Canada-wide research · verified 7 September 2026

Start a business in Canada: the complete research guide

Starting a business in Canada is four decisions, not one form: a legal form, a jurisdiction, federal and provincial tax registrations, and an address that survives a registry and a bank. This hub routes you to the guide that matches where you live and where the business will actually operate.

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Direct answer

Opening a business in Canada means settling five things: a legal form, a jurisdiction of formation, federal tax registrations, the provincial layer where you actually operate, and a bank that will accept the entity you built. Two questions decide almost everything else. Are you inside or outside Canada, because immigration status, a Social Insurance Number, director residency, Canadian-controlled private corporation status, corporate tax residency and identity verification all turn on it? And where will the business actually operate, because that province's registry, sales-tax regime, payroll body and licences apply regardless of where you incorporated? Federal incorporation costs $200 online and takes about a day, but it does not replace provincial registration in any province where you conduct business, and the federal rule requiring resident-Canadian directors has no equivalent in twelve of the thirteen provinces and territories today.

Sources checked September 7, 2026. Registries, the CRA and every bank decide each file on its own terms.

Direct answer

Opening a business in Canada means settling five things: a legal form, a jurisdiction of formation, federal tax registrations, the provincial layer where you actually operate, and a bank that will accept the entity you built. Two questions decide almost everything else. Are you inside or outside Canada, because immigration status, a Social Insurance Number, director residency, Canadian-controlled private corporation status, corporate tax residency and identity verification all turn on it? And where will the business actually operate, because that province's registry, sales-tax regime, payroll body and licences apply regardless of where you incorporated? Federal incorporation costs $200 online and takes about a day [1], but it does not replace provincial registration in any province where you conduct business [3], and the federal rule requiring resident-Canadian directors has no equivalent in twelve of the thirteen provinces and territories today [2].

Three caveats shape everything below. Incorporating in Canada is not permission to work in Canada. A Canadian registered office does not make a corporation Canadian-controlled for tax purposes. And no page, including this one, can tell you that a specific bank will open a specific account.

This hub is a routing page. It carries the tables that only make sense across all fourteen jurisdictions at once — director residency, first-year government cost, transparency regime, sales tax, filing channel — and then hands you to the guide that goes fourteen thousand words deep on the one you picked. Nothing here is a substitute for that guide; every figure in every table below is repeated on the jurisdiction's own page with the same official source.

Which track are you on

The cluster splits at the top because the decision trees genuinely diverge, not because the pages needed a category. A founder who lives in Montreal and a founder who lives in Mumbai are not doing the same task with different paperwork; they are answering different questions in a different order.

	Founder inside Canada	Founder outside Canada
Who this is	Citizens, permanent residents, and work- or study-permit holders whose permit authorizes work	Non-residents with no Canadian status, and residents of Canada's tax treaty partners
First question	Which jurisdiction and legal form fit the business	Whether the founder needs to be in Canada at all, and what the corporation's tax residency will be
Usual blockers	Provincial licences, payroll registration, workers' compensation	Director residency, identity verification, tax residency, banking
What decides the jurisdiction	Where the customers, staff and premises are	Which registry will accept a wholly non-resident board and what local footprint it demands instead
Start here	Start a business in Canada from inside Canada	Start a business in Canada from abroad

The seven points where the tracks diverge

1. Immigration status is separate from ownership. Owning or directing a Canadian corporation is not work authorization. IRCC's business-visitor rules require that you not plan to enter the Canadian labour market and that your main place of business, source of income and profits stay outside Canada; someone who plans to stay beyond six months or to work may be a temporary worker who needs a work permit [10]. Entrepreneur immigration is a separate track again, and the federal door is currently shut: IRCC states that the Start-up Visa Program "was paused on June 30, 2026" and that it will continue to process applications accepted before that date [11]. Any guide that presents the Start-up Visa as an open door was written before that date. Provincial nominee entrepreneur streams are the surviving route, and they are enumerated by jurisdiction further down this page.

2. A Social Insurance Number follows status, not incorporation. The SIN is the nine-digit identifier needed to work in Canada or access government programs and benefits. Temporary residents receive a SIN beginning with 9 that expires with their immigration documents; a non-resident with no Canadian status has no route to one through incorporating a company [12]. Registrations and accounts that assume a director has a SIN are a common surprise on Track B.

3. Director residency is decided by the statute you incorporate under — and the provinces have almost entirely abandoned it. Federally, section 105(3) of the Canada Business Corporations Act requires that at least twenty-five per cent of directors be resident Canadians, and section 105(3.1) that where a corporation has fewer than four directors at least one be a resident Canadian; ownership-restricted and certain cultural sectors require a majority [20] [2]. The provincial picture now runs the other way, which is the opposite of what most older guides say. Reading all thirteen provincial and territorial statutes for this cluster produced one surviving quota: Manitoba, where at least 25% of directors must be residents of Canada and a board of three or fewer must include one [18]. Everywhere else the answer is none — sometimes because the rule was repealed (Ontario 2021, Alberta 2021, Newfoundland and Labrador 2022, Saskatchewan on the 2021 Act), sometimes because it never existed. The full table with each statute section is below. For a founder with no Canadian-resident director available, this one point frequently decides between federal and provincial incorporation.

4. Canadian-controlled private corporation status is a control test, not an address test. The CRA describes a CCPC as, in general terms, a private corporation resident in Canada that is not controlled directly or indirectly by one or more non-resident persons or public corporations; its own worked example shows a corporation failing the test because a 60% shareholder is not a resident of Canada [8]. Because the small business deduction and the enhanced SR&ED credit ride on that status, foreign ownership changes the tax arithmetic before it changes anything else. The size of the gap is concrete: the CRA quotes a 9% federal net rate for a CCPC claiming the small business deduction on up to $500,000 of active business income, against a 15% net general rate [23]. Six federal points on the first half-million is the price of losing CCPC status, before any province is counted.

5. Corporate tax residency can attach in two directions. Subsection 250(4) deems a corporation incorporated in Canada after 26 April 1965 to be resident in Canada throughout the tax year. Separately, at common law a company is resident where its central management and control is actually exercised, usually where the board meets, judged on the facts rather than on what the articles say [7]. A founder abroad can therefore create a Canadian-resident corporation by incorporating here, and a foreign corporation can become Canadian-resident by being run from here. Treaties can reverse the result.

6. Permanent establishment decides which province taxes you. A permanent establishment is usually a fixed place of business, but it also arises through an employee or agent with general authority to contract, or a stock of merchandise from which orders are filled. Critically, a corporation that would not otherwise have a permanent establishment anywhere is deemed to have one at the place designated in its incorporating documents or bylaws as its head office or registered office [9]. The registered-office address is therefore a tax fact, not only a mailing convenience — and under the CBCA that office must be in the province named in the articles, with any change filed within fifteen days [21].

7. Bank onboarding is an identity problem before it is a business problem. FINTRAC requires reporting entities, including banks and credit unions, to verify the identity of persons and entities, and sets out the permitted methods: government-issued photo identification, credit file, dual process, affiliate or member, and reliance, with separate methods for entities [13]. The photo-identification method assesses an authentic, valid and current document, and when done in person it is assessed in the presence of the person being identified. That single design constraint is why travel questions dominate Track B, and why no page can promise a remote account opening.

Which jurisdiction for which founder

Most "best province to incorporate" content answers a question nobody has: which jurisdiction is best in the abstract. There is no such jurisdiction. There are founder profiles, and each one has a small number of constraints that eliminate most of the map. Below are the profiles this cluster's fourteen guides were written for. Every recommendation is a routing suggestion built on the cited facts further down this page — read the linked guide before acting, because each profile has exceptions the matrix cannot hold.

