Course

Self-Employed in Canada

Your first year of books, taxes and getting paid, with every figure read at the CRA page it came from and dated. Canada edition, September 2026.

4 modules · 15 lessons

1. 1.Do you have to charge GST/HST?

   The threshold, what it actually measures, and the two tests that run on different clocks.

   • The CA$30,000 threshold, and what it countsNot a calendar year. Not your profit. Four consecutive calendar quarters of revenue, counted wider than you expect, and for one group it does not apply at all.free
   • Two tests, two clocksCrossing in one quarter and crossing over four have different dates and different consequences.3 checks
   • What actually changes the day you crossYou become a collector of somebody else's money, you gain the right to claim it back, and your invoices acquire rules most people never read.4 checks

2. 2.The dates that cost money

   Filing and paying are different deadlines, and the gap between them is where the interest lives.

   • File in June, pay in AprilThe most expensive misunderstanding in Canadian self-employment, in one sentence. Then the two separate charges people mistake for each other.4 checks
   • CPP, the bill nobody expectsYou pay both halves. On CA$60,000 of net income that is CA$6,723.50, and it is the line that surprises people in their first April.3 checks
   • Instalments need two conditions, not oneA first profitable year almost never triggers them, which is the opposite of what people fear. Then three ways to work out what to pay, and only one of them cannot be your fault.5 checks
   • If you are employed as wellThe most common shape of a first year, and it changes both of the numbers this module just taught you.3 checks
   • When your GST/HST return is dueYour filing frequency is assigned by your revenue, you can sometimes choose a different one, and an annual filer can still owe money four times a year.4 checks

3. 3.What you can actually deduct

   Three deductions that nearly everybody has, and the conditions each one really carries.

   • Business use of homeTwo conditions and you need only one. Then a calculation most people never do, and a rule that decides the answer in a first year.3 checks
   • The carYou do not claim a rate per kilometre. You claim a share of what the car actually cost you, and the logbook decides the share.3 checks
   • Meals, and the fifty per cent ruleHalf of the lesser of two numbers. But the fifty per cent is the second question, there are six ways out of it, and one of them is the freelancer's.4 checks

4. 4.The rate, and the Quick Method question

   Charging the right amount, and deciding whether the shortcut is open to you.

   • Not everything is taxable, and zero is not exemptThree categories, not two. The difference between zero-rated and exempt decides whether you get your own GST back, and most freelancers with foreign clients are in the category they have never heard of.3 checks
   • Which rate do I charge?It depends on where your customer is, one province's rate changed recently, and the thing that actually decides it is an address you either collected or did not.5 checks
   • Can you use the Quick Method?A real simplification, closed to a large part of the freelance audience, and worth money to a narrower group than the articles suggest.5 checks
   • What this course does not knowOne deliberate blank, and how to tell a dated course from an abandoned one.2 checks

This course is for education and planning only. It is not financial, legal or tax advice, and EmpireSheets is not a regulated adviser. Rules, rates and thresholds change: every figure here names the official page it was read from, and anything time sensitive should be checked against that source before you act on it. Canada edition, September 2026.