Start a business in Canada as a resident

Direct answer

If you live in Canada, starting a business is two separate questions. Corporate law decides who may own and direct a company, and it imposes no citizenship test on shareholders. Immigration law decides who may work, and it defines work as an activity paid by wages or commission, or that competes with Canadians in the labour market. Citizens and permanent residents clear both. Work, study and refugee-claim permit holders must check what their specific permit authorizes, because owning shares and running a business day to day are different acts. The practical sequence is the same for everyone: choose sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation or co-operative; clear the name; incorporate federally or provincially; obtain a business number and only the CRA program accounts your activity triggers; register in every province where you conduct business; then payroll, workers' compensation, municipal permits and a bank account.

Three caveats govern everything below. Immigration status is decided by IRCC and by nobody else — the federal small-business service tells newcomers plainly that "IRCC is the only department that can officially inform you of your status in Canada" [55]. Fees and thresholds change yearly, so each number here carries the official page it came from and the date it was read. And where official sources are silent — they are silent on more than you would expect — this page says so instead of guessing.

If you are outside Canada, the decision tree diverges enough to need its own pillar: see starting a business in Canada from abroad. For the whole cluster, start at the hub.

How to read this page

The page runs in the order a founder actually meets the decisions, and each part answers a different question.

Who this track is for, and what your status permits

Canadian business law and Canadian immigration law are separate systems that ask different questions. Corporate law asks who may own a company and who may direct it. Immigration law asks who may work. A founder inside Canada needs an answer to both, and the answer to one does not settle the other.

Start with the immigration definition. The Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations define work as "an activity for which wages are paid or commission is earned, or that is in direct competition with the activities of Canadian citizens or permanent residents in the Canadian labour market" [1]. Two consequences follow: the definition captures commission and self-generated income, not only a salary, and its second branch reaches activity that competes in the labour market even where nobody is paid. Founder work before the first dollar of revenue can therefore still be work — IRCC's own Help Centre answer on what counts as work says an activity can qualify "even if you: don't get paid for it" where it is "something that a Canadian or permanent resident would be paid to do" [52]. The prohibition is equally plain — a foreign national "must not work in Canada unless authorized to do so by a work permit or these Regulations" [4], and the Act itself provides that "a foreign national may not work or study in Canada unless authorized to do so under this Act" [37].

Now the corporate side. The Canada Business Corporations Act disqualifies from being a director only those under eighteen, "anyone who is incapable", "a person who is not an individual" and "a person who has the status of bankrupt" — immigration status is not on that list. It separately requires that "at least twenty-five per cent of the directors of a corporation must be resident Canadians" and that "if a corporation has less than four directors, at least one director must be a resident Canadian" [6]. There is no residency or citizenship requirement on shareholders at all.

That is the structural point. Federal corporate law regulates ownership and direction; immigration law regulates activity; neither statute cross-references the other. Holding a share is not an activity the Regulations name. Running the company day to day is.

Status by status, with the provision that governs each

The table below is the compressed version of the sections that follow. The right-hand column is the one to read: in almost every row the binding constraint is not the one founders expect.

All statuses may be a CBCA director subject to the section 105 conditions above, since immigration status is not a disqualification and only the resident-Canadian ratio constrains board composition [6]. Note the asymmetry the table exposes: the ratio counts resident Canadians, so a temporary resident on a valid work permit is eligible to be a director but does not count toward the quota. A three-person board of temporary residents cannot incorporate federally without recruiting one resident Canadian; the same three people can incorporate in twelve of the thirteen provinces and territories without recruiting anybody.

Conditions that attach to every temporary resident

Two provisions sit behind the whole discussion and are worth naming because they explain why a permit document, and not a general rule, is the answer to almost every question in this section.

Section 183 imposes conditions on temporary residents as a class, including that they leave Canada by the end of the authorized period [38]. Section 185 then lets an officer impose, vary or cancel specific conditions on an individual permit, including "the type of work", "the employer", "the location of the work" and "the times and periods of the work" [39]. That is why IRCC's own guidance keeps directing you back to the document: the enforceable rule for you personally is the set of conditions printed on your permit, not the description of a permit category on a web page.

Section 199 sets out who may apply for a work permit from inside Canada rather than at a visa office or a port of entry [40]. It matters to founders because the practical question is rarely "may I get a permit" in the abstract; it is "may I get one without leaving the country and without pausing the business".

Citizens and permanent residents

For citizens and permanent residents the immigration question does not arise. IRCC states that a permanent resident can "live, work or study anywhere in Canada" and receives "a social insurance number to work in Canada"; the limits it lists are political, not commercial — a PR is "not allowed to vote or run for political office or hold some jobs that need a high-level security clearance". The obligation to watch is residency itself: "you must have been in Canada for at least 730 days during the last five years" [12]. A founder who spends most of the year abroad servicing foreign customers can put PR status at risk while doing nothing wrong commercially.

There is a second, quieter consequence for this group, and it belongs here rather than in the tax section. Both citizens and permanent residents count as resident Canadians for the CBCA's director ratio, and both are ordinarily Canadian residents for income-tax purposes, which is what makes their company a Canadian-controlled private corporation in the ordinary case. The two most valuable things a founder in this group owns are therefore not commercial at all: the ability to satisfy section 105(3) alone, and the ability to keep control of the company inside Canada so the small business deduction survives. Track B exists because a non-resident founder has neither.

Work permit holders: open versus employer-specific

IRCC says there are "2 types of work permits: open work permits and employer-specific work permits" [9]. An employer-specific permit is bound to what is printed on it: its Additional Information section "includes the employer, location and occupation", and "You must comply with all the information listed on your work permit" [8]. IRCC's Help Centre puts the same point more bluntly: "Most work permits are tied to a specific employer. They will only allow you to work for the employer on the permit" [53]. An open work permit "lets you work for any employer in Canada", excluding non-compliant employers and certain sectors, and may still restrict "what type of work you can do" and "where you can work" [9].

Here honesty is required, because the internet is full of confident answers no official page supports. No IRCC page states as a general rule that an open work permit does or does not authorize self-employment — every such page is framed around working for "any employer", which is silent on being your own. Equally, no IRCC page states that self-employment is prohibited under an employer-specific permit; that conclusion is an inference from the permit's terms and from section 185's power to fix the employer [39], a strong one, but IRCC never writes the sentence. Put the question to IRCC, or to an authorized representative, for your specific permit.

What you can do without resolving the question is separate the acts. Subscribing for shares, signing a shareholders' agreement, being named a director and voting at a shareholders' meeting are ownership and governance acts that the work provisions do not name. Invoicing customers, delivering the service, managing staff and doing the day-to-day operating work are the acts that the definition of work in section 2 reaches [1]. A founder who is unsure about the second set can still lawfully do the first while waiting for an answer.

Study permit holders

The regulation is precise, and it is about hours rather than employers. A study permit holder may work without a work permit if they are a full-time student at a designated learning institution, in a programme "of a duration of six months or more that leads to a degree, diploma or certificate", and "although they are permitted to engage in full-time work during a regularly scheduled break between academic sessions, they work no more than 24 hours per week during a regular academic session" [2]. A separate paragraph permits on-campus work for a full-time student at that institution [2].

Two points founders get wrong. First, 24 is the current number, and it binds even where an older permit says otherwise: "If your current study permit says that you may only work 20 hours per week off campus (for example), you're allowed to work up to 24 hours per week" [7]. Exceeding it is not a technicality — "Working more than 24 hours per week is a violation of your study permit conditions. You can lose your student status for doing this" [7].

Second, IRCC expressly contemplates self-employed students and counts their hours the same way. Under a heading "Self-employed students" it says: "If you're a self-employed person, you're also responsible for keeping track of the hours you work off campus and proving that you're complying with the conditions of your study permit", with hours counted as time spent "earning wages; being paid wages for performing a service or selling a product; collecting a commission" [7].

The careful reading is this. IRCC's guidance plainly applies the 24-hour cap and a record-keeping duty to self-employment, and the regulation speaks only of hours worked, never requiring an employer. What no official page does is state in terms that a study permit authorizes being your own employer. Self-employment is contemplated and regulated; it is not expressly granted. That is the most a fetched official source supports, and less than most commentary claims in either direction.

