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Canada’s 2026 tax season will officially start later this month with a small number of tax changes for individuals but a long list of new digital services meant to streamline the tax-filing experience.
The dearth of new tax measures reflects Prime Minister Mark Carney’s restrained first federal budget, which largely maintained the status quo on individual federal income taxes and benefits.
At the same time, the slew of new digital resources for tax-filers comes in response to Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne’s 100-day plan late last year to reduce call centre delays and lift service standards at the Canada Revenue Agency.
Here’s what Canadians should know as the new tax season gets under way.
Key dates
Feb. 23, 2026. Canadians will be able to file their 2025 tax returns online from Feb. 23, although most people will have to wait a little longer before they’ve received all the tax slips they need to file.
Anyone who hasn’t received all their slips by the end of March should contact issuers – such as their employer or their bank – directly to ask for a copy of the missing paperwork, the CRA said on its website.
April 30, 2026. There are no weekends interfering with tax-filing deadlines this year. Most Canadians will have to file and pay any taxes owed by April 30 to avoid penalties and interest.
June 15, 2026. Self-employed individuals must also pay by April 30 but have until June 15 to send in their tax returns.
Tax changes
A cut to the lowest federal personal income tax rate. The Carney government reduced the lowest marginal rate to 14 per cent from 15 per cent at the start of July of last year. Since the tax cut happened in the middle of the year, the full-year marginal rate for 2025 works out to 14.5 per cent.
A temporary top-up tax credit. Lowering the first individual tax rate would have also normally decreased the rate used to calculate most non-refundable tax credits, such as tax breaks for tuition and medical expenses. These are credits that reduce the amount of tax owed but don’t generate a tax refund.
In rare circumstances, a taxpayer may be eligible to claim those credits on amounts larger than the income threshold of the first tax bracket ($57,375 in 2025). In this scenario, the decrease in the value of the tax breaks could have exceeded the savings from the recent tax cut.
To avoid this, Ottawa introduced a temporary top-up credit that maintains a 15-per-cent rate for those non-refundable credits on any amounts exceeding $57,375 for 2025. The top-up will continue to be in place until the 2030 tax year.
New digital services
Reducing the need to call CRA. The tax agency has rolled out new digital self-help options in hopes of reducing the volume of calls – and wait times – at its call centres this tax season.
One example of this: Canadians locked out of their online CRA accounts can now reset their login credentials online, without needing to call an agent.
To beef up the security of online accounts, the agency has also made it mandatory to enroll in multi-factor authentication, a system that provides passcodes as an additional layer of protection on top of a user’s password. Canadians can obtain passcodes through an authenticator app, by calling or texting an automated phone line, or by obtaining a unique passcode grid.
Canadians will also be able to set up payment plans online, without speaking to a collections officer, if they owe $1,000 or more in taxes or in some benefit overpayments.
As well, the CRA said its artificial-intelligence-powered chatbot can now answer an expanded range of tax questions, which the agency hopes will help reduce calls to its call centres.
Doing away with paper copies. Canadians and their tax accountants can no longer call the CRA to request a paper copy of their tax slips, including the T4s that record employment income. Instead, taxpayers will have to contact their tax-slip issuers directly or look up digital copies in their online CRA accounts.
The tax agency also said Canadians will no longer receive a copy of their notices of assessment through their tax software. Instead, digital notices of assessment and reassessment will be available only through their CRA account once their return is processed.
People who don’t have an online account, have never shared their email with CRA or have chosen to receive paper copies of their tax assessments will continue to receive them via mail, the agency said.
Editor’s note: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated the CRA is doing away with mailing paper copies of notices of assessments and reassessments. People who don't have an online account, have never shared their email with CRA or have chosen to receive paper copies of their tax assessments will continue to receive them via mail. However, digital copies will no longer be available through tax software.