Founder profile	The binding constraint	Where it usually points	Why	Read next
Canadian resident, one province, one office	Nothing unusual binds	Incorporate provincially where you operate	One registry, one annual return, no extra-provincial layer. Provincial incorporation costs less than federal plus registration in most provinces	Track A
Canadian resident, customers in several provinces	Name protection and multiple registries	Federal, plus registration in each province of business	Federal incorporation gives name rights across Canada for $200 [1] but never removes the provincial duty [3]	Federal vs provincial
Non-resident, wholly non-resident board, no Canadian director available	Director residency	Any jurisdiction except federal and Manitoba	Federal s. 105(3) [20] and Manitoba s. 100(3) [18] are the only two residency quotas left of fourteen	Track B
Non-resident who also wants no local agent or lawyer	Local-footprint substitute	British Columbia, Ontario, Nunavut	These require a registered office in the jurisdiction but no attorney for service, resident agent or lawyer's certificate; Alberta, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia, Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador and PEI each impose one	Four-province comparison
Non-resident who wants the ownership register to stay private	Transparency regime	Alberta, Northwest Territories, Nunavut	These three have no individuals-with-significant-control register at all; federal filings are partly published and Quebec's ultimate beneficiaries are publicly searchable by name [22]	Track B
Selling goods or services to consumers in one province	Sales-tax administration	Alberta or a territory if the customers are there; otherwise wherever they are	Alberta, Yukon, NWT and Nunavut have no provincial sales tax layer, so one GST return replaces two filings — but the rate follows the customer's province, not yours [6]	Sales-tax comparison
Founder seeking permanent residence through the business	Immigration intake, not corporate law	British Columbia, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, PEI, Newfoundland and Labrador, NWT	These have open entrepreneur intakes. Ontario's are closed, Saskatchewan's are permanently closed, Manitoba accepts EOIs but is not drawing, Nunavut has no program at all, and the federal Start-up Visa is paused [11]	The immigration table below
Founder whose business must be in Quebec	Language, registration and beneficiary transparency all bind at once	Quebec, and only Quebec	A Québec address, post-office box or telephone line is itself an activity trigger for registration [14], and Quebec is the one jurisdiction where beneficial owners are public	Quebec guide
Cost-minimising founder with no other constraint	First-year government fees	Ontario, or federal	Ontario charges $300 to incorporate and nothing for the annual return; federal is $200 plus $12. See the cost table below	The cost table below
Founder who needs the certificate this week	Filing channel and processing	Federal, Ontario, British Columbia	Federal completes in one business day, or four hours for $100 more [1]. NWT and Nunavut have no online incorporation channel at all	The filing-channel column below
Founder who will hire in the first year	Payroll and workers' compensation are provincial	Wherever the employees physically are	Neither the incorporating jurisdiction nor the registered office moves this: the employee's province decides the workers' compensation body and the employer registrations	Track A
Founder with no operations anywhere yet	Deemed permanent establishment	Choose deliberately, not by convenience	A corporation with no permanent establishment anywhere is deemed to have one at the registered office named in its incorporating documents [9], so the address you picked for mail decides which province taxes you	Federal vs provincial

Two profiles this matrix deliberately does not serve. The founder looking for a jurisdiction that will not tell any government who owns the company: the three jurisdictions with no transparency register still file shareholder or director information with their registrar, and the CRA is a separate matter entirely. And the founder looking to incorporate as a route to a visa: no province's corporate registry has any connection to immigration intake, and the entrepreneur streams below all require the founder to actually live in and manage the business.

Federal or provincial

The five-line version. Federal incorporation under the Canada Business Corporations Act gives one legal person with name rights across Canada, costs $200 online and completes in about a day, with four-hour express service for $100 more [1]. It does not exempt you from provincial registration: provincial and territorial legislation requires a federal corporation to register in each jurisdiction where it conducts business, and Corporations Canada's own examples of conducting business include having an address, a post-office box or a phone number in a province, or offering services or products there [3]. Provincial incorporation means one registry instead of two if you will genuinely operate in one province only — and, for a founder with no Canadian-resident director, it is the way around the federal 25% board rule [20]. The choice does not settle tax: the corporation is taxed where it has a permanent establishment, whoever chartered it [9].

The arithmetic that surprises people is that federal is not the cheap option once the province is counted. Federal incorporation plus extra-provincial registration in British Columbia is $200 [1] plus $350 [52], against $350 to incorporate in British Columbia directly — and it produces two annual returns instead of one. The one province where federal is unambiguously cheaper on entry is Ontario, which charges nothing to register an extra-provincial corporation and nothing for the annual return [46]. There is a second lane worth knowing: British Columbia, Manitoba and Saskatchewan corporations registering into Alberta under the New West Partnership Trade Agreement pay no Alberta registration fee, a concession keyed to the home jurisdiction and unavailable to a federal corporation [65].

The full comparison, including the cases where two registries are cheaper than one, is in federal versus provincial incorporation.

Every jurisdiction, every cell

Three tables cover the fourteen jurisdictions between them. Each figure is the one the jurisdiction's own guide verified against the source cited beside it, on 6 or 7 September 2026. All amounts are Canadian dollars and are government fees only — no registry-agent markup, no lawyer, no name-search cost unless stated.

Registry, filing channel and government fees

Jurisdiction	Registry	Online filing	Incorporation fee	Annual-return fee
Federal (CBCA)	Corporations Canada	Yes — direct, one business day, or four hours for $100 more [1]	$200 [1]	$12 [22]
Ontario	Ontario Business Registry	Yes — direct through the Ontario Business Registry [72]	$300 [46]	$0 — form ON00229E carries no fee [47]
British Columbia	BC Registries and Online Services	Yes — direct [73]	$350 [52]	$43.39 annual report [53]
Alberta	Alberta Corporate Registry	Partial — the founder cannot file directly; filings go through an authorized registry agent [74]	$291.75 government portion [51]	$53.05 government portion [51]
Quebec	Registraire des entreprises du Québec	Yes — direct [76]	$397 [45]	$106 annual updating declaration [45]
Saskatchewan	Corporate Registry, run for the province by Information Services Corporation	Yes — direct [71]	$255 [50]	$60 [50]
Manitoba	Manitoba Companies Office	Yes — direct [48]	$350 [48]	$65 [49]
Nova Scotia	Registry of Joint Stock Companies	Yes — direct [42]	$200 [42]	$118.35 annual renewal [43]
New Brunswick	Service New Brunswick Corporate Registry	Yes — direct [77]	$262 [44]	$60 [44]
Prince Edward Island	Corporate and Business Names Registry, Department of Justice and Public Safety	Yes — through the OCBR portal [40]	$215 [40]	$30 [41]
Newfoundland and Labrador	Registry of Companies, Digital Government and Service NL	Yes — through Companies and Deeds Online [75]	$270 electronic, $300 on paper [39]	$90 [39]
Yukon	Professional and Corporate Affairs, Department of Community Services	Partial — the Yukon Corporate Online Registry does not cover every filing [78]	$300 [54]	$100 [55]
Northwest Territories	Corporate Registries, Department of Justice	No — filings are submitted on paper or by email, not through a portal [70]	$300 [56]	$150 [56]
Nunavut	Nunavut Legal Registries, Corporate Registries	No — completed forms are emailed as PDFs; there is no online filing portal [69]	$300 [57]	$70 [57]

Two cells deserve reading twice. Alberta is the only jurisdiction where a founder cannot file with the registry at all: incorporation runs through an authorized registry agent, so the $291.75 above is the government portion and the agent's own fee sits on top of it and is not published anywhere central [74]. And the two "no" rows are not a formality — in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut the absence of a portal changes the realistic timeline from a day to weeks, which matters more to most founders than the fee does.

Director residency and the local footprint demanded instead

This is the table the hub previously could not fill. Now that all thirteen provincial and territorial guides are published, every cell carries its own statute section. Read the two columns together: a jurisdiction that drops the residency quota usually replaces it with a different local requirement, and for a founder abroad the second column is the one that costs money.