One useful carve-out: "You can work remotely for an employer outside Canada … This type of work doesn't count towards your 24 hours per week off-campus work limit" [7]. A student maintaining foreign clients is in a materially different position from one building a Canadian customer base.

Practically, the record-keeping duty is the part to design for on day one. Because IRCC counts hours spent "earning wages", "being paid wages for performing a service or selling a product" and "collecting a commission", a student founder needs a contemporaneous log that separates operating hours from the hours nobody is paying for — study, reading, and the ownership and governance acts described above. A log reconstructed two years later from invoices is exactly the evidence that will not persuade anyone, and the student, not IRCC, carries the burden of "proving that you're complying" [7]. A social insurance number is also on the off-campus eligibility list, so the SIN is a precondition of lawful off-campus work rather than an afterthought [15].

Refugee claimants

A claimant may request an open work permit inside the asylum claim rather than separately: "There is no separate application or extra fees to apply". Issuance is gated twice — "You will only be issued a work permit if: your claim was found eligible to be referred to the IRB; you have passed your medical exam" [11]. The regulation behind that practice is section 206, which provides for a work permit for a claimant whose claim has been referred [42]. Until the permit issues, the ordinary prohibition applies, and the gap between filing a claim and holding a permit is the period in which a claimant most needs income and least may earn it.

Visitors: owning is not working

A visitor may not work; section 196 states the prohibition without qualification [4], and section 30(1) of the Act says the same at the statutory level [37].

Whether a visitor may own shares is a different question, and it is the question official sources do not answer. The work provisions do not address ownership; the CBCA governs ownership and imposes no immigration condition on shareholders [6]. So a visitor holding shares is doing nothing the Regulations name and nothing the CBCA prohibits. We could not find any IRCC page addressing this directly, and we are not going to invent one. No IRCC Help Centre answer of the form "can I start or own a business in Canada as a visitor" was found; sources quoting one are quoting a commercial page, not the government. This gap has survived a second research pass and is stated here as a gap, not resolved.

What is documented is the moment ownership turns into activity. The business-visitor exemption cannot carry a founder building a Canadian business: a person qualifies only if "the primary source of remuneration for the business activities is outside Canada" and "the principal place of business and actual place of accrual of profits remain predominately outside Canada" [3]. IRCC's Help Centre restates the same test in plain language and excludes a person who is "doing work for a Canadian company" [54]. A Canadian company whose profits accrue in Canada fails that test on its face. If your business is here, you are not visiting it.

The founder work permit: C11

For a founder who needs temporary status to run their own Canadian business, the live federal route is the exemption coded C11, issued under the Canadian-interests head of section 205(a), which allows a work permit without a labour market impact assessment where the work would create significant benefit [41]. IRCC's program delivery instruction covers foreign nationals "seeking only temporary resident status to enter Canada to run, including establishing, their own business" [10]. Four points from it are worth more than any commentary:

• You are on both sides of the transaction. "Officers should be aware that for business owners, the foreign national is both employer and employee. They must meet the requirements for both roles" [10]. The founder submits an offer of employment to themselves.
• Legal structure does not change the characterization. "Regardless of the ownership structure (for example, incorporated or sole proprietorship), if the business only employs the owner and family members, the foreign national is still considered self-employed" [10].
• It is time-limited — "Duration — Maximum of 18 months" [10].
• It does not build Canadian Experience Class eligibility. "Any period of self-employment is not calculated toward the period of work experience for the Canadian Experience Class" [10]. A founder planning to convert temporary status into permanent residence through the CEC should read that twice.

One correction to a widely circulated claim: the instruction assesses the application "regardless of what percentage of the business in Canada is owned" [10]. The same instruction, however, also says a work permit "should be considered only when the applicant controls at least 51% of the business in question". IRCC therefore publishes both a no-fixed-percentage test and a 51 percent threshold in the same place, and this cluster discloses the conflict rather than resolving it.

The federal entrepreneur programs, and their current status

A founder inside Canada on temporary status usually wants to know what converts that status into permanent residence. As at the verification date the two federal business-immigration routes are both shut to new applicants, and any page that describes either as an option is out of date.

The Start-up Visa page requires "a valid 2025 commitment certificate" and states "The program is closed to all other applications" [13]. The Self-Employed Persons Program carries the status "Paused" [50], and its eligibility page states "We stopped accepting applications for this program on April 30, 2024" [51]. That leaves provincial entrepreneur streams, which each province guide covers for its own jurisdiction, and the ordinary economic-immigration routes that have nothing to do with owning a business. Immigration programs change without notice; re-check before relying on any of this.

The social insurance number

A SIN is the practical gate to being paid. For temporary residents it "starts with '9'" and "expires on the same date your work permit, study permit or visitor record expires", and the application requires a document that authorizes work — "Email messages from IRCC are not accepted". Two useful facts: "You can start working as soon as you apply for a SIN", and if the SIN expires while an extension is pending "you can continue working with your expired SIN until IRCC makes a decision". A citizen's or permanent resident's SIN does not expire [15].

The SIN also has a downstream effect founders discover late. CRA's Business Registration Online is open to an individual holding a SIN beginning with 9, so a temporary resident can obtain a business number and open program accounts without waiting for permanent status [30]. But because a temporary resident's SIN expires with the permit, a lapse in status becomes a lapse in the identity credential that payroll, GST/HST and the bank all sit on. Diary the SIN expiry beside the permit expiry, not after it.

Choosing the structure

Four legal forms are available: sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation and co-operative. The choice drives liability, tax treatment and how much annual administration you carry forever. The Government of Canada's own start-up guidance frames the decision as one of the six steps before you register anything [66], and its registration page groups the options as the three business types a registrar recognises [67].

Sole proprietorship. CRA describes it as a business that "does not have separate legal status from the business", and is blunt about the consequence: "The risks extend even to your personal property and assets". Tax is simple — income is reported "on a T1 income tax and benefit return", attaching "Form T2125, Statement of Business or Professional Activities" [25]. What the form choice buys you is time: there is no annual return to a registrar, no separate T2, no minute book and no transparency register. What it costs you is that every business liability is your liability, and that there is no mechanism at all for retaining profit at a lower rate.

Partnership. The risk founders underrate is mutual authority: "The partnership is bound by the actions of any member of the partnership". The partnership is a conduit rather than a taxpayer — it "by itself does not pay income tax on its operating results and does not file an annual income tax return. Instead, each partner includes a share of the partnership income or loss" on their own return. A separate information return falls due once the partnership "has an absolute value of revenues plus an absolute value of expenses of more than $2 million, or has more than $5 million in assets" [5]. Write the agreement before revenue arrives, not after the first disagreement. Note also that the information return sits behind an RZ program account rather than the RC account a corporation uses [29].

Corporation. CRA states that "A corporation is a separate legal entity. It can enter into contracts and own property in its own name", and that "As a shareholder of your corporation, you have limited liability". Corporations Canada makes the same two points on its benefits page, adding that shareholders "are not responsible for a corporation's debts" [63]. Two qualifications matter more than the headline. Limited liability is routinely bargained away: where a lender asks for a personal guarantee, "you will be personally liable for that debt if the corporation does not pay it back". And directors are personally exposed for certain unremitted amounts — they "may also be liable to pay amounts owed by the corporation if it has failed to deduct, withhold, remit, or pay amounts" [26]. Incorporating does not make payroll or GST/HST arrears someone else's problem.

Co-operative. Federally a co-operative is created "under the Canada Cooperatives Act (Coop Act) by filing an application with Corporations Canada". Unlike a business corporation the filing is not online — "Cooperative applications must be filed by email or mail" — and it still requires "A Nuans name search report for the proposed name that is not more than 90 days old" [22], a rule that no longer applies to ordinary online incorporation. The statute requires three or more incorporators [46], and ISED's own guidance notes that provincial co-operative statutes commonly demand five or six, alongside the governance rule that defines the form — one member, one vote [64]. A co-operative is the right answer when control is meant to follow membership rather than capital, and the wrong answer for a venture that intends to raise equity.

CCPC status and the small business deduction

The tax reason most Canadian founders incorporate is the small business deduction, available to a Canadian-controlled private corporation. CRA's rate page states the structure plainly: "The basic rate of Part I tax is 38% of your taxable income, 28% after the federal tax abatement", "After the general tax reduction, the net tax rate is 15%", and "For Canadian-controlled private corporations claiming the small business deduction, the net tax rate is 9%" [28].

