A few tax moves only work if they happen before the year ends. Here is a short checklist for 2026. Most of these deadlines fall on December 31, and one important one does not.

Charitable donations. Donations must be made by December 31, 2026 to count on your 2026 return, so keep the official receipts. Donating publicly traded shares that have gone up in value can be better than donating cash. The gain on the shares is not taxed, and you still get a receipt for the full value.

Tax loss selling. If you hold investments in a regular, non-registered account that are worth less than you paid for them, selling them creates a capital loss. That loss can offset capital gains from 2026 or from the three previous years. Trades settle one business day after they are placed, so Wednesday, December 30 is the last day to sell and have it count for 2026. Do not buy the same investment back within 30 days before or after the sale. That includes a purchase by your spouse, or a purchase inside your RRSP or TFSA. The loss can be denied under the superficial loss rule.

RESP contributions. Contributions to a child’s RESP by December 31 earn this year’s Canada Education Savings Grant. The grant adds 20 percent on the first $2,500 contributed per child, up to $500 a year. If you missed earlier years, you can catch up, but only one year at a time.

First Home Savings Account. If you plan to buy a first home and have not opened a First Home Savings Account, open one before December 31. Your $8,000 of annual room only starts once the account is open, and up to $8,000 of unused room carries forward. Contributions are deductible, and a qualifying withdrawal to buy a first home is tax free.

Tax instalments. If you pay your tax by instalments, the last quarterly payment for 2026 is due Tuesday, December 15. Paying on time avoids instalment interest, which CRA charges daily and which you cannot deduct.

RRSP contributions. This deadline is not December 31. Contributions made up to Monday, March 1, 2027 can still be deducted on your 2026 return. Check your notice of assessment or CRA My Account for your exact contribution room before you contribute.

TFSA room. There is no TFSA deadline. If you took money out of your TFSA in 2026, that room comes back on January 1, 2027, and new annual room is added the same day. Check your total room in CRA My Account before you top up, because the CRA figure can lag behind your recent transactions.

None of this needs to wait for tax season. A short review in December is usually cheaper than a missed deadline in April. If any of these apply to you and you are not sure how, get advice before the deadline passes.

Budget 2026 was tabled on November 5. These are proposals. They are not law yet, and details can change.

The filing date changes. From the 2027 tax year, everyone files and pays by May 15. Your 2026 return is still due April 30, 2027, or June 15, 2027 if you are self-employed.

Instalments get simpler. From 2028, you only pay instalments if your net tax owing is over $7,500. That is up from $3,000.

Some claims get simpler. From 2027, set flat amounts replace receipts and detailed calculations for several claims. Moving expenses and the Home Accessibility Tax Credit are $1,000 each. The adoption claim is $1,200 and the Labour Mobility Deduction for tradespeople is $1,500. Under the medical expense credit, a service dog is $2,000 and incontinence products are $500. The clergy residence deduction is $1,000 a month. One starts sooner: a flat $1,000 claim for celiac disease applies from 2026.

If you care for a family member, the Canada Caregiver Credit becomes refundable from 2027. You can get up to $1,260 a year, even if you owe no tax.

If you are a low income worker, the new Build Canada Workers Benefit pays up to $1,859 for a single person and $3,143 for a family from 2027. You qualify with as little as $500 of earnings. Advance payments will shrink, so plan to wait until filing time for the full amount.

Business owners should note the new Canada Growth Incentive. It can shelter up to $15 million of capital gains per person, per business, on qualifying shares issued from November 5, 2026. Strict conditions apply, and professional practices are excluded.

If you run a massage therapy practice, qualifying services are proposed to be GST and HST exempt from November 6, 2026. The law is not passed yet, so do not change how you bill until it is.

If you pay a non-resident, the CRA has changed the NR4 slip for 2026.

Box 13 is now only for the recipient’s Canadian tax identification number. A new Box 30 has been added for the recipient’s foreign tax identification number, from the recipient’s country of residence.

This affects Canadian payers who report payments to non-residents on NR4 slips, such as rent paid to a non-resident landlord, royalties, dividends and similar payments subject to non-resident withholding.

The practical point is simple. Collect the foreign tax identification number from each non-resident payee now, while there is time. NR4 slips for 2026 payments are due by March 31, 2027, and tracking down a foreign tax number in March is a lot harder than asking for it today.

For the last three years, bare trusts got a break. The CRA did not require bare trusts to file a T3 return and Schedule 15 for the 2023, 2024 or 2025 tax years.