Jurisdiction	Director residency rule	Statute section	Local footprint required instead
Federal (CBCA)	At least 25% resident Canadians; at least one where the board is fewer than four. A majority in ownership-restricted and certain cultural sectors	s. 105(3), 105(3.1) [20]	Registered office in the province named in the articles; change filed within 15 days. No agent for service [21]
Ontario	None — the 25% rule was repealed by 2020, c. 34, Sched. 1, s. 5	s. 118(3), repealed [15]	Registered office at a physical Ontario location; a post-office box alone is not acceptable. No attorney for service, no lawyer's certificate [15]
British Columbia	None — the qualification section never contained one	ss. 120, 124 [16]	Both a registered office and a records office in BC (they may share an address), each publicly accessible 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on business days, never a post-office box [52]
Alberta	None — s. 105(3) reads "Repealed 2020 c25 s1", in force 29 March 2021	s. 105(3), repealed [17] [19]	An agent for service who is a "resident Albertan" — a citizen or permanent resident ordinarily resident in Alberta — plus a physical Alberta registered office open in normal business hours [17]
Quebec	None — any natural person not disqualified under the Civil Code may be a director	s. 108 [29]	Head office permanently in Québec with the corporate records kept there; a registrant with no Québec domicile, establishment or business address must designate an attorney residing in Québec [29]
Saskatchewan	None at any fraction — the board may live entirely outside Canada	ss. 9-6(1), 9-6(3), 20-17 [30]	A power of attorney appointing an individual residing in Saskatchewan to accept service, where no director or officer resides there; plus a physical Saskatchewan registered office, never a post-office box [30]
Manitoba	At least 25% residents of Canada; a board of three or fewer must include one — so a sole director must be a resident of Canada	ss. 100(3), 100(3.1) [18]	Registered office within Manitoba at all times; the ISC register kept there or elsewhere in Manitoba [18]
Nova Scotia	None — the Companies Act imposes none; "resident" appears only in the ISC tax-residence clause	Companies Act, no residency provision; s. 46B(1)(b) [31]	A recognized agent resident within the Province, plus a registered office in Nova Scotia from the earlier of the day business begins or the 28th day after incorporation [43]
New Brunswick	None — s. 63(1) disqualifies only minors, the incapable, non-individuals, bankrupts and those convicted of specified offences	s. 63(1), with ss. 60(2), 60(4) [32]	Registered office within New Brunswick at all times, and it cannot be a post office box; records kept there or elsewhere in the province [32]
Prince Edward Island	None — the only disqualifications are age, unsound mind, non-individual and bankruptcy	s. 80, with ss. 81(2)–(3), 88(2) [33]	A certificate completed by a practising, PEI-resident member of the Law Society of PEI must accompany the notice of directors at incorporation and on every board change, where no director resides on the Island 183 consecutive days a year [33]
Newfoundland and Labrador	None — s. 174, headed "Residency requirement", was repealed outright with effect from 1 April 2022	s. 174, repealed by SNL 2021 c. 26, s. 4; ss. 168, 172, 173 survive [34]	Registered office in the province — the Registry states that Canada Post outlets, UPS stores and comparable retail outlets are not accepted — and every extra-provincial company files a power of attorney naming an individual resident in the province [34]
Yukon	None — s. 106(1) disqualifies only non-individuals, minors, the incapable and undischarged bankrupts	s. 106(1), with ss. 106(1.1)–(1.2) [35]	Registered office at a physical Yukon address at all times; the mailing address may be a post-office box but the registered office may not. Only a public corporation may keep a separate records office [35]
Northwest Territories	None — the Act imposes no resident-Canadian requirement	ss. 102(2)–(3), 106(1) [36]	Physical address in the NWT community named in the articles, publicly accessible in normal business hours; accounting records held outside the NWT must still be duplicated at an NWT records office quarterly [36]
Nunavut	None — s. 106(1) disqualifies only non-individuals, minors, persons under a trusteeship or involuntary-admission order, and undischarged bankrupts	ss. 102(2)–(3), 106(1) [37]	A specific civic address in Nunavut on Form 2 — a post-office box is expressly not sufficient. No attorney for service and no resident agent is required at all [57]

The pattern is worth stating plainly, because almost every secondary source still gets it backwards. Twelve of the fourteen jurisdictions impose no director-residency requirement at all. The two that do are the federal CBCA and Manitoba. But nine of those twelve replace the quota with a local-footprint duty that a founder abroad must actually satisfy: an Alberta resident agent, a Quebec attorney, a Saskatchewan attorney for service, a Nova Scotia recognized agent, a Newfoundland and Labrador power of attorney, a PEI lawyer's certificate, or a records office that must physically exist in the province. Only Ontario, British Columbia, Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut ask for nothing more than an address in the jurisdiction — and an address is not nothing, because it is also the deemed permanent establishment [9].

Sales tax and the ownership-transparency regime

The sales-tax column follows the province of supply, not the province of incorporation, so read it as "what my customers here will be charged", not "what my company pays". The transparency column is the one foreign founders most often discover late: three jurisdictions have no beneficial-ownership register at all, one publishes beneficial owners by name, and the other ten sit in between with an internal register nobody files.

Jurisdiction	Sales-tax regime	Combined rate	Who administers the provincial layer	Ownership-transparency regime
Federal (CBCA)	n/a — the rate follows the customer's province	n/a	n/a	Register kept and, since 22 January 2024, ISC information also filed with Corporations Canada, part of which is published. Filed at incorporation or within 30 days of amalgamation, again with each annual return, and within 15 days of a change [4] [68]
Ontario	HST	13% [6]	CRA — one return	Internal ISC register at the registered office. Not filed, not public; disclosed on request to police, tax officials and listed regulators [15]
British Columbia	GST + PST	12% (5 + 7) [6]	Province administers PST separately [59]	Transparency register of significant individuals in the company's own records office. Not filed, not public; new information recorded within 30 days [38]
Alberta	GST only	5% [6]	No provincial layer at all	None. No ISC register, no beneficial-ownership filing. The only ownership record is the internal securities register; the annual return names the top five shareholders of record, not beneficial owners [17]
Quebec	GST + QST	14.975% (5 + 9.975) [6]	Revenu Québec administers the GST in Quebec as well as the QST [58]	The only public one. Ultimate beneficiaries are declared to the Registraire, entered in the enterprise register, and the register is searchable by a natural person's name [64]
Saskatchewan	GST + PST	11% (5 + 6) [6]	Province administers PST separately [61]	Internal register kept in Saskatchewan, refreshed annually, updated within 15 days; not public. But the annual return lists every shareholder of record with name, address and holdings [30]
Manitoba	GST + PST	12% (5 + 7) [6]	Province administers retail sales tax separately [60]	Internal ISC register at the registered office or elsewhere in Manitoba, reviewed at least once each financial year; never filed publicly [18]
Nova Scotia	HST	14% since 1 April 2025 [6]	CRA — one return	Internal ISC register at the registered office; not filed with the Registrar but disclosed to the Registrar on request [31]
New Brunswick	HST	15% [6]	CRA — one return	Internal ISC register at the registered office; disclosed to the Director or a prescribed investigative body on request, never filed [32]
Prince Edward Island	HST	15% [6]	CRA — one return	Internal ISC register, refreshed annually and updated within 15 days. PEI also files shareholder information with every annual return, and a new corporation files an initial shareholder list within 60 days [63]
Newfoundland and Labrador	HST	15% [6]	CRA — one return	Internal ISC register since 1 April 2022, confirmed at least once each financial year, new information recorded within 15 days, personal data destroyed within one year after the sixth anniversary of a person ceasing to be an ISC. Not a public database [34]
Yukon	GST only	5% [6]	No territorial layer	Newest regime in Canada. ISC register required from 1 June 2025, with existing corporations given until 1 June 2026 to build one. Kept internally, never filed, not public [62]
Northwest Territories	GST only	5% [6]	No territorial layer	None. A full-text reading of the consolidation, including every amendment to SNWT 2025 c. 2, finds no ISC register, no filing obligation and no public ownership register [36]
Nunavut	GST only	5% [6]	No territorial layer	None found, on a consolidation current only to 1 February 2015 with five later amending Acts unopened — a finding by absence, not a settled negative. Full-text searches for "significant control" and "beneficial owner" return only securities and proxy-voting provisions [37]

Do not read the "none" cells as privacy. Alberta and the Northwest Territories simply have no ISC regime, and Nunavut has none that this cluster could find in a consolidation eleven years stale; the registrar still receives director and shareholder-of-record information, the CRA still knows who controls the corporation for CCPC purposes [8], and a bank still has to identify beneficial owners under FINTRAC's entity methods before it opens an account [13]. What differs is the corporate-law filing, not whether the state can find out.