CCPC status is not automatic and is not about where you incorporated. Among the conditions a corporation must meet at the end of the tax year, it must be one that "is not controlled directly or indirectly by one or more non-resident persons" and "is not controlled directly or indirectly by one or more public corporations" [27]. This is precisely where Track A and Track B diverge: a Canadian-resident founder who owns and controls their own company is in the ordinary case a CCPC, while a company controlled from abroad may not be. A Canadian certificate of incorporation proves neither way.

The deduction itself is bounded four ways, and the T2 guide gives each bound. The federal business limit is "$500,000", and the deduction is "19% of the least of" active business income, taxable income and the business limit. The limit is reduced where the corporation and its associated group earn adjusted aggregate investment income between "$50,000 and $150,000", and separately where taxable capital employed in Canada runs between "$10 million and $50 million" [71]. Two practical consequences follow for a founder inside Canada. A corporation that parks retained profit in a passive portfolio can grind away its own small business deduction while doing nothing operationally wrong. And associated corporations share one business limit, so incorporating a second company does not buy a second $500,000.

The provincial business limit is not uniform: most provinces sit at $500,000, while Nova Scotia is $700,000 and Prince Edward Island and Saskatchewan are $600,000. Quebec and Alberta do not have corporation tax collection agreements with the CRA and are excluded from that table [28].

What the small-business rate is actually worth

The arithmetic below is not a source; it is ordinary multiplication of the cited rates, shown because the rate difference is the single most misquoted number in Canadian founder guidance. Take a corporation with $100,000 of active business income inside the federal business limit. At the CCPC rate of 9 percent the federal tax is $9,000; without the small business deduction, at the general net rate of 15 percent, it is $15,000 [28]. The provincial layer is added on top and varies by jurisdiction — the province index below gives each rate with its source.

Three cautions attach to that $6,000 difference. It is a deferral, not a saving: the money is taxed again in the shareholder's hands when it comes out as salary or dividends. It only exists if profit stays inside the company, which is why a founder who withdraws everything gains nothing from incorporating. And it disappears entirely if control leaves Canada, which is the CCPC test and not a filing formality [27].

When incorporation is premature

Incorporation is a permanent administrative commitment, not a status symbol: an annual return every year whether or not you traded, a separate T2, an ISC filing, and a minute book somebody maintains. Before incorporating, ask whether you have any of the things it buys — outside investors or co-founders needing defined share ownership, liability exposure insurance does not cover, profit you intend to retain, or a counterparty that will only contract with a corporation. If the answer is none of them, a sole proprietorship under a registered trade name does the same commercial work this year and can be incorporated later. The 9 percent rate only helps once profit stays inside the company.

Put a number on the running cost before deciding. A federal corporation pays $12 a year for the annual return [59], plus the provincial annual filing wherever it is registered — $0 in Ontario, $43.39 in British Columbia, $53.05 in Alberta, $106 in Quebec, $150 in the Northwest Territories, and so on down the index below. The cash cost is small. The real cost is that every one of those filings has a deadline, and the consequence of missing them is dissolution rather than a fine.

Federal or provincial incorporation

You can incorporate under the CBCA with Corporations Canada or under a provincial statute with that jurisdiction's registrar. Federal incorporation gives national name protection and the right to carry on business anywhere in Canada, with no restriction on where the head office sits or where records are kept [24]. The federal bundle produces a certificate of incorporation, the articles, and — in eight jurisdictions — the business number and corporation income tax account in the same transaction [68].

The critical qualification is that federal incorporation is not a nationwide registration. "Provincial and territorial legislation requires you to register your federal corporation in each province and territory in which it will conduct business" [21]. A federal corporation operating in one province therefore maintains two records rather than one. For a founder who will operate in a single province for the foreseeable future, that is a real cost against a name protection they may never need. There is also a director-residency dimension: the CBCA imposes a 25 percent resident- Canadian requirement [6], while most provinces no longer impose one at all — see the index below.

The full comparison has its own page: federal versus provincial incorporation.

The end-to-end sequence

Stage 2: the name

The federal naming process changed, and guides written before the change describe a step that no longer exists. Corporations Canada now states: "You don't need to order a Nuans report before incorporating online with a word name. The corporate name search is now part of the federal incorporation process" [16]. A separate report is still required for revival, amalgamation and "All services for cooperatives"; where one is used, "The Nuans search is valid for 90 days only", and obtaining it "does not mean that we automatically preapprove or approve your name". A name pre-approval is likewise "valid for 90 days". If you would rather not fight over a name, take a numbered one and "We will assign you a number" [17] — you can still trade under a registered business name.

Where a Nuans report is still needed, the federal report is priced separately from the incorporation: ISED publishes it at $13.80 [65]. That is the entire cost of the search, and it is why a co-operative incorporation is slightly more expensive than a business-corporation incorporation before any professional fee.

A corporate name is not free text. Corporations Canada requires three elements — a distinctive element, a descriptive element and a legal element — and publishes the list of acceptable legal elements, including Limited, Limitée, Incorporated, Incorporée, Corporation, Société par actions de régime fédéral and their abbreviations [57]. A name that is only descriptive ("Montreal Software Corporation") will be refused because it lacks distinctiveness, which is the single most common reason a first-choice name fails.

For unincorporated businesses: "If you are a sole proprietor operating a business under your legal name (for example, Jane Doe), you generally do not need to register your business name. In all other scenarios, you will need to register." Trade names are provincial — "Registration of trade names is a provincial/territorial responsibility" — and skipping one "can result in significant fines and other legal consequences" [23]. Two jurisdictional oddities are worth knowing before you plan around them: Newfoundland and Labrador "there is no registration of trade names", and in Alberta a name registration "cannot be done online" [23].

Stage 3: formation and the registered office

Federal incorporation is online, fast and cheap: Corporations Canada publishes "$200" with a processing time of "1 day", plus "Add $100 for express service in 4 hours" [16]. Corporations Canada breaks the application into five decisions — the name, the articles, the initial registered office and first board, additional filings, and the fee — and requires the first directors' names and addresses to be disclosed as part of it [56].

Directors are not a formality either. A CBCA corporation must have at least one director, the resident-Canadian ratio applies continuously rather than only at incorporation, and prescribed sectors carry a stricter majority-resident rule [58]. A board that satisfies section 105(3) on day one and stops satisfying it when the only resident Canadian resigns is out of compliance from that moment, with no grace period announced anywhere.

The registered office is a legal address, not a mailbox of convenience. Form 2 instructions state it is "where you must keep your corporate records and where official documents will be served on the corporation", that it "cannot be a post office box", and that it "must be within the province or territory as indicated in the articles of the corporation". It is also public — the address "even if it is also a residential address, is corporate information that is public" [18]. The statute behind those instructions is section 19, which requires the registered office to be in the province specified in the articles and requires a change of address to be filed within fifteen days [43]. Founders who do not want their home address in a public database should solve that at incorporation, not after.

Stages 4 and 5: the business number and the program accounts in detail

There is only one business number per business, and that is the rule that prevents most of the mess in this stage. CRA states that a business "will only ever have one BN", and that it is issued when you first need one — including automatically on federal incorporation in most jurisdictions [73]. A CRA account number then consists of "Your unique 9-digit BN", "A 2-letter program identifier" and "A 4-digit reference number", giving forms like "123456789 RT 0001" [29]. The four-digit suffix is what lets one business hold several accounts of the same type — a second GST/HST account for a separate division is RT 0002, not a second business number.

Whether the BN arrives automatically depends on where you incorporate. In Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island and Saskatchewan "you will automatically receive a business number and corporation income tax program account". In Newfoundland and Labrador, the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Quebec and Yukon "you will need to register for a business number" [24].

The discipline in this stage is subtractive. Open the RC account because incorporation gives it to you; open every other account only when a rule has actually triggered. An RT account opened "to look established" before you cross the small-supplier threshold obliges you to file a return for every reporting period from that day forward, nil or not [75]; an RP account opened before you have an employee starts a remittance expectation you have no payroll to satisfy. Both are easy to open and neither is easy to unwind.

