Who has to file a return

Who has to file a return

File a 2025 return if:

• The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) sent you a request to file a return

• You have to pay tax or want to claim a refund

• You or your spouse or common-law partner want to begin or continue receiving credits and benefits, such as:

  • the Canada child benefit (CCB) and related provincial and territorial benefits

  • the goods and services tax ? harmonized sales tax (GST/HST) credit and related provincial and territorial credits and benefits

  • the guaranteed income supplement (GIS)

• You want to claim the Canada workers benefit (CWB) and receive advanced Canada workers benefit (ACWB) payments

• You and your spouse or common-law partner are jointly electing to split pension income (see line 11500)

• You disposed of capital property (which may be a principal residence) or realized a taxable capital gain in 2025

• You have to repay all or part of your old age security (OAS) benefits or employment insurance (EI) benefits

• You have not repaid all of the amounts that you withdrew from your registered retirement savings plan (RRSP) under the Home Buyers' Plan (HBP) or Lifelong Learning Plan (LLP)

• You have to contribute to the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) for 2025 since the total of your net self-employment income plus pensionable employment income is more than $3,500

• You are paying EI premiums on self-employment income or other eligible earnings

• You incurred a non-capital loss in 2025 that you want to be able to apply to other years

• You want to transfer unused tuition fees or carry forward an unused tuition amount to a future year

• You want to report income that would allow you to contribute to an RRSP, a pooled registered pension plan (PRPP), or a specified pension plan (SPP) to keep your RRSP deduction limit for future years up to date (see Schedule 7, RRSP, PRPP, and SPP Contributions and Transfers, and HBP and LLP Activities)

• You opened a first home savings account (FHSA) in 2025 or a previous year and want to keep your FHSA participation room up to date (see Schedule 15, FHSA Contributions, Transfers, and Activities)

• You want to carry forward the unused investment tax credit on expenditures that you incurred in 2025

• You want to report income that will allow you to increase your Canada training credit limit

Deceased persons

If you are the legal representative (executor, administrator, or liquidator) for the estate of a person who died in 2025, you may have to file a 2025 return for that person.

Send the legal document that names you as the legal representative, such as a complete copy of the will, grant of probate, or letters of administration, to the CRA.

If there is no legal document naming a legal representative, you may request to be the representative by completing Form RC552, Register as Representative for a Deceased Person.

Send the document to the CRA online using Represent a Client or by mail to the tax centre of the person who died.

For more information, go to canada.ca/taxes-deceased.

Residential ties

To determine an individual's residency status, all of the relevant facts in each case must be considered, including residential ties to Canada and the length of time, purpose, intent, and continuity of the stay while living inside and outside Canada.

Significant residential ties

These ties to Canada include:

• a home in Canada

• a spouse or common-law partner in Canada

• dependants in Canada

Secondary residential ties

These ties to Canada may be relevant in determining your residency status and can include:

• personal property in Canada, such as a car or furniture

• social ties in Canada, such as memberships in Canadian recreational or religious organizations

• economic ties in Canada, such as Canadian bank accounts or credit cards

• a Canadian driver's licence or Canadian passport

• health insurance with a Canadian province or territory

For more information, see Income Tax Folio S5-F1-C1, Determining an Individual's Residence Status.

Factual residents

You are a factual resident of Canada for tax purposes if you keep significant residential ties in Canada while living or travelling outside Canada.

Non-residents

You are a non-resident for tax purposes throughout any period that all of the following apply:

• You normally live in another country

• You do not have significant residential ties in Canada

• You are not a deemed resident of Canada

Deemed non-residents

You are a deemed non-resident of Canada if you would have been considered a resident of Canada (or deemed resident of Canada) but you are instead considered a resident of another country under a tax treaty between Canada and the other country.

The rules that apply to non-residents of Canada also apply to deemed non-residents of Canada. This means you complete your return the same way as a non-resident of Canada.

Deemed residents

You may be considered a deemed resident of Canada for tax purposes if you were not a factual resident of Canada (because you did not have significant residential ties to Canada) and either of the following apply:

• At any time in 2025, you were living outside Canada and were a government employee, a member of the Canadian Forces including their overseas school staff, or working under a Global Affairs Canada assistance program

  Note
  

  In certain circumstances, this can also apply to the family members of an individual who is in one of these situations.

• You stayed in Canada for 183 days or more in the tax year and are not considered a resident of another country under the terms of a tax treaty between Canada and that country

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