Entrepreneur immigration by jurisdiction

Founders arrive at this cluster for two different reasons that look identical in a search box: to start a company, and to move to Canada by starting a company. The second is an immigration question with no relationship to any corporate registry — no province's registrar consults the immigration department, and incorporating first can actively disqualify you in at least one territory. The federal route is currently shut: IRCC states the Start-up Visa Program "was paused on June 30, 2026", with the associated open work permit closed to new applicants since 19 December 2025 [11]. Two jurisdictions have no nominee program at all, which IRCC states directly [28].

Jurisdiction	Entrepreneur stream	Status	Published entry thresholds
Ontario	OINP entrepreneur category	Closed. "The OINP is changing. The new Ontario Workforce Priority stream has now launched, and all other streams are now closed" [79]	None publishable — the category exists in regulation but has no intake
British Columbia	BC PNP Entrepreneur Immigration — Base, Regional, Strategic Projects	Open, registration-based [80]	Base: net worth $600,000, investment $200,000, ownership ≥ 33.33%, one full-time job. Regional: net worth $300,000, investment $100,000, ownership ≥ 51%. Must intend to live within 50 km of the business
Alberta	AAIP Rural Entrepreneur, Graduate Entrepreneur, Foreign Graduate Entrepreneur, Farm	Open but rationed — the 2026 entrepreneur allocation is 60 nominations against 217 applications in process [81]	Rural Entrepreneur: net worth $100,000, investment $300,000, at least one full-time job. Alberta states you must live in Alberta and run the business day to day — "You may not do this remotely"
Quebec	Programme des entrepreneurs and Programme des travailleurs autonomes — not a PNP; Quebec selects its own immigrants and the federal Start-up Visa expressly excludes it	Open intake, but admissions are capped by Quebec's multi-year plan [82]	Business start-up stream: net worth $600,000, spending $300,000 in the Montreal metropolitan community or $150,000 outside, capital participation ≥ 25%. Oral French level 7 on the Quebec scale is required
Saskatchewan	SINP Entrepreneur and Farm Owner and Operator	Permanently closed — "Effective March 27, 2025, the Saskatchewan Immigrant Nominee Program has permanently closed all Entrepreneur and Farm immigration pathways" [83]	Not applicable. No successor, no review date; existing applications continue to be processed
Manitoba	MPNP Business Investor Stream — Entrepreneur and Farm Investor pathways	Open but not drawing. Expressions of interest are accepted, but "EOI draws for the Business Investor Stream are not currently being conducted", on an undated notice [84]	Entrepreneur: net worth $500,000, investment $250,000 in the Winnipeg Metropolitan Region or $150,000 outside, at least one job. Manitoba residence 80% of the time
Nova Scotia	NSNP Entrepreneur and International Graduate Entrepreneur	Open, by invitation only — EOI-based, within limited federal allocations [85]	Net worth $600,000, or $400,000 outside Halifax Regional Municipality; personal investment $150,000, or $100,000 outside HRM. Application fee $2,000 from 1 September 2026
New Brunswick	NBPNP Business Immigration stream	Open, EOI-based, with no notice restricting it [86]	Net worth $500,000, or $300,000 for agriculture; at least $150,000 in eligible investments; at least one full-time job; 65 of 100 on the selection grid
Prince Edward Island	PEI PNP Business Impact Category — Work Permit Stream	Active [87]	Verifiable net worth $600,000; invest at least $150,000 within 12 months of landing; operate at least 12 consecutive months; physical presence at least 274 days a year. Application fee $10,000, refundable if not accepted
Newfoundland and Labrador	NLPNP International Entrepreneur and International Graduate Entrepreneur	Open — "The Expression of Interest system is currently open" [88]	Net worth $600,000, investment $200,000 with ≥ 33.3% ownership, at least one full-time job, exploratory visit required from outside the province. No provincial application fee
Yukon	Yukon Business Nominee Program	Running, but whether intake is open is not published — the eligibility page publishes requirements only, and the nomination allocation is not published [89]	Net worth ≥ $500,000 including ≥ $300,000 liquid, both verified by a Yukon accounting firm; invest ≥ $300,000 in two years; 65 points. Capital invested before acceptance does not count, and applicants must not already have started the business
Northwest Territories	NTNP Business Stream	Open and expanding — the 2026 allocation was increased to 300 nominees, and the Business Stream evaluates first come, first served with no wait-list. A stale undated notice elsewhere on the same site still says the 2025 intake closed; confirm before relying on either [90]	Equity investment $200,000 inside Yellowknife or $100,000 outside; net worth $500,000 inside or $250,000 outside; ownership ≥ 33.3%; live within 100 km of the business and in the NWT at least 75% of the time
Nunavut	None exists	Nunavut has no provincial nominee program of any kind; IRCC states "Quebec and Nunavut don't have programs" [28]	Not applicable

The recurring constraint across every open stream is residence, not money. Alberta says the business may not be run remotely; PEI requires 274 days a year on the Island; the Northwest Territories requires 75% of your time in the territory and a home within 100 km of the business; Manitoba requires 80%; British Columbia requires intent to live within 50 km. A founder planning to own a Canadian company from abroad is not a candidate for any of them, and should read Track B instead, which deals with owning without moving.

What the first year actually costs in government fees

Every figure below is a government fee published by the jurisdiction that charges it. None of them includes a registry agent, a lawyer, an accountant, a name-search product, a bank charge or a mail-forwarding service, and none of them is a total cost of incorporating — it is the floor beneath one. Where a jurisdiction does not publish a figure, the cell says so rather than estimating.

"Year one, own jurisdiction" is what a corporation chartered in that jurisdiction pays to be created and to make its first annual filing. "Year one, federal corporation registering there" is what a CBCA corporation pays instead: $200 to Corporations Canada [1], $12 for its federal annual return [22], plus that province's extra-provincial registration fee.

Jurisdiction	Incorporate	First annual filing	Year one, own jurisdiction	Extra-provincial registration for a federal corporation	Year one, federal corporation registering there
Federal (CBCA)	$200 [1]	$12 [22]	$212	n/a — this is the chartering jurisdiction	n/a
Ontario	$300 [46]	$0 [47]	$300	$0 — no statutory fee for the initial return [46]	$212 — the only province where federal is cheaper on entry
British Columbia	$350 [52]	$43.39 [53]	$393.39	$350 [52]	$562
Alberta	$291.75 government portion [51]	$53.05 government portion [51]	$344.80 plus an uncapped, unpublished registry-agent charge	$291.75, or $0 for a British Columbia, Saskatchewan or Manitoba corporation under the New West Partnership Trade Agreement [65]	$503.75 plus the agent charge
Quebec	$397 [45]	$106 [45]	$503 — the most expensive province to charter in	$397 [45]	$609
Saskatchewan	$255 [50]	$60 [50]	$315	$255 [50]	$467
Manitoba	$350 [48]	$65 [49]	$415	$395 ($45 name reservation + $350 registration) [98]	$607
Nova Scotia	$200 [42]	$118.35 [43]	$318.35	Not published in any source this cluster verified — the Registry of Joint Stock Companies fee for an extra-provincial federal corporation could not be confirmed against an official page	Not calculable
New Brunswick	$262 [44]	$60 [44]	$322	$212 [44]	$424
Prince Edward Island	$215 [40]	$30 [41]	$245 — but see the caution below	$275 [91]	$487
Newfoundland and Labrador	$270 electronic, $300 paper [39]	$90 [39]	$360	$560 — the highest extra-provincial registration fee in Canada [39]	$772
Yukon	$300 [54]	$100 [55]	$400	$300 [54]	$512
Northwest Territories	$300 [56]	$150 [56]	$450	$500 [56]	$712
Nunavut	$300 [57]	$70 [57]	$370	$300 [57]	$512

Eight readings of that table that a fee list alone will not give you.

