Interest on overdue tax is charged at 7% for the quarter running 1 July to 30 September 2026, compounded daily, and it is not deductible. Penalties stack on top. Nothing stops accruing while you argue, so the order of operations matters: pay or secure the balance, then fight it.
Our charges include applicable taxes. Disbursements are extra and billed at cost — itemized upfront, in writing, never hidden.
From $563.87 taxes included
Arrears interest is the prescribed rate plus four percentage points. For 1 July to 30 September 2026 that means 7% on overdue income tax, GST/HST and payroll amounts. The Canada Revenue Agency resets it every quarter, and because it compounds daily, an old balance grows faster than the headline rate suggests.
The late-filing penalty is separate from interest and separate from not paying. File late with a balance owing and you are charged 5% of that balance, plus 1% for each complete month the return is late, to a maximum of twelve months. If the CRA had demanded the return and you were already charged a late-filing penalty in any of the three preceding years, it doubles: 10% plus 2% per month, to a maximum of twenty months.
That is why the standard advice is to file on time even when you cannot pay. Filing on time with a balance owing costs you interest. Filing late costs you interest plus a penalty calculated on the same balance.
The repeated failure to report income penalty applies where you omit income from a return and also omitted income in any of the three preceding years. It is a federal penalty calculated on the unreported amount, with a provincial counterpart, and an alternative calculation caps it in some cases. It catches ordinary people with T-slips they forgot rather than tax planners.
The gross negligence penalty is the serious one: 50% of the understated tax or overstated credit, imposed where you knowingly, or in circumstances amounting to gross negligence, made a false statement or omission. The CRA bears the burden of proving it, which is exactly why it is worth challenging rather than accepting.
There are also instalment interest and an instalment penalty for taxpayers required to pay by instalment, penalties for failing to file foreign property and foreign affiliate information returns, and director's liability for a corporation's unremitted source deductions and net GST/HST.
Taxpayer relief lets the CRA waive or cancel penalties and interest where the failure arose from circumstances beyond your control, from CRA delay or error, or from an inability to pay. Serious illness, a death in the family, a natural disaster, and financial hardship are the usual grounds. There is a ten-year limitation: the CRA can only go back ten calendar years from the year the request is made, so an old debt loses relief options every 31 December.
The Voluntary Disclosures Programme is the route where amounts were never reported at all. It was rebuilt effective 1 October 2025 around two tiers. An unprompted disclosure — made before the CRA contacts you about the specific issue — attracts full penalty relief and 75% interest relief. A prompted disclosure attracts up to full penalty relief and 25% interest relief. Taxpayers under audit or investigation remain ineligible, so the window closes the moment a letter arrives.
The third route is simply that the tax is wrong. If the assessment overstates what you owe, interest and penalties calculated on it are overstated too. That is a notice of objection, not a relief application. For an individual or a graduated rate estate the deadline is the later of one year after the filing-due date for the year and 90 days after the day the notice of assessment was sent; for every other taxpayer it is 90 days after the day the notice was sent.
For income tax, the CRA generally cannot begin collection action until 90 days after the notice of assessment is sent, and filing an objection generally suspends collection while the dispute is live. That protection does not extend to GST/HST or to payroll source deductions, where the CRA can act immediately. Businesses discover this the hard way.
Where the CRA can act, its powers do not require a court order: garnishing wages and receivables through a requirement to pay, freezing bank accounts, registering liens against property, and in the right circumstances obtaining a jeopardy order to move before the usual waiting period expires.
A negotiated payment arrangement stops enforcement but not interest. If the balance is large, it is usually cheaper to borrow commercially at a lower rate and pay the CRA out than to carry the debt at 7% compounded daily. Our tax consult is $563.87, taxes included, and includes a written memo setting out which relief route fits your facts.
Seven percent for the quarter from 1 July to 30 September 2026, compounded daily. The rate is the prescribed rate plus four percentage points and the CRA republishes it every quarter, so it can change on 1 October. Interest charged on overdue tax is not deductible, which makes the effective cost higher than the rate suggests. Interest runs from the balance-due date regardless of whether you filed on time and regardless of whether you are disputing the assessment.
Yes, at its discretion, under the taxpayer relief provisions. The usual grounds are circumstances beyond your control such as serious illness, a death in the family or a natural disaster; CRA error or delay; and inability to pay or financial hardship. Requests are limited to the ten calendar years preceding the year the request is made, so relief for older periods expires each 31 December. A refusal can be challenged, but by judicial review in the Federal Court rather than in the Tax Court.
Yes, always. Filing and paying are separate obligations with separate consequences. If you file on time and pay late, you owe interest. If you file late with a balance owing, you owe interest plus 5% of the balance plus 1% per month up to twelve months — and double that if the CRA demanded the return and penalised you in any of the three prior years. A late return also delays benefit payments and refunds you may be entitled to.
It is a penalty of 50% of the tax you understated or the credit you overstated, imposed where the CRA says you made a false statement knowingly or in circumstances amounting to gross negligence. It requires more than carelessness. The CRA carries the burden of proving the facts justifying it, which makes it one of the more winnable disputes — courts regularly reduce or vacate these penalties where the taxpayer was disorganised or badly advised rather than deliberately dishonest.
Often more so. Since 1 October 2025 the programme turns on whether your disclosure is unprompted or prompted. Unprompted disclosures get full relief from penalties and 75% relief from interest. Prompted disclosures — where the CRA has already made contact about potential non-compliance — can still get up to full penalty relief and 25% interest relief, which was not previously available. Being under audit or investigation still disqualifies you, so the value of moving early has not changed.
Open your file tonight — a licensed Ontario lawyer will confirm everything with you by tomorrow.