GST/HST: the $30,000 question

You must register "if both situations apply: You are not a small supplier; You make taxable sales, leases, or other supplies in Canada". The threshold is $30,000, tested two ways. If "You do not exceed the $30,000 threshold over four consecutive calendar quarters", you remain a small supplier. If "You exceed the $30,000 threshold in a single calendar quarter", you cease to be one immediately and "Your effective date of registration is no later than the day of the supply that made you exceed $30,000" [30]. The threshold is statutory: section 148 of the Excise Tax Act sets the small-supplier test at $30,000, with a separate $50,000 figure for public service bodies [49].

That second rule catches founders: a single large invoice can make you a registrant mid-quarter, retroactive to that invoice, with tax owing whether or not you charged any. Track the running total rather than checking annually, and note that it counts worldwide taxable supplies of the business and its associates. Some businesses have no threshold at all — a "self-employed taxi driver or commercial ride-sharing driver … have to register for the GST/HST even if you are a small supplier" [30].

Once registered, the filing frequency is assigned rather than chosen. CRA's guide for registrants sets the assignment by annual taxable supplies: above $6 million the reporting period is monthly, between $1.5 million and $6 million it is quarterly, and at or below $1.5 million it is annual, with more frequent periods available on election [74]. The deadlines then follow the frequency: monthly and quarterly returns are due one month after the end of the reporting period, while an annual filer's return is generally due three months after the fiscal year end — with the well-known exception for an individual with a 31 December year end, whose return is due 15 June while the payment is due 30 April [75]. A nil return is still a return, and most registrants must file electronically [75].

Which tax you charge depends on the province. HST is 13 percent in Ontario, 15 percent in New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island, and 14 percent in Nova Scotia, which "decreased the provincial portion of the HST to 9%" on 1 April 2025. Elsewhere GST is 5 percent, with a provincial sales tax of 7 percent in British Columbia and Manitoba, 6 percent in Saskatchewan and QST of 9.975 percent in Quebec. Alberta, Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut have no provincial sales tax [34]. The comparison has its own page: HST versus GST plus PST versus QST.

Stage 7: payroll, remitter types and the deadlines

CRA "generally considers you to be an employer if you: Pay salaries, wages (including advances), bonuses, vacation pay, or tips to your employees" or "Provide certain taxable benefits". The deadline is set by the remittance, not the hire: "You have to register for a payroll account before the first remittance due date. Your first remittance due date is the 15th day of the month following the month in which you began withholding deductions." Missing the account does not suspend the obligation — "you still need to calculate deductions and remit them by the due date. If you do not, you may be assessed a penalty." In Quebec, "in addition to registering for source deductions with the CRA, you may have to register with Revenu Québec" [31].

After the first remittance, how often you remit is decided by your history rather than your preference. CRA sets remitter type by the average monthly withholding amount, the AMWA, computed from the total of deductions and contributions remitted in a calendar year divided by the number of months you remitted. The published bands run from a regular remitter below $25,000, through accelerated thresholds at $25,000 and $100,000, with quarterly remitting available to eligible small employers whose AMWA is under $1,000 or under $3,000 with a perfect compliance history [76]. A growing company therefore gets moved to a faster remittance cycle by CRA rather than choosing one, and the letter announcing the change is easy to miss.

The year-end obligation is separate again. T4 slips and the T4 Summary are due "on or before the last day of February following the calendar year to which the information return applies", with late-filing penalties scaled by the number of slips [77]. A one-employee company owned by its only employee still files them.

Workers' compensation is a separate provincial obligation with no federal registration page — it must be done through your province's own board, and coverage thresholds differ by province and were not verified here. Each province guide in the index below carries its own board and its own rule.

Stages 8 and 9: permits and the bank

Permits sit at three levels and none announces itself. Canada's own permits page is explicit that requirements come from all three levels of government and points to BizPaL as the finder [69], and BizPaL itself assembles the federal, provincial and municipal list once you give it an activity and an address [70]. Run it before you sign anything, because the output is address-specific and the address is the thing you are about to commit to.

The municipal layer is the one founders skip, and it can stop you occupying premises: in Montreal "You must get an occupancy permit … to conduct a commercial or industrial activity in a building for purposes other than housing, or use part of your home for professional purposes", and a fresh one is required "if there is a change of operator or a change in the area spanned by the premises, if there is a change in the activities conducted, or if activities are added". The city's advice is to check first: "Before renting or purchasing a premises … make sure that the activity of your choice is permitted" [14]. Zoning is checked before the lease, not after.

Finally, no registry and no address provider can open a bank account for you. Banks run their own identity, ownership and address checks and each publishes a different document list — see the business address and banking research and the per-bank pages for RBC, TD, BMO, Scotiabank, CIBC and Desjardins. For a federal corporation the federal corporation scenario sets out the document pack in detail. The one thing to prepare in advance is the ownership picture: the same 25 percent significant-control concept the CBCA uses is the concept a bank's beneficial-ownership form asks about, so the ISC register you build at stage 10 is also the answer to the bank's hardest question [60].

Stage 10: records, the transparency register and retention

Two record-keeping regimes apply at once and they have different homes.

Corporate records live with the corporation. Corporations Canada lists what a CBCA corporation must keep — the articles and by-laws, minutes of meetings of shareholders and directors, the securities register, and the accounting records — and requires them at the registered office or another place in Canada designated by the directors, with the ISC register kept alongside them [61]. The same page carries the rule founders forget: financial statements must be placed before shareholders at the annual meeting, and sent to them in advance of it.

The transparency register is a statutory duty with a criminal backstop. Section 21.1 of the CBCA requires the register of individuals with significant control, and provides that a corporation that contravenes it "is guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding $100,000" [44]; section 21.4 extends offences to directors, officers and shareholders who knowingly authorise, permit or acquiesce in a contravention, or who record false or misleading information [45]. An individual with significant control is one who owns, controls or directs 25 percent or more of the shares by number or value, individually, jointly or in concert, or who has control in fact [60]. Two founders at 50/50 are both ISCs; four founders at 25 each are all four ISCs; a founder at 20 percent who controls the board in fact may be one anyway.

Tax records answer to CRA instead. The general rule is six years from the end of the last tax year to which they relate, records must be kept in Canada unless CRA gives written permission otherwise, and certain categories — the minute book, share registers, and records of the corporation's own history — are kept indefinitely rather than for six years [78]. A founder using a cloud accounting service hosted outside Canada should read that rule before assuming it is satisfied.

Three founder profiles, worked end to end

The sequence above is the same for everyone; what changes is which stages bite. Below are three profiles worked through in order, with the fee, the form and the date attached to each step. Every figure is the one published by the body that charges it, cited in place. Where a figure could not be verified it is named as unverified rather than estimated, and nothing here is a quote for your situation — a registry can change a tariff between the verification date and the day you file.

Profile 1 — a sole-proprietor freelancer in Montreal

A permanent resident designer works alone from home in Griffintown, invoices Quebec and Ontario clients, expects roughly $70,000 in the first year and intends to keep none of it in the business. She does not incorporate.

What this profile shows is how little machinery a service business actually needs. There is no annual return to a registrar, no T2, no minute book and no transparency register. The two things that can go wrong are both timing: the mid-year GST/QST registration, which is retroactive to the invoice that crossed the line [30], and the occupancy question, which is about the address and not the business. Note also the split deadline that trips almost every first-year sole proprietor: the GST/HST return is due 15 June but the payment is due 30 April [75].

The Quebec fee is the one item this page will not put a number on. The Registraire des entreprises tariff is published as a single 2026 schedule and is the only authority for what an immatriculation costs [89]; the figures verified from it for this cluster are the incorporation and annual-declaration lines for a société par actions, not the sole-proprietorship line, so that line is left to be read off the schedule rather than repeated here.

Profile 2 — two founders incorporating a CCPC

Two Canadian citizens in Toronto incorporate federally, own the company 50/50, pay themselves salaries from month four, and expect to leave profit inside the company. This is the profile the small business deduction was built for, and the one that carries the most annual machinery.

The government cost of year one is $200 and of every later year is $12 federally plus nothing in Ontario [16], [59], [82]. That is not where the burden is. The burden is five recurring deadlines that arrive on four different cycles — a corporate anniversary, an Ontario cycle, a fiscal year end, a payroll month and a calendar February — and the failure mode is never one large default but a quiet lapse in one of them.