The spread is small and the decision is not about money. From $212 to $772, the entire first-year government cost of every route in Canada fits inside one month of a modest office rent. Choosing a jurisdiction on fees is choosing on the smallest variable in the problem. Director residency, the local-footprint duty, the sales-tax regime and where your customers are will each cost or save more in a year than the whole table.

Alberta's number is the only one that is not a number. The $291.75 is the government portion; Alberta requires the filing to go through an authorized registry agent, and no official Alberta page publishes what agents charge or a processing-time service standard for any Corporate Registry filing [74]. Alberta's total is genuinely unknowable in advance from published sources.

Prince Edward Island's incorporation fee is unreconciled. The registry's own instruction sheet states $215 [40] while the Business Corporations Regulations state $200 [41]. The PEI guide records the discrepancy rather than resolving it; confirm the amount in the OCBR portal at checkout.

Prince Edward Island's $275 is conditional, and the condition is common. A Canada corporation whose head office and chief place of business are both in PEI registers extra-provincially for $0, not $275, which makes its year-one federal total $212 rather than the $487 in the table. The fee applies in full to a federal corporation headquartered anywhere else. Tick the head-office box on the registry form. [91]

Nova Scotia's missing cell is a real gap, not an oversight. The Registry of Joint Stock Companies fee for registering an extra-provincial federal corporation could not be confirmed from an official page during this cluster's research, so the cell says "not published" and the total is not computed. Do not fill it from a law-firm table.

Yukon's two figures were carried forward, not re-fetched. Yukon's own sites and CanLII refused automated access during the verification pass, so the $300 and $100 come from an earlier research pass on this repo rather than from a fetch on 6 or 7 September 2026. Treat them as the least fresh numbers in the table and confirm with Professional and Corporate Affairs before relying on them.

Yukon's $300 is a fee for an obligation this cluster reports as disputed. Four other pages here record that the Yukon Business Corporations Act contains no federal exemption — s. 277(2) imposes the duty on "every extra-territorial body corporate", s. 276(2) is only a saving clause, and s. 280(4) exempts Canada corporations from a single section — while the registrar page that said otherwise has been retired. The table prices registration because that is the safe reading; get the position in writing from Yukon Corporate Affairs before relying on the alternative. [35]

Quebec's year-one cell is the one number in the table a founder will not actually pay. The column adds an incorporation fee to a first annual filing for every jurisdiction, which is what makes it comparable, but RE-101 note 5 provides that no annual registration fee is payable in the year following the year of registration. A Quebec corporation therefore pays $397 in its first year and nothing more, and its five-year registry cost is $397 + $0 + $106 × 3 = $715, not $397 + $106 × 5. [45]

The multi-year picture changes the ranking slightly. Over five years, a jurisdiction's annual filing fee matters more than its incorporation fee: Ontario at $0 a year, federal at $12, British Columbia at $43.39 and Alberta at $53.05 diverge sharply from the Northwest Territories at $150, Nova Scotia at $118.35 and Quebec at $106. A federal corporation registered in Ontario pays $12 a year in total, because Ontario charges nothing for the annual return and a CBCA corporation registered extra-provincially in Ontario files no Ontario annual return at all. A Quebec corporation pays $106 a year, and a corporation that is federal and registered in Quebec pays $118.

The sequence every founder follows, with the actual forms and deadlines

The order is not arbitrary. Each stage produces a record the next stage asks for, which is why founders who go to the bank first usually come back. The form names below are the ones the registries and the CRA actually use; where no official form number exists, the table says so instead of inventing one.

Stage	The filing, by its real name	Deadline	Where the tracks differ
1. Name	Federally, no separate Nuans report is ordered for an online word-name incorporation — the corporate name search is part of the application [1]	A federal name pre-approval is valid 90 days	Quebec applies French-language name rules; British Columbia requires a Name Request approved before the incorporation application, about 7 to 14 days standard [73]
2. Incorporation	Federally: articles plus Form 2, Initial Registered Office Address and First Board of Directors [67]. Ontario: ON00224E [46]. Alberta: REG3047 Articles of Incorporation, REG3016 Notice of Corporation Address, REG3017 Notice of Directors and REG3037 Notice of Agent for Service, all through a registry agent [74]. Nunavut: Form 2, emailed as a PDF [69]	Federal: one business day, or four hours for $100 more [1]. Ontario online: immediate; by mail 15 business days [46]. Quebec: two business days, one under priority treatment [76]. Alberta publishes no service standard at all [74]	Director residency binds here, and only federally and in Manitoba [20] [18]
3. Business number and program accounts	One nine-digit BN, with a two-letter program identifier and a four-digit reference number per account: RC corporate income tax, RT GST/HST, RP payroll, RM import-export, RZ information returns [5]	Open each account when its rule triggers, not in advance	The BN is issued automatically on incorporation in Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, PEI and Saskatchewan, and must be requested separately in Newfoundland and Labrador, the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Quebec and Yukon [5]
4. Provincial or extra-provincial registration	Ontario: initial return ON00231E for an extra-provincial corporation, $0 [46]. Quebec: declaration of registration, which assigns the NEQ [14]. Alberta: REG3055 Statement of Extra-provincial Registration [65]	Ontario 60 days after beginning to carry on business; Quebec 60 days after commencing activities; British Columbia within 2 months; Alberta before or within 30 days; Newfoundland and Labrador before you start [39]	An address, a post-office box or a phone number in a province can be enough to trigger the duty [3]; non-residents may additionally need an attorney for service
5. GST/HST registration	The RT program account	The small-supplier threshold is $30,000 in worldwide taxable supplies of the business and its associates. Exceed it in a single calendar quarter and the effective date of registration is the day of the supply that took you over; exceed it over four consecutive quarters and you stop being a small supplier at the end of the month following that quarter. Registration is due within 29 days of the effective date of registration [24]	In Quebec, Revenu Québec administers the GST as well as the QST, and the QST registration must be in place before your first non-small-supplier taxable supply [58]
6. Payroll and workers' compensation	The RP program account, then the provincial workers' compensation board separately	Register for the payroll account before the first remittance due date, which is the 15th day of the month following the month you began withholding. Not having the account does not suspend the obligation to calculate and remit [27]. T4 slips and the T4 Summary are due on or before the last day of February following the calendar year	A SIN is needed to work in Canada, and it follows immigration status [12]. Workers' compensation thresholds and deadlines differ in every province and are on the province guides
7. Licences	Federal, provincial, territorial and municipal permits according to the activity and the municipality, not the legal form	Varies entirely by activity	Identical for both tracks; the activity decides, not the founder's location
8. Bank and address	No form — the bank verifies the entity and the individuals behind it under FINTRAC's prescribed methods [13]	Set by the institution, not by law	This is where Track B stalls; see opening from abroad
9. Transparency filings	Federally, individuals with significant control information filed with Corporations Canada, plus the internal register [68]	Filed at incorporation or within 30 days of amalgamation or continuance, again with each annual return, and within 15 days of a change; the register itself updated within 15 days of the corporation becoming aware [4]	Three jurisdictions require nothing here; Quebec's equivalent is public. See the transparency column above
10. Annual return to the registry	Federal: annual return, $12, no form number published [22]. Ontario: ON00229E, $0 [47]. Quebec: déclaration de mise à jour annuelle [94]. British Columbia: annual report. Alberta: REG3062 Annual Return [95]	Federal: within the 60 days following the anniversary date, with no return in the year of incorporation [22]. Ontario: within six months after the taxation year end [47]. Quebec: the annual registration fee within two months of the fiscal year end, the declaration within six [94]. British Columbia: within two months after each anniversary of the recognition date [53]. Alberta: not later than the last day of the month following the anniversary month [95]	A federal corporation registered extra-provincially in Ontario files no Ontario annual return — but still owes a notice of change within 15 days [46]
11. Corporate tax return	T2, plus the provincial return where the province administers its own — Alberta's AT1, Quebec's CO-17	Within six months of the end of each tax year, and required even in a year with no activity [25]. The balance is due two or three months after year end: three only where the corporation was a CCPC throughout the year, claimed the small business deduction in the current or previous year, and stayed within the business limit [26]	A non-resident-controlled corporation is never a CCPC, so its balance is always due at two months, never three [8] [26]

Two deadlines in that table are the ones founders miss most often, and both have a statutory consequence rather than a fee.