That break is over. For tax years ending on or after December 31, 2026, a bare trust that is a reportable trust must file a T3 return with Schedule 15 beneficial ownership information. Most bare trusts have a December 31 year end, so the first returns are due March 31, 2027.

A bare trust is an arrangement where one person holds legal title but another person is the real owner. Common examples are a parent on title to a child’s home for financing, a corporation on title to real estate owned by someone else, and an in-trust-for account for a child or grandchild.

Some bare trusts are exempt. The main exceptions are trust property with a total fair market value of $50,000 or less throughout the year, and a $250,000 throughout the year exception where the trustees and beneficiaries are all related individuals and only certain asset types are held.

The tax itself does not change. Income is still taxed in the hands of the real owner. This is a filing obligation, and penalties apply if it is missed.

If property is held this way in your family, now is the time to sort it out, well before the March 31, 2027 deadline.

You can claim this refundable income tax credit if you meet all of the following conditions:

• You rented and occupied a rental unit for at least six months in a calendar year in British Columbia
• You are 19 years of age or older, or married or in a common-law partnership, or a parent of a child
• You were a resident of British Columbia at the end of December 31 of the year for which you are claiming the credit

If you have a spouse or common-law partner, only one credit can be claimed per couple even if both rent their own homes.

You are not eligible for this credit if any of the following conditions apply:

• You were confined to a prison or a similar institution at the end of the year and you have been confined for more than six months in total for the year that you are claiming the credit
• You were an employee of a foreign country or a family member or a servant of the employee of a foreign country

The following amounts are not considered as rent for the purposes of the credit:

• Rent that was paid to someone related to you
• Rent paid for a campsite, moorage or manufactured home site
• Rent on accommodations your employer paid for, unless the amount was included in your income for the year
• Rent paid under a rent-to-own plan

Do not claim this credit on a return for a person who died in the year for which the credit is claimed.

For 2026, you can claim the credit of $400 a year if your adjusted family net income is below $66,189. If your income is more than $66,189 and less than $86,189 you may receive a reduced amount. The tax credit is reduced by 2% of the amount by which your adjusted family net income exceeds $66,189. The credit is reduced to zero if your income is $86,189 or more. The income thresholds are indexed each year for inflation.

The British Columbia renter’s tax credit cannot be claimed on your pre-bankruptcy or in-bankruptcy return.

How to claim this credit: Claim this credit on Form BC479 for the year that you rent your rental unit.

Selling your business to your children used to cost more tax than selling to a stranger. Section 84.1 of the Income Tax Act turned the gain into a taxable dividend when shares were sold to a corporation controlled by a child, and it blocked the lifetime capital gains exemption.

Bill C-208 changed that in 2021, but it left loopholes. Parliament replaced those rules in Bill C-59. For dispositions on or after January 1, 2024, a sale to a child’s corporation gets capital gains treatment, and access to the lifetime capital gains exemption, only if it is a genuine intergenerational transfer that meets strict conditions.

There are two ways to qualify.

An immediate transfer must be completed within 36 months. Legal and factual control pass to the child at closing. The parent must dispose of the remaining common shares within 36 months and transfer management of the business to the child within 36 months.

A gradual transfer can take five to ten years. Legal control passes at closing, and the parent’s remaining economic interest must fall to no more than 30 percent of its value at the time of sale, or 50 percent for a family farm or fishing corporation, within ten years.

Under both paths, at least one child must be actively engaged in the business on a regular, continuous and substantial basis. Child is defined broadly and can include grandchildren, nieces and nephews, and their spouses. The parent and the child must file a joint election with the CRA on Form T2066. If the conditions fail later, the relief can be lost and the gain taxed as a dividend, and the CRA has an extended reassessment period for these transfers.

These rules are detailed and the deadlines are strict. If you are planning to pass your business to the next generation, get advice before you sign anything. We will structure the transfer so it qualifies.

The CRA has expanded the Home Buyer Amount tax credit from $5,000 to $10,000. What does this mean in real dollars? The result of a $10,000 credit is a tax refund or tax savings of $1,500. I have heard many people refer to this as the first time home buyer amount. This is simply not true. You qualify for this tax credit as long as you have not owned a home in the year of purchase and the four previous years. There are some additional considerations and conditions.

The details of this Line 31270 tax credit claim can be found here

If you aren’t sure you can always ask us.