One point specific to this profile. Because each founder holds 50 percent, both are individuals with significant control and both must be in the register and the filing, and any change in that split — including a founder departure or a new investor crossing 25 percent — triggers a register update within 15 days and a filing [20]. Fifteen days is faster than most cap-table paperwork actually moves, so build the trigger into the share-transfer process rather than the annual routine.

Profile 3 — a British Columbia company operating in three provinces

A BC company sells across the West: incorporated in British Columbia, an office and staff in Alberta, and customers plus a listed phone number in Manitoba. This profile exists to show the two separate systems that care about where you operate, how differently they behave, and what the New West Partnership Trade Agreement does and does not remove.

Now run the same expansion as a federal corporation instead, and the arithmetic inverts. A CBCA corporation is not an NWPTA party in its own right, so it pays Alberta's published $291.75 to register and files a $53.05 Alberta annual return [86], [88]; and in Manitoba it pays the $45 name reservation plus a $350 registration and then files a $65 Manitoba annual return every year, because the no-fee lane is reserved for British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan corporations [128], [109], [36]. The same trade agreement that makes a western provincial corporation cheap to expand makes a federal corporation the expensive option across exactly the same three borders.

Three lessons come out of this profile. First, the registration trigger is far lower than the tax trigger: a listed phone number obliges registration in Manitoba, while it creates no permanent establishment there and allocates no income to it. Second, the New West Partnership genuinely reduces cost but does not abolish it — Manitoba's own registry still prices a $45 name reservation on the NWPTA lane [36], and British Columbia's own NWPTA regulation preserves the name-search fee while waiving the registration fee and the annual report [85]. Third, a company operating in Alberta acquires a second corporate tax administration, not merely a second line on one return [81].

Province and territory index

Every jurisdiction runs its own registry, name rules, director rules, fee schedule and annual filing. The single most useful correction this research produced concerns director residency: Manitoba is the only province or territory that still imposes a resident-Canadian director quota. Ontario, Alberta and Newfoundland and Labrador have all repealed theirs; New Brunswick, Saskatchewan, Prince Edward Island and the Northwest Territories have none in their current consolidations, which is what their evidence establishes and all it establishes; and British Columbia, Quebec, Nova Scotia, Yukon and Nunavut never had one. The federal CBCA still requires 25 percent [6], which is often the deciding factor for a founder whose co-founders live abroad.

The four tables below carry what each province guide verified from its own official sources. Fees are government fees only: where a jurisdiction interposes a private intermediary — Alberta's registry agents, the Nuans search houses used in Ontario and New Brunswick — the intermediary's charge is not published anywhere official and is not included.

What it costs, and what sales tax you charge

Two of those numbers deserve reading twice. Nova Scotia charges a corporation from another province nothing to register and nothing to renew, while charging a federal corporation $22.84 a month pro-rated to register and $274.10 every year [112]. And the Northwest Territories charges $500 to register an outside corporation against $300 to incorporate locally [105]. In both jurisdictions the intuition that federal incorporation is the cheaper national option is simply wrong.

How each jurisdiction clears a name

There is no single national name process. Four different mechanisms are in use, and a report bought for one jurisdiction is frequently useless in another.

The pattern worth extracting: a Nuans report is a private product in the three provinces that require one, and irrelevant in the six that do not. Ontario rejects a federal-biased report, so a founder who buys the search for a federal incorporation and then incorporates in Ontario has bought the wrong thing [115]. Newfoundland and Labrador searches only within the province, so an approval there says nothing about a conflict in Ontario [124]. And Prince Edward Island's default $40 search covers the Atlantic provinces, not the country [123]. None of these is a trademark search.

Director residency and the local-presence requirement

Director residency is the rule founders check; the local-presence requirement is the rule that actually constrains them, and it survives in almost every jurisdiction that dropped the residency quota.

Read that table as a single finding: twelve of thirteen jurisdictions dropped the residency quota and almost all of them kept a local-presence requirement in its place. Alberta wants a resident-Albertan individual as agent for service [87], Saskatchewan wants a Saskatchewan-resident attorney the moment no director or officer lives there [93], Prince Edward Island wants a local lawyer's certificate [100], Nova Scotia wants a recognized agent from every company including its own [112], and Quebec wants an attorney residing in Quebec [118]. Choosing a jurisdiction on "no director residency requirement" alone answers the wrong question.

The annual filing, and what happens if you miss it

Notice how few of these share a clock. The federal deadline runs from the incorporation anniversary, Ontario's runs from the taxation year end, Quebec splits one filing across two different deadlines, Nova Scotia uses the anniversary month, and nine jurisdictions use "the month after the anniversary month". A founder with a federal corporation registered in three provinces is tracking four unrelated cycles, which is precisely why the calendars below exist.

One thing each jurisdiction does that no other does

• Ontario issues a nine-digit company key, and that key, not the corporate name, establishes authority to file. Losing it is the commonest reason a founder cannot file their own annual return a year later [115].
• British Columbia is the only jurisdiction requiring two offices, a registered office and a records office, both in BC and both publicly accessible during fixed hours [85].
• Alberta has no government filing portal at all: every corporate filing goes through an authorised private registry agent, and "Service fees are not regulated and may vary from one agent to another" [117], [86].
• Quebec makes a French name a condition of obtaining juridical personality, not a labelling rule [91], and Revenu Québec — not CRA — administers the GST/HST there [89].
• Saskatchewan keeps the transparency register private but publishes a full shareholder list with every annual return, capturing every registered holder however small [93].
• Manitoba applies its resident-Canadian rule to the quorum of a directors' meeting, not only to board composition [35].
• Nova Scotia does not use articles of incorporation: it keeps the memorandum-and-articles model, and articles of association are optional for a company limited by shares [96].
• New Brunswick permits a corporate name "in an English form, a French form, an English form and a French form or in a combined English and French form", each legally usable [98].
• Prince Edward Island charges a federal corporation nothing to register extra-provincially if its head office and chief place of business are on the Island — but only if you tick the box [99].
• Newfoundland and Labrador has no business-names registry at all: a sole proprietorship or general partnership registers nothing [102], [23].
• Yukon cannot accept a first incorporation online: the online registry handles name reservations and later filings, while the incorporation package is delivered on paper [103].
• Northwest Territories lets the host of a registered office resign it: 30 days after notice to the Registrar, that address "ceases to be the address of the registered office", and having no registered office is itself a dissolution ground [106].
• Nunavut has no online portal — filings are signed by hand and submitted as 300 dpi PDFs by email, with card details given by telephone and never in the email [134].

Sales-tax rates are from CRA's rates table [34]; the business-number split from one Government of Canada page covering all thirteen jurisdictions [24]; the joint-registration, Ontario and Saskatchewan facts from Corporations Canada [21]; the Newfoundland trade-name fact from federal naming guidance [23]; and the business limits from CRA [28]. Every fee, name rule, residency rule and annual-filing rule in the four tables above was verified from the jurisdiction's own legislation, fee schedule or registry site by the province guide that carries it, and the same official URL is cited here. Two figures are stated as unreconciled rather than resolved: Prince Edward Island's incorporation fee, which its regulations put at $200 and its own registry instructions at $215 [99], [130]; and Alberta's total cost, which is unknowable in advance because the mandatory registry agent's service fee is unregulated and published nowhere [86].

Operating in more than one province

Two separate systems care about where you operate, and they use different tests.

Corporate registration. Provincial law compels it: "Provincial and territorial legislation requires you to register your federal corporation in each province and territory in which it will conduct business". The threshold is lower than most founders assume — "conducting business typically includes: having an address, a post office box or a phone number in a province or territory, or offering services or products in a province or territory", and "The registration requirements are different for each province and territory" [21]. A phone number and a customer list can be enough.

Several jurisdictions write that test into their own statutes in still broader terms. British Columbia deems a foreign entity to be carrying on business if its name appears in a telephone directory or in an advertisement giving a BC address or phone number [85]. Newfoundland and Labrador lists "having a telephone number listed in the telephone directory" [102]. Saskatchewan and Prince Edward Island both catch soliciting business on its own [93], [100]. And the Northwest Territories says plainly that registration is required "regardless of how long you plan to do business" there [133]. None of these requires premises, staff or revenue.