The registry annual return is not the tax return, and Corporations Canada says so on its own page in as many words [22]. Filing a T2 does not file it. Under CBCA s. 212 the Director may dissolve a corporation that has defaulted for one year, and Corporations Canada's published practice adds a further notice period before doing so — but the end state is a dissolved corporation whose bank account and contracts are attached to a legal person that no longer exists. Quebec is harsher and faster: two consecutive years of missed annual declarations leads to ex officio cancellation of the registration, which for a Quebec legal person entails its dissolution [94].

The payroll account deadline is set by the remittance, not by the hire. You must register before the first remittance due date — the 15th of the month after the month you started withholding — and the CRA is explicit that not having the account does not excuse a late remittance; the penalty applies anyway [27]. A founder who hires on the 20th of a month has until the 15th of the next month, which is less time than it sounds.

Track A walks this sequence in start a business from inside Canada. Track B walks the same stages with the divergence points applied, in start a business from abroad.

What changed in 2025 and 2026

Almost every "how to incorporate in Canada" article in circulation predates the changes below. This section exists because a page that is merely accurate is not enough: a reader needs to know which of their existing beliefs are now wrong. Each item is dated, and each is verified on the jurisdiction guide it belongs to.

Programs that closed or paused

The federal Start-up Visa Program was paused on 30 June 2026. IRCC's own words: "The Start-Up Visa Program was paused on June 30, 2026. We'll continue to process applications we accepted before this date." The associated open work permit had already closed to new applicants on 19 December 2025 [11]. No restart date is published. This is the single most consequential correction in the cluster, because the Start-up Visa is the route most foreign founders have read about.

Saskatchewan permanently closed its entrepreneur and farm immigration pathways on 27 March 2025. Not paused — the province's word is "permanently", there is no successor stream and no review date, and only existing applications continue to be processed [83].

Ontario closed every OINP stream except one. "The OINP is changing. The new Ontario Workforce Priority stream has now launched, and all other streams are now closed" — and the surviving stream is employer-driven, with no entrepreneur or investor route [79]. The entrepreneur category still exists in Ontario's regulation, which is why stale guides still describe it; a regulation is not an intake.

Manitoba stopped drawing from its Business Investor Stream. Expressions of interest are still accepted and reviewed, but "EOI draws for the Business Investor Stream are not currently being conducted", on a notice carrying no date and no resumption date [84]. Treat it as neither open nor closed and confirm before spending anything.

Against that, one jurisdiction expanded: the Northwest Territories increased its 2026 nominee allocation to 300 in August 2026, and its Business Stream evaluates applications first come, first served with no wait-list [90]. Nova Scotia introduced a $2,000 entrepreneur application fee effective 1 September 2026 [85].

Rates that moved

Nova Scotia's HST fell from 15% to 14% on 1 April 2025 [6]. Any invoice template, quote or pricing page built before that date is charging the wrong rate, and any guide still saying 15% is stale. It is the only sales-tax rate change among the fourteen jurisdictions in this window.

Ontario's small-business corporate rate fell from 3.2% to 2.2% on 1 July 2026 [66]. Worth knowing because it is also a live example of why this cluster prefers the province that sets a rate over an aggregator: the CRA's own provincial rate table still showed 3.2% during this cluster's research pass, and the Ontario guide records the conflict rather than picking a number quietly.

Prince Edward Island raised its small-business limit to $600,000 and cut its general rate, effective 1 July 2025 [23]. PEI and Saskatchewan are now at $600,000 and Nova Scotia at $700,000, so three jurisdictions have a provincial business limit above the federal $500,000 — so the provincial and federal small-business limits are not the same number everywhere, which a single-limit mental model gets wrong.

British Columbia's Budget 2026 extends PST to certain professional services from 1 October 2026 [59]. A BC service business that has never registered for PST should re-read the rule rather than assume services stay out of scope.

Alberta introduced a data-centre levy on 1 January 2026 at rates up to 2% [93]. It does not disturb the headline fact that Alberta has no general provincial sales tax, but "Alberta has no provincial taxes on business" was always an overstatement and is now visibly one.

Transparency obligations that appeared

Yukon created an individuals-with-significant-control register on 1 June 2025, and gave corporations that already existed until 1 June 2026 to build one [62]. It is the newest such regime in Canada. A Yukon corporation incorporated before June 2025 whose owners have never heard of the obligation is now in default of it.

Corporations Canada began requiring CBCA corporations to file ISC information — not merely keep it — on 22 January 2024, and part of what is filed is published [4]. This is the change that most surprises founders who chose federal incorporation for its simplicity: federal is now the most disclosure-heavy corporate-law regime in the country outside Quebec.

Ontario has enacted, but not brought into force, a Corporations Information Act filing of ISC information. The provision is section 6.1, "Return re individuals with significant control", added by 2025, c. 15, Sched. 4, s. 1 and recorded by e-Laws as not in force, awaiting an order of the Lieutenant Governor in Council; no commencement date is published. It would require a corporation subject to OBCA section 140.2 to file prescribed ISC information with the Minister if the regulations so require, and would let the Minister pass all or part of it to the recipients section 140.3 already names. [97]. Ontario's register remains internal and unfiled today, but this is the change to watch.

Alberta ran a beneficial-ownership consultation from 12 August to 11 September 2025 and the results are under review [96]. Alberta's "no register at all" status is therefore a current fact, not a settled policy. A founder choosing Alberta for that reason is choosing something that a legislature is actively reconsidering.

Language and registration duties

Quebec's francization threshold dropped to 25 employees on 1 June 2025, and a separate duty appeared for enterprises with 5 to 24 employees to declare their French-language capability to the Registraire on registration or in the initial declaration [92]. Guides written against the old 50-employee threshold understate the obligation by half. The Quebec guide works through both duties and the signage rules that changed on the same date.

Fee schedules reissued

Quebec's Registraire tariff has been in effect since 1 January 2026 [45], Saskatchewan's Corporate Registry fee table since April 2026 [50], and Alberta's registry-agent product catalogue is the September 2026 edition [51]. No fetched Quebec page states an indexation rule, so do not assume the Registraire's fees rise every January — confirm the current edition.

One repeal from just outside this window still governs the whole director-residency picture: Newfoundland and Labrador's residency requirement, s. 174, was repealed with effect from 1 April 2022 [34], completing the sequence that began with Alberta in 2020 and Ontario in 2021. That is why the modern answer to "which provinces require a Canadian-resident director" is one province, not most of them.

Glossary of cross-jurisdiction terms

Canada has fourteen corporate-law vocabularies for roughly the same set of ideas, and the mismatch is a real source of error: a founder searching for the Ontario term finds a Quebec page, or assumes a British Columbia "records office" is the same thing as an Alberta "agent for service". These are the terms that mean different things, or have different names, depending on where you are.

Annual return. The registry filing that confirms who the directors are and where the office is. It is not a tax return, and Corporations Canada says so explicitly on its own page [22]. Quebec calls it the déclaration de mise à jour annuelle, and bundles it with the tax return by default [94]. British Columbia calls it the annual report, timed off the "recognition date" rather than a fiscal year end [53]. Nova Scotia calls it an annual renewal [43]. Missing it has a statutory consequence everywhere, and the consequence is dissolution, not a fine.

