can use either your final cumulative payslip or your T4 to claim back Canadian tax for you. Your final cumulative payslip is the payslip attached to your last pay cheque. It shows your year-to-date earnings and how much tax you've paid.

If you don't have your final cumulative payslip or your T4, our document retrieval team can help get copies for you.

Help! I don't have my Social Insurance Number - what do I do?

To claim your Canadian tax rebate we'll need your Social Insurance Number. If you don't have it, ask your employer or visa sponsor as they should have a record of your number. No luck? We might be able to get you an Individual Tax Number instead so contact us at canada@taxback.com to see what we can do for you.

Can I do it myself?

Every tax office in the world is set up to accept applications directly from taxpayers so yes, you can file your return yourself. The reality is though once you submit it, there's no updating process and no feedback until you get a yes or a no, which is frustrating and very worrying.

Preparing your Canadian tax return will involve getting all the tax forms and trying to put all the information together properly – and it's not as easy as it looks.

The tax system in Canada is very complex and filing their own tax return is a challenge that many Canadian citizens don't even attempt themselves.

Our taxback.com customers rely on us as technical professionals to file their Canadian returns and get their tax back. Our customers tell us they knew trying to file it themselves would lead to stress and a possible loss of money in refunds. They'd rather focus on their university courses, their day-job or, more importantly, on their skiing.

It's easier for you to let us put our years of experience filing tax returns to good use by doing all the work for you. It makes sense to use an expert.

Just use our FREE online refund calculator to see how much tax you could get back.

I worked abroad in other countries - can you help me to claim refunds from these countries?

Absolutely! We've been organising tax refunds for people working all over the world since 1996. We provide tax refunds for 16 different services. Visit our website to learn more.

Can you guarantee that I'll receive the refund amount you estimated for me?

No, but we do guarantee to get you the most money back that we legally can.

Our estimate is based on your documents and our experience in filing thousands of tax returns every week since 1996. Naturally, the Canadian tax authority has the final decision in your tax refund based on their systems and tax codes.

When our tax technicians prepare and file your return, they check for any allowances or benefits you could get and ensure we apply for the maximum rebate possible.