The deadlines are short and they differ: 30 days in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Prince Edward Island, Yukon, the Northwest Territories, Nunavut and New Brunswick; two months in British Columbia; 60 days in Ontario and Quebec [87], [93], [98], [85], [118], [108]. The sanction is rarely a fine. In Ontario, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and New Brunswick an unregistered corporation loses the ability to sue on its own contracts in that province until it registers [111], [93], [35], [98] — a disability you discover on the day you need to enforce an invoice, which is the worst possible day to discover it.

One widespread misconception deserves correcting. The New West Partnership Trade Agreement between British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba is not mutual recognition. Official provincial sources are consistent that a corporation must still complete extra-provincial registration in each member province; what the agreement removes is the registration fee and the extra-provincial annual report, not the registration itself. It does not remove every fee either. Manitoba's Companies Office prices the incoming NWPTA filing as "Name Reservation ($45.00)", "Register an Extra Provincial Business Corporation (No Fee)" and "Power of Attorney (No Fee)", and notes that "Annual Returns are filed in the home jurisdiction only" [36]. Three further limits are worth knowing before planning around the agreement. It reaches only the four western jurisdictions, so Ontario, Quebec and all of Atlantic Canada are outside it [128]. A federal corporation is not a beneficiary: Alberta extends the no-fee lane to British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Manitoba corporations and not to CBCA ones [88], and Saskatchewan's regulations designate Quebec and the federal Director for the mutual registration system while waiving fees only for the three western provinces [132]. And the local-presence duty survives it: British Columbia's own regulation waives the fee and the annual report while leaving the attorney requirement intact [85]. Read each destination province's own tariff rather than generalising one province's waiver to the other three.

Provincial corporate tax. This turns on permanent establishment, a defined term. Where a corporation has no fixed place of business, CRA states that "it is deemed to have a permanent establishment at the place designated in its incorporation documents or bylaws as its head office or registered office" [33]; the deeming rule and the surrounding definition sit in Regulation 400(2) [47]. That is why the registered-office province is a tax decision and not merely an administrative one: for a company with no other fixed premises, it sets the province that taxes its income.

Where establishments exist in more than one province, taxable income is allocated between them using two factors — gross revenue attributable to each province, and salaries and wages paid there — under Regulation 402(3) [48], with CRA's own folio explaining how the two factors are averaged [80]. The mechanism is Schedule 5, filed with the T2 whenever the corporation has a permanent establishment in more than one jurisdiction or claims certain provincial credits [79]. CRA collects provincial corporate tax for most of the country, but Quebec and Alberta run their own systems and require their own returns [81], [28].

The error to avoid is treating a registered office as a substitute for either test. It does not create a permanent establishment where you have real premises elsewhere, and it does not excuse extra-provincial registration where you actually conduct business. The two tests can also point in opposite directions at once, which is exactly what Profile 3 shows: a listed phone number compels registration in a province where no income is allocated at all.

First-year maintenance calendar

The most common year-one failure is assuming the corporate filing and the tax filing are the same thing. Corporations Canada says otherwise: the annual return "is not your income tax return. This is a corporate law requirement. It is completely separate from any filing obligations you may have with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA)" [19].

The steady-state annual calendar

After year one the same obligations repeat, and the useful way to hold them is by what sets the clock, because nothing in this list shares a trigger with anything else.

Two consequences of missing the corporate filing. Corporations Canada's policy is that "while the law allows us to dissolve a corporation after one year of non-filing, it is our policy to only dissolve a corporation when it has not filed for two years", with "an additional 120 days to file" after a final notice [19]. Meanwhile the corporation's filings show as overdue and it "will not be able to obtain a Certificate of Compliance" [19] — exactly the document a bank or a large customer asks for.

The transparency obligations carry real penalties. A corporation that fails to file its ISC information "may be administratively dissolved", and "may be found guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding $100,000" [20], a penalty the statute itself sets in section 21.1 [44]. Directors and officers who knowingly permit a contravention face their own exposure under section 21.4 [45].

Failure modes and how to correct them

Readiness checklist

• Your immigration status, and what it permits, is confirmed by IRCC rather than inferred.
• The conditions printed on your own permit have been read, not just the category page.
• Every director meets the eligibility and residency rules of the chosen jurisdiction.
• The structure was chosen on liability and tax grounds, not by default.
• The name is cleared in the right jurisdiction, and any required report or reservation is inside its window.
• The registered office is a real, non-PO-box address in the province named in the articles.
• Any agent for service, attorney or local certificate the jurisdiction demands is in place.
• The business number was located, not duplicated, and only triggered program accounts are open.
• The GST/HST threshold is tracked continuously, and you know which rate applies where you sell.
• Extra-provincial registration is assessed for every province where you conduct business, against that province's own deadline.
• Payroll and workers' compensation are registered before the first remittance is due.
• Permits were checked for your actual activity and address, and zoning cleared before any lease.
• The minute book and ISC register exist, records are kept in Canada, and one calendar holds every deadline.

Glossary

What 2727 can and cannot support

2727 Coworking is a coworking space in Griffintown, Montreal. What it supplies is a Montreal address, mail handling and workspace under the plan actually contracted, plus desks and meeting rooms for founders who need somewhere to work in Montreal.

Because that is a Montreal address, it can be a registered office only where a Montreal address is lawfully a registered office: a corporation incorporated under the CBCA whose articles name Quebec as the registered-office province, and a corporation constituted under Quebec law. Corporations Canada's rule is explicit that the registered office "must be within the province or territory as indicated in the articles of the corporation" [18], and the CBCA says the same in section 19 [43]. For a corporation incorporated in Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia or any other province, a Montreal address is not that corporation's registered office, records office or attorney-for-service address. There it is a mailing and correspondence address, and nothing more. The index above shows how firmly each jurisdiction closes that door: British Columbia requires two offices inside British Columbia [85], Newfoundland and Labrador's Registry states that retail mail outlets "would not be accepted … as a adequate registered office address" [102], and Alberta requires a publicly accessible Alberta address that is never a designated post office box [87].

2727 does not decide whether an address satisfies a statute. It does not certify a registered office, a records office, a CRA physical address, a permanent establishment, a Quebec establishment, a director's address for service or a personal residence. It does not issue utility or property-tax bills, appoint an attorney for service, file a registration, determine CCPC status or corporate residence, or guarantee that any registry, bank or government body will accept any document. Ask the receiving body which field it is asking about and which document it accepts, then choose a plan only if the real service matches that stated use.

One boundary deserves emphasis. A mail address is not an operating establishment. Do not describe a mail plan as premises, staff or activity on a registry filing, a CRA account or a bank application; where a field means actual day-to-day activity, only actual activity belongs in it — and the address in your incorporating documents can determine which province taxes you [33]. Nor does a Montreal address create a Montreal occupancy permit: the city requires one for the activity actually conducted at a place [14].

For address roles generally, start at the business address research and the document guide. Founders not yet in Canada should read starting a business in Canada from abroad and the non-resident research first, because the address, banking and director-residency questions all change.

Research method and limitations

This page was researched and verified on 6 September 2026. Discovery used Exa semantic and keyword search to locate current official URLs, and every landed fact was then fetched directly from the publisher: the Justice Laws Website for the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act and Regulations, the Canada Business Corporations Act, the Canada Cooperatives Act, the Income Tax Regulations and the Excise Tax Act; IRCC and ESDC for immigration status and social insurance numbers; Corporations Canada and Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada for incorporation, naming, annual filings and transparency; the Canada Revenue Agency for structures, program accounts, sales tax, payroll, records and provincial allocation; each province's own legislation, fee schedule and registry site for fees, name rules, director residency and annual filings; and the Ville de Montréal for the municipal layer. Four parallel research passes covered immigration, CRA registrations, federal incorporation mechanics and the thirteen provincial registries. The full fetch log, including every failure, is in the research pack for this page.

The provincial facts in the index were verified twice. Each figure was first established by the province guide that owns it, from that jurisdiction's own official source, and this page cites the same URL rather than a restatement. Where a province guide recorded a conflict between two official sources — Prince Edward Island's two incorporation fees, Saskatchewan's worked annual-return example against its own regulation, Ontario's two dates for the annual-return transfer — the conflict is reported here as a conflict and is not resolved by preferring one side.