Registered office. The address on the public record where the corporation can be served and where its records live. Federally it must be in the province named in the articles [21]. Almost every jurisdiction requires it to be a physical location and forbids a bare post-office box — Ontario [15], New Brunswick [32], Saskatchewan [30], Alberta [17], Yukon [35], the Northwest Territories [36] and Nunavut [37] all say so. Newfoundland and Labrador's Registry goes further and names retail mail outlets as unacceptable [34]. Quebec calls the equivalent the head office, which must be permanently in Québec [29].

Records office. British Columbia is the jurisdiction that separates this from the registered office: a BC company maintains both, though they may share an address [52]. In Yukon only a public corporation may keep a separate records office [35]. Elsewhere the records simply live at the registered office or another place in the province the directors designate.

Agent for service, attorney for service, recognized agent, power of attorney. Four names for the same idea — a person in the jurisdiction who can accept legal documents — with materially different requirements. Alberta requires an agent for service who is a "resident Albertan", meaning a citizen or permanent resident ordinarily resident in Alberta [17]. Saskatchewan requires a power of attorney appointing an individual residing in Saskatchewan, but only where no director or officer resides there [30]. Nova Scotia requires a recognized agent resident within the Province for every corporation holding a certificate of registration [43]. Quebec requires an attorney residing in Québec only where the registrant has no Québec domicile, establishment or business address [29]. Newfoundland and Labrador requires a power of attorney naming a resident individual from every extra-provincial company [34]. Ontario, British Columbia, Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut require none. PEI requires something different again: not an agent, but a certificate signed by a PEI-resident practising lawyer whenever the notice of directors contains no Island resident [33].

Individual with significant control (ISC), significant individual, ultimate beneficiary. The person behind the shares. Federally and in most provinces the threshold is 25% of votes or of shares by fair market value, or control in fact [4]. British Columbia calls the same person a significant individual and adds the ability to elect or remove a majority of directors [38]. Quebec calls them the bénéficiaire ultime — ultimate beneficiary — and, uniquely, publishes them [64]. Alberta, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut have no term for it because they have no register.

Extra-provincial registration. Registering a corporation chartered elsewhere so it may carry on business in this jurisdiction. Ontario calls the filing an initial return under the Corporations Information Act; Quebec calls it a declaration of registration and issues an NEQ [14]; Alberta calls it a statement of registration [65]; the territories call the corporation extra-territorial rather than extra-provincial. The trigger is broader than founders expect: an address, a post-office box or a phone number in a province can be enough [3].

Business number and program account. One nine-digit number identifies the business; each tax account hangs off it with a two-letter identifier and a four-digit reference — RC for corporate income tax, RT for GST/HST, RP for payroll [5]. Quebec adds a second identifier entirely, the NEQ, issued by the Registraire and unrelated to the CRA's number [14].

Small supplier. The GST/HST status you hold until worldwide taxable supplies of the business and its associates exceed $30,000 [24]. It is not the same as any provincial threshold: British Columbia's small seller relief for PST is a different rule with a different number, and Quebec administers the QST alongside the GST through Revenu Québec rather than the CRA [58].

Canadian-controlled private corporation (CCPC). A tax status, not a corporate-law one: broadly a private corporation resident in Canada that is not controlled directly or indirectly by non-residents or public corporations [8]. No registry records it, no certificate confirms it, and a Canadian registered office does not create it.

Permanent establishment. The provincial tax concept, usually a fixed place of business, that decides which province taxes the corporation — and which is deemed to exist at the registered office named in the incorporating documents if it exists nowhere else [9]. Not to be confused with the treaty concept of the same name used for international allocation.

Resident Canadian. A defined term in the federal Act used for the director quota, and not a synonym for "lives in Canada" [20]. Manitoba's surviving quota uses the phrase "residents of Canada" instead [18]. Neither is the same as tax residency, which is a separate test under the Income Tax Act [7], and neither has anything to do with immigration status [12]. Three different meanings of "resident" apply to the same founder at the same time, and confusing them is the most common analytical error in this whole subject.

New West Partnership Trade Agreement (NWPTA). A mutual-recognition arrangement among British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba under which a corporation from one of those provinces registers in another without the registration fee — keyed to the home jurisdiction, so a federal corporation does not qualify [65].

How this research was produced

This cluster is built to a source ladder, and the ladder is the reason to trust or discard any given sentence. Tier 1 is the statute or regulation itself. Tier 2 is the registry that administers it. Tier 3 is the tax authority, tier 4 the immigration authority, tier 5 FINTRAC. Law-firm pages, accounting-firm summaries and incorporation-service comparison tables are used to find a rule and never to support one; several appeared in the searches behind this page with fee tables and residency summaries that are not reproduced here because no registry confirmed them.

Every page carries a verifiedOn date, and every fee, rate, threshold and deadline was fetched from an official page on that date rather than recalled. Where a value could not be verified, the page says so instead of estimating — which is why this hub contains the sentences "not published", "not calculable" and "carried forward, not re-fetched" rather than a tidy complete table. Each page has a source pack listing every URL fetched and what it establishes, and an evidence file mapping each claim to its source and recording discrepancies. Citations are re-checked monthly, because registry rules, tax rates and immigration programs change on their own schedule.

The hub's tables are assembled from the thirteen province and territory guides and the federal comparison rather than researched separately, so every figure here appears on a jurisdiction page with the same official source behind it. Where a province guide and an aggregator disagree, the hub follows the province guide; where a province and the CRA disagree, it follows whichever authority actually sets the number and says which is which. The full method, the source packs and the open questions are published at the cluster's research index.

What 2727 can and cannot support

2727 Coworking is a coworking space in Griffintown, Montreal. It sells private offices, desks, meeting rooms and a business-address service. That is the whole of what it can offer a founder, and it is worth being exact about the boundary.

A 2727 address can be a legitimate registered office for a federal or a Quebec corporation, because the registered office for those is in Quebec. It is a mailing and correspondence address for anyone. It is not a registered office for a corporation incorporated in Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta or any other province — those statutes require the registered office to be in that province, and no mail service changes that. The residency and local-footprint table above is the specific reason: Alberta wants a resident-Albertan agent for service [17], Nova Scotia a recognized agent resident in the province [43], PEI a certificate from an Island lawyer [33]. A Montreal address answers none of those.

2727 does not incorporate companies, file with any registry, give legal, tax or immigration advice, or open bank accounts. Nobody here can tell you that a registry, a bank or the CRA will accept any particular document, and this page makes no such claim. Note also that an address is not a neutral choice: a Québec address, post-office box or telephone line is itself listed as an activity trigger for Québec registration [14], and a registered office can be the deemed permanent establishment that determines which province taxes the corporation [9]. Choose an address for what it is, not for convenience.

The address-role material is at business address, the bank-by-bank research at business banking research, the two relevant scenarios at federal corporation and opening from abroad, and the non-resident overview at non-residents.

Research method and limitations

This page was researched and verified on 7 September 2026, building on the cluster-wide verification pass of 6 September 2026. Discovery used Exa semantic and keyword search; every landed fact was then fetched from the official page that establishes it — Corporations Canada, the Canada Revenue Agency, IRCC, Service Canada, FINTRAC, the Government of Québec, the thirteen provincial and territorial corporate registries, the provincial finance departments and the governing corporations statutes on each jurisdiction's own legislation site. The source pack lists every URL read.

What was not done matters as much. No incorporation was filed, no registry account was opened, no bank was applied to and no immigration application was submitted, so nothing here is tested against a real file. The tables above are assembled from the published province and territory guides rather than re-fetched item by item on this page's own verification date; where a sibling guide flagged a figure as unverified, this page repeats the flag rather than quietly dropping it.