No fee, threshold, rate or deadline here was written from memory. Many URLs that looked correct from prior knowledge returned 404, and the current slug was located from each site's own navigation before anything was cited. Four findings contradict widely repeated guidance and were re-verified: an ordinary federal online incorporation no longer requires a Nuans report; the off-campus study permit limit is 24 hours per week rather than 20; Manitoba is now the only province or territory with a resident-Canadian director quota, several provinces having repealed theirs between 2020 and 2023; and the New West Partnership no-fee lane is available to British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba corporations but not to a federal one, which reverses the usual assumption that federal incorporation is the cheaper way to operate across the West.

Several things could not be verified and are deliberately not asserted. No official page states whether an open work permit authorizes self-employment as a general rule, and none states that an employer-specific permit forbids it. No IRCC page addresses whether a visitor may own shares in a Canadian company; the conclusion that ownership and work are separate questions is drawn from the structure of two statutes that do not cross-reference each other, not from a government statement. Both gaps survived a second research pass and remain gaps. The claim that C11 requires 51 percent ownership and the statement that ownership percentage does not matter both appear in the same official instruction, and the conflict is disclosed rather than resolved. Prince Edward Island's incorporation fee and Alberta's total incorporation cost are stated as unreconciled and unknowable respectively, for the reasons given in the index. No Quebec sole-proprietorship registration fee is stated, because the figures verified from the Registraire's tariff for this cluster are the incorporation and annual-declaration lines for a société par actions. CanLII was unreachable for this page's own research (HTTP 403 on every attempt), so federal and most provincial statutes were read on the relevant official legislation site; the single CanLII citation here is the Yukon Business Corporations Act, carried over from the Yukon province guide, which also records that yukon.ca, laws.yukon.ca and CanLII all served bot challenges and that its Yukon figures came from dated archive snapshots. Nunavut's consolidated Act is stamped current only to 1 February 2015 and five later amending Acts are not incorporated. Workers' compensation thresholds and rates were not verified in any jurisdiction and are left to each province guide. Innovation Canada's Business Benefits Finder returned no static text and is not cited. CRA's corporation tax rate page carries its own stamp of 30 May 2025; the rates quoted are what it showed on the verification date.

The arithmetic in "What the small-business rate is actually worth" is multiplication of two cited rates and is labelled as such; it is not a source, not tax advice, and it ignores the provincial layer and the shareholder's own tax entirely.

Nothing here was tested against a live application: no incorporation filed, no CRA account opened, no permit applied for, no bank approached, no registry fee paid. Immigration programs, registry fees and tax thresholds change without notice, and a page verified today can be wrong next quarter. This is educational planning material, not legal, tax, accounting, immigration or banking advice. Your immigration status is determined by IRCC alone.

Frequently asked questions

Can I start a business in Canada while on a work permit?

You can own shares regardless of permit type, because the Canada Business Corporations Act imposes no citizenship or residency requirement on shareholders [6]. Whether you may work in that business depends on your permit. An employer-specific permit names "the employer, location and occupation" and you "must comply with all the information listed" on it [8]. No IRCC page resolves the self-employment question for open permits either way, so ask IRCC about your specific permit.

Can an international student run a business in Canada?

IRCC has a "Self-employed students" section that applies the off-campus rules to self-employment, requiring you to keep "track of the hours you work off campus" [7]. The cap is 24 hours per week during a regular academic session [2]. IRCC contemplates and regulates self-employment for students; it does not expressly authorize it, so confirm your own situation with IRCC.

Can a visitor own a Canadian corporation?

Nothing in the work provisions addresses ownership, and the CBCA imposes no immigration condition on shareholders [6]. But a visitor may not work [4], and running the business is work. The business-visitor exemption cannot cover a Canadian business, because it requires that profits "remain predominately outside Canada" [3]. We found no IRCC page addressing ownership by a visitor directly.

Should I incorporate or stay a sole proprietor?

Incorporate when you have investors or co-founders, real liability exposure, profit you intend to retain in the business, or a counterparty that requires it. A sole proprietorship "does not have separate legal status from the business" and "The risks extend even to your personal property and assets" [25], but it costs nothing to maintain. A corporation's 9 percent small-business rate only helps if profit stays inside the company [28].

Do I still need a NUANS report to incorporate federally?

Not for an ordinary online incorporation. Corporations Canada states: "You don't need to order a Nuans report before incorporating online with a word name. The corporate name search is now part of the federal incorporation process" [16]. Reports are still required for revival, amalgamation and all co-operative filings, and remain "valid for 90 days only" [17]. Where one is needed, ISED prices the federal report at $13.80 [65].

When do I have to register for GST/HST?

When you stop being a small supplier and make taxable supplies in Canada. The threshold is $30,000, tested over four consecutive calendar quarters or in a single quarter — and if a single quarter takes you over, registration is effective "no later than the day of the supply that made you exceed $30,000" [30]. The threshold is set by section 148 of the Excise Tax Act [49]. Taxi and ride-share drivers must register regardless of the threshold [30].

Does incorporating federally register me everywhere in Canada?

No. Name protection is national, but "Provincial and territorial legislation requires you to register your federal corporation in each province and territory in which it will conduct business", where conducting business "typically includes: having an address, a post office box or a phone number in a province or territory, or offering services or products" there [21]. Federal incorporation can also be the more expensive option across a border: Nova Scotia charges another province's corporation nothing and a federal one $274.10 a year [112].

Can all of my directors live outside Canada?

Not under the CBCA in the ordinary case: "at least twenty-five per cent of the directors of a corporation must be resident Canadians", and "if a corporation has less than four directors, at least one director must be a resident Canadian" [6]. Most provinces impose no such rule — Manitoba is the only one that still does, requiring that "at least 25% of a corporation's directors must be residents of Canada" [35]. That difference is a common reason to incorporate provincially. But check the local-presence rule as well: Alberta wants a resident-Albertan agent for service [87] and Prince Edward Island wants a resident PEI lawyer's certificate where no director lives on the Island [100].

Which province taxes me if I work from home with no office anywhere?

The one named in your incorporating documents. Where a corporation has no fixed place of business, CRA states that "it is deemed to have a permanent establishment at the place designated in its incorporation documents or bylaws as its head office or registered office" [33], and Regulation 400(2) is the provision behind it [47]. That makes the registered-office province a tax choice, not a formality — and it is a separate question from where you must register to carry on business.

What does it actually cost to keep a corporation alive each year?

Federally, $12 for the annual return [59], plus the provincial annual filing wherever you are registered: $0 in Ontario [111], $43.39 in British Columbia [110], $53.05 in Alberta [86], $106 in Quebec [89], $150 in the Northwest Territories [105]. The cash is trivial; the risk is not. Missing the filing leads to dissolution in most jurisdictions, and in Ontario a corporation in default cannot maintain a proceeding in an Ontario court except with leave [111].

What is the difference between the annual return and the T2?

They go to different bodies for different purposes and on different clocks. The annual return is a corporate-law filing to a registrar; Corporations Canada is explicit that it "is not your income tax return … It is completely separate from any filing obligations you may have with the Canada Revenue Agency" [19]. The T2 is the tax return, due within six months of the fiscal year end [32], with the balance due two months after year end, or three for a CCPC that claimed the small business deduction [72]. Filing one does nothing for the other.

Do I need a local address in every province where I register?

In almost all of them, yes, and often a local person as well. Twelve of the thirteen jurisdictions no longer require a resident director, but most replaced that rule with a local-presence requirement: Alberta an agent for service who is a "resident Albertan" individual [87], Saskatchewan a Saskatchewan-resident attorney where no director or officer lives there [93], Quebec an attorney residing in Quebec [118], Nova Scotia a recognized agent resident in the province [112], and Newfoundland and Labrador a power of attorney naming a resident [102]. Nunavut is the exception that requires no attorney for service at all [108].