Specific limits carried onto this page. Nova Scotia's extra-provincial registration fee for a federal corporation is not published in any source the cluster verified, so the first-year total for that route is not computed. Yukon's $300 incorporation and $100 annual-return figures come from an earlier research pass on this repo, because yukon.ca, laws.yukon.ca and CanLII all refused automated access during the verification window. Prince Edward Island's incorporation fee is unreconciled between the registry's instruction sheet at $215 and the regulations at $200. Alberta publishes no processing-time service standard for any Corporate Registry filing and no registry-agent price, so Alberta's true cost and timeline are unknowable in advance from official sources. Nunavut's extra-provincial registration deadline could not be verified because gov.nu.ca refused automated access. The Alberta consolidation consulted is current to December 2023 and the Nunavut consolidation to 2015, with later amending Acts checked separately. Manitoba's Business Investor Stream notices carry no dates at all, and the Northwest Territories site simultaneously advertises an expanded 2026 allocation and an undated notice that the 2025 intake closed.

Not asserted anywhere on this page: provincial corporate income-tax rates other than the two changes noted in the 2025–2026 section, municipal licence costs, workers' compensation thresholds, NUANS pricing, registry-agent charges, and any end-to-end timeline from incorporation to a funded bank account — no government source publishes one, so anyone quoting a total is estimating.

This is educational planning material, not legal, tax, accounting, immigration or banking advice.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need to be a Canadian citizen or resident to own a Canadian company?

No. Ownership and immigration status are separate questions. What ownership by non-residents does affect is director residency under the statute you incorporate under, and Canadian-controlled private corporation status for tax, which the CRA describes as requiring that the corporation not be controlled directly or indirectly by non-resident persons or public corporations [8].

Do I need a Canadian-resident director?

Federally, yes in most cases: section 105(3) requires at least 25% resident Canadians, and 105(3.1) at least one where the board has fewer than four [20]. Provincially, almost never. Of the thirteen provinces and territories, only Manitoba still imposes a quota [18]. Ontario repealed its rule in 2021 [15], Alberta in 2021 [17], Newfoundland and Labrador in 2022 [34], and the rest never had one.

That does not mean a founder abroad can incorporate anywhere without further thought. Legally yes, practically not without checking the second column of the residency table. Nine of the twelve jurisdictions with no quota replaced it with a local-footprint duty: an Alberta resident agent for service [17], a Saskatchewan attorney for service [30], a Nova Scotia recognized agent [43], a PEI lawyer's certificate [33], and so on. Only Ontario, British Columbia, Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut ask for nothing beyond an address in the jurisdiction.

Which jurisdiction is cheapest?

For a corporation chartered in its own jurisdiction, Ontario at $300 for year one [46]; for a federal corporation, $212 including the annual return [1] [22]. But the whole national spread is roughly $212 to $772, which is smaller than almost any other cost in starting a business. Choosing a jurisdiction on fees means optimising the smallest variable in the problem.

Should I incorporate federally or provincially?

Federally if you want one name across Canada or expect to operate in several provinces; provincially if you will genuinely operate in one, or if the federal board-residency rule is a problem. Either way you register provincially wherever you conduct business, and Corporations Canada counts having an address, a post-office box or a phone number in a province as conducting business [3]. Federal is only cheaper on entry in Ontario, which charges nothing to register an extra-provincial corporation. The comparison guide works through the cases.

Can I work in my own Canadian company from inside Canada?

Not automatically. A business visitor must not plan to enter the Canadian labour market, and must show that their main place of business, source of income and profits remain outside Canada; someone intending to stay beyond six months or to work may need a work permit [10]. Owning shares does not create work authorization.

Is there still an immigration route through starting a business?

Not federally. The Start-up Visa Program "was paused on June 30, 2026" and no restart date is published [11]. Provincial entrepreneur streams are the surviving route and they vary sharply: British Columbia, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, PEI, Newfoundland and Labrador and the Northwest Territories are open; Ontario's are closed [79]; Saskatchewan's closed permanently on 27 March 2025 [83]; Quebec and Nunavut have no nominee program at all [28]. All of the open ones require you to live where the business is.

Does incorporating in Canada make my company a Canadian taxpayer?

Generally yes, and possibly more than you intended. Subsection 250(4) deems a corporation incorporated in Canada after 26 April 1965 resident in Canada for the tax year, and separately a company is resident at common law where its central management and control is actually exercised [7]. A treaty may change the outcome, so this is a question for a tax adviser, not a checklist.

Which province's tax applies if I have no office anywhere?

A corporation with no permanent establishment anywhere else is deemed to have one at the head office or registered office designated in its incorporating documents or bylaws [9]. In other words, the address you chose for convenience can be the address that decides your provincial tax.

Do I need a Canadian bank account, and can I open one remotely?

Most businesses need one to be paid and to remit taxes. Whether it can be opened without travelling depends on the institution's own process within FINTRAC's identity-verification methods, which include in-person and non-face-to-face routes [13]. No page can promise a remote opening; ask the named institution before booking travel or assuming you can avoid it.

What do I have to keep filing after I incorporate?

At minimum: the registry's annual return, which is not the tax return and is due within 60 days of the anniversary date federally [22]; the T2 within six months of year end, with the balance due at two or three months [25] [26]; any GST/HST and payroll returns tied to your program accounts [5]; and, for CBCA corporations, the ISC register and filing, updated at least annually and within 15 days of a change [4]. Each jurisdiction guide lists that registry's own annual filing and the consequence of missing it.

Does my corporation need a beneficial-ownership register?

It depends entirely on the jurisdiction, and this is one of the fastest-moving areas in Canadian corporate law. Federal corporations both keep a register and file the information, part of which is public [4]. Quebec declares ultimate beneficiaries to the Registraire and publishes them, searchable by name [64]. Nine provinces and territories require an internal register that is never filed. Alberta, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut require nothing — though Alberta consulted on changing that in 2025 and the results are under review [96]. Yukon's register is the newest, in force from 1 June 2025 [62].

Can I use a coworking or mailbox address as my registered office?

Only where the statute allows it, and only in the right province. A Montreal address can serve as the registered office of a federal or Quebec corporation, and as a mailing address for anyone, but it is not a registered office for an Ontario, BC or Alberta corporation. Most jurisdictions also require the registered office to be a physical location rather than a post-office box, and Newfoundland and Labrador's Registry names retail mail outlets as unacceptable outright [34]. Beyond that, no provider can tell you what a registry or bank will accept — and in Québec, holding an address or telephone line is itself an activity trigger for registration [14].

Official references

Need a Montreal address for the file?

Confirm what the registry needs, then choose the address service that matches it.

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Start a business in Canada: the complete research guide

Direct answer

Which track are you on

The seven points where the tracks diverge

Which jurisdiction for which founder

Federal or provincial

Every jurisdiction, every cell

Registry, filing channel and government fees

Director residency and the local footprint demanded instead

Sales tax and the ownership-transparency regime

Entrepreneur immigration by jurisdiction

What the first year actually costs in government fees

The sequence every founder follows, with the actual forms and deadlines

What changed in 2025 and 2026

Programs that closed or paused

Rates that moved

Transparency obligations that appeared

Language and registration duties

Fee schedules reissued

Glossary of cross-jurisdiction terms

How this research was produced

What 2727 can and cannot support

Research method and limitations

Frequently asked questions

Do I need to be a Canadian citizen or resident to own a Canadian company?

Do I need a Canadian-resident director?

Which jurisdiction is cheapest?

Should I incorporate federally or provincially?

Can I work in my own Canadian company from inside Canada?

Is there still an immigration route through starting a business?

Does incorporating in Canada make my company a Canadian taxpayer?

Which province's tax applies if I have no office anywhere?

Do I need a Canadian bank account, and can I open one remotely?

What do I have to keep filing after I incorporate?

Does my corporation need a beneficial-ownership register?

Can I use a coworking or mailbox address as my registered office?

Official references

Address, banking and mail

Tell us what your institution asked for.

Confirm what the registry needs, then choose the address service that matches it.