Official references

1. Department of Justice: Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations, section 2 — definition of work
2. Department of Justice: Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations, section 186 — work without a permit
3. Department of Justice: Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations, section 187 — business visitors
4. Department of Justice: Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations, section 196 — work permit required
5. Canada Revenue Agency: partnership
6. Department of Justice: Canada Business Corporations Act, section 105 — directors
7. IRCC: work off campus as an international student
8. IRCC: employer-specific work permit
9. IRCC: open work permit
10. IRCC: business owners seeking only temporary residence — R205(a), C11
11. IRCC: while you wait for a decision on your asylum claim
12. IRCC: understand permanent resident status
13. IRCC: Start-up Visa Program
14. Ville de Montréal: obtaining an occupancy permit for a commercial or professional activity
15. Employment and Social Development Canada: Social Insurance Number for temporary residents
16. Corporations Canada: services, fees and processing times
17. Corporations Canada: naming a corporation — how to get a name
18. Corporations Canada: instructions for Form 2 — initial registered office address and first board of directors
19. Corporations Canada: policy on annual filings under the Canada Business Corporations Act
20. Corporations Canada: file your individuals with significant control information
21. Corporations Canada: register a federal corporation in a province or territory
22. Corporations Canada: creating a cooperative
23. Government of Canada: choosing a business name — register your name
24. Government of Canada: incorporating in a specific province or territory
25. Canada Revenue Agency: sole proprietorship
26. Canada Revenue Agency: corporation
27. Canada Revenue Agency: type of corporation
28. Canada Revenue Agency: corporation tax rates
29. Canada Revenue Agency: program accounts you may need
30. Canada Revenue Agency: when to register for and charge GST/HST
31. Canada Revenue Agency: determine if you need to register for a payroll account
32. Canada Revenue Agency: when to file your corporation income tax return
33. Canada Revenue Agency: permanent establishment
34. Canada Revenue Agency: GST/HST and PST rates by province
35. Government of Manitoba: The Corporations Act, CCSM c. C225
36. Manitoba Companies Office: New West Partnership — business corporations
37. Department of Justice: Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, section 30 — work and study in Canada
38. Department of Justice: Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations, section 183 — conditions on temporary residents
39. Department of Justice: Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations, section 185 — conditions imposed on a work permit
40. Department of Justice: Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations, section 199 — application for a work permit after entering Canada
41. Department of Justice: Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations, section 205 — Canadian interests
42. Department of Justice: Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations, section 206 — work permits for refugee claimants
43. Department of Justice: Canada Business Corporations Act, section 19 — registered office
44. Department of Justice: Canada Business Corporations Act, section 21.1 — register of individuals with significant control
45. Department of Justice: Canada Business Corporations Act, section 21.4 — offences relating to the ISC register
46. Department of Justice: Canada Cooperatives Act
47. Department of Justice: Income Tax Regulations, section 400 — permanent establishment
48. Department of Justice: Income Tax Regulations, section 402 — provincial income allocation
49. Department of Justice: Excise Tax Act, section 148 — small supplier
50. IRCC: Self-Employed Persons Program
51. IRCC: Self-Employed Persons Program — eligibility
52. IRCC Help Centre: what kind of work counts under the immigration rules
53. IRCC Help Centre: work permits tied to a specific employer
54. IRCC Help Centre: who is considered a business visitor
55. FedDev Ontario, Small Business Services: business guide for newcomers to Canada
56. Corporations Canada: how to incorporate a business corporation
57. Corporations Canada: naming a corporation — name requirements
58. Corporations Canada: directors and officers of a business corporation
59. Corporations Canada: annual return for business corporations
60. Corporations Canada: individuals with significant control
61. Corporations Canada: corporate records and other corporate obligations
62. Corporations Canada: provincial registration of federal business corporations
63. Corporations Canada: the benefits of incorporating
64. Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada: turning an idea into a co-operative
65. Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada: NUANS federal report
66. Government of Canada: start your business
67. Government of Canada: register your business with the government
68. Government of Canada: register a federal corporation
69. Government of Canada: permits and licences
70. BizPaL: federal, provincial and municipal permits and licences finder
71. Canada Revenue Agency: T2 Corporation Income Tax Guide, chapter 4 — small business deduction
72. Canada Revenue Agency: balance-due day for corporation tax
73. Canada Revenue Agency: when you need a business number
74. Canada Revenue Agency: RC4022 general information for GST/HST registrants
75. Canada Revenue Agency: when to file your GST/HST return
76. Canada Revenue Agency: how and when to remit source deductions
77. Canada Revenue Agency: when to file information returns and slips
78. Canada Revenue Agency: where to keep your records and how long to keep them
79. Canada Revenue Agency: do you have to complete Schedule 5
80. Canada Revenue Agency: income tax folio S4-F3-C2, provincial income allocation
81. Canada Revenue Agency: provincial and territorial corporation tax
82. Government of Ontario: cost and time required to register, change or search for a business name, corporation or not-for-profit
83. Government of Ontario: Business Corporations Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. B.16
84. BC Registries and Online Services: forms and fees, corporate registry
85. Government of British Columbia: Business Corporations Act, S.B.C. 2002, c. 57
86. Government of Alberta: registry agent product catalogue
87. Alberta King's Printer: Business Corporations Act, R.S.A. 2000, c. B-9
88. Government of Alberta: register an out-of-province corporation
89. Registraire des entreprises du Québec: schedule of fees, 2026
90. Gouvernement du Québec: Business Corporations Act, CQLR c. S-31.1
91. Gouvernement du Québec: Charter of the French language, CQLR c. C-11
92. Information Services Corporation, Saskatchewan: Corporate Registry fees table
93. Government of Saskatchewan: The Business Corporations Act, 2021, S.S. 2021, c. 6
94. Manitoba Companies Office: starting a Manitoba corporation
95. Government of Nova Scotia: incorporate a limited company
96. Nova Scotia Legislature: Companies Act, R.S.N.S. 1989, c. 81
97. Service New Brunswick: Corporate Registry provincial fees
98. Government of New Brunswick: Business Corporations Act, R.S.N.B. c. B-9.1
99. Government of Prince Edward Island: setting up a new incorporated business
100. Government of Prince Edward Island: Business Corporations Act, R.S.P.E.I. 1988, Cap. B-6.01
101. Government of Newfoundland and Labrador: Registry of Companies schedule of fees
102. House of Assembly of Newfoundland and Labrador: Corporations Act, R.S.N.L. 1990, c. C-36
103. Government of Yukon: incorporate a Yukon business corporation
104. CanLII: Business Corporations Act, R.S.Y. 2002, c. 20 (Yukon)
105. Government of the Northwest Territories: Business Corporations Act Regulations, Schedule B — fees
106. Government of the Northwest Territories: Business Corporations Act, S.N.W.T. 1996, c. 19
107. Nunavut Legal Registries: Business Corporations Act fee schedule
108. Legislative Assembly of Nunavut: Business Corporations Act, consolidation
109. Manitoba Companies Office: updating a Manitoba corporation
110. BC Registries and Online Services: maintaining your BC company, information package 36
111. Government of Ontario: annual return under the Corporations Information Act, form ON00229E
112. Nova Scotia Legislature: Corporations Registration Act
113. Government of Yukon: file an annual return for a Yukon corporation
114. Government of Alberta: corporations, cooperatives and organizations — annual returns
115. Government of Ontario: articles of incorporation, form ON00224E
116. BC Registries and Online Services: approval of a business name
117. Government of Alberta: incorporate an Alberta corporation
118. Gouvernement du Québec: Act respecting the legal publicity of enterprises, CQLR c. P-44.1
119. Information Services Corporation, Saskatchewan: search and reserve a business name
120. Manitoba Companies Office: name reservations
121. Government of Nova Scotia: reserve a name for your business or non-profit
122. Service New Brunswick: business corporations
123. Government of Prince Edward Island: guide to corporate and business name rules
124. Government of Newfoundland and Labrador: corporate name
125. Government of Yukon: fees to reserve a business or non-profit name
126. Government of the Northwest Territories: how to incorporate a business
127. Nunavut Legal Registries: name search and reservation package
128. Manitoba Companies Office: starting an extra-provincial corporation
129. Gouvernement du Québec: annual updating declaration
130. Government of Prince Edward Island: Business Corporations Act Business Corporations Regulations
131. Government of Newfoundland and Labrador: annual returns
132. Government of Saskatchewan: The Business Corporations Regulations, 2023
133. Government of the Northwest Territories: extra-territorial corporations
134. Nunavut Legal Registries: business corporations incorporation guide