Start a business in Nunavut

Direct answer

Nunavut incorporation is filed on paper under a Business Corporations Act inherited from the Northwest Territories: you print, sign and scan Forms 1, 2 and 4, e-mail them to Legal Registries in Iqaluit, and give a credit card by telephone. The territorial fee is $300, a name reservation is $25 and the annual return is $70. Nunavut imposes no director residency requirement at all, so a board may be entirely non-resident, but the registered office must be a specific civic address inside Nunavut that is open to the public during business hours, and a post office box is expressly insufficient. There is no territorial sales tax, so only 5% GST applies, and corporate rates are 3% and 12% on a $500,000 business limit. A 2% payroll tax is withheld from employees. Nunavut runs no nominee program, so a founder abroad has only federal routes. Two obligations have no southern equivalent: Inuktut signage and service duties, and Article 24 procurement.

What is actually different about Nunavut

Most province guides differ in fees and form numbers. Nunavut differs in kind, in four ways that change how you plan.

The corporate statute is not Nunavut's own drafting. The Business Corporations Act in force is S.N.W.T. 1996, c.19, in force 1 April 1998 and carried into the new territory at division in 1999; the consolidation still bears that citation, and its amendment table runs through Northwest Territories statutes, then statutes enacted under section 76.05 of the Nunavut Act, then Nunavut's own. [10] Nunavut and the Northwest Territories therefore share a corporate-law architecture, so the Northwest Territories guide will read as familiar, while Yukon drafted its own.

That consolidation is also stale, and the government says so: its landing page warns it is not up to date and lists five subsequent amending provisions — S.Nu. 2017,c.22,s.1; 2021,c.19,s.90; 2023,c.17,s.2; 2025,c.14,s.10; and 2025,c.15,s.1. [9] Every section number below was read in that consolidation, current only to 1 February 2015, so check the amendments before relying on one.

Third, there is no online filing: the registry's modernization page describes electronic registration as a phased programme whose first phase commenced 1 September 2008, permitting filings as PDF attachments by e-mail, and every current guide describes e-mail, fax, mail or hand delivery and nothing else. [5] Fourth, two obligations exist here in a form found nowhere else in Canada: a statutory duty on every private business to operate in Inuktut, and a treaty-based procurement regime under the Nunavut Agreement.

Nunavut at a glance

Legal forms and what the registry calls them

Corporate Registries incorporates businesses, societies and co-operative associations, registers companies incorporated elsewhere but carrying on business in Nunavut, and registers partnerships, sole proprietorships and certain business names. Everything it holds is public, and changes to a corporation's name, objectives, share structure or by-laws need the Registrar's approval. [1]

A territorial corporation is Nunavut's equivalent of a provincial corporation; an extra-territorial corporation is one formed elsewhere — another province, the federal jurisdiction or a foreign country — that registers because it carries on business in Nunavut. Both sit in the same registry under the same name rules. A society is the non-profit form under the Societies Act, and incorporating is optional. [1]

A sole proprietorship or general partnership files a declaration under the Partnership Act instead, on a strict clock: anyone forming a partnership, using a business name other than their own, or adding words such as "and company" to their own name for trading, manufacturing or mining must file within 60 days of forming the partnership or first using the name. [7] That declaration costs $50 and a change $25; dissolving or ceasing to use a name is free, and a limited partnership certificate is $200. [8]

Clearing the name

Nunavut does not use NUANS. The Registrar searches its own database, covering "all territorial and extra-territorial corporations, partnerships, and business names," then grants or refuses the name against the Act and regulations. A granted name is reserved for 90 days, renewable in further 90-day blocks if you file before it expires; once lapsed, you start again. [4] The authority is section 11(2), and the prohibited-name test in section 12(1) blocks names identical or confusingly similar to a Nunavut body corporate, a registered extra-territorial corporation, a Canada corporation, a reserved name or a registered trade-mark. [10]

Two exemptions save time and money: no name search is required for a corporation incorporated under an Act of the Parliament of Canada, which is why a federal corporation registering extra-territorially skips the step, and none is required for a numbered company, where the Registry assigns the number and there is no name fee at all. [2]

Reserving is not compulsory, but skipping it means the name is searched when the articles are filed, registration is slower, and you risk refusal or unanticipated conditions. The registry is also candid about a gap in its own protection: a reservation "is not an absolute guarantee that the name will be available," because a federal corporation, partnership or business name with a similar name may register during your reservation period and the Registrar has no authority to refuse those registrations. [4]

The name must end with Limited, Limitée, Incorporated, Incorporée, Corporation or Société, or Ltd., Ltée, Inc. or Corp.; non-corporate use of those words is an offence with a fine up to $10,000. A name may be English, French, both or combined — and section 10(5) permits words in a language other than English or French in accordance with the regulations, the statutory hook for an Inuktut corporate name. [10]

Filing the incorporation

To receive a Certificate of Incorporation you submit a Name Search and Reservation request (unless taking a number), Form 1 Articles of Incorporation, Form 2 Notice of Registered Office and Form 4 Notice of Directors. [2]

Three drafting points inside Form 1 are worth getting right first time. All shares must be without nominal or par value, and you need not cap authorized shares. The number of directors may be a range or fixed, but cumulative voting requires a fixed number and a distributing corporation needs at least three. Restrictions on business are usually "NONE" — though sections 15 and 16 independently bar a BCA corporation from insurance, trust, stock exchange, railway, steamship, air transport, canal, telegraph, telephone and irrigation business. [2]

The mechanics are what southern founders get wrong. You print the forms, sign by hand — a director, officer or solicitor may sign, stating their relationship to the company — and scan them as PDFs at a minimum of 300 dpi. E-mail submissions must be paid by credit card, and the card cannot travel by e-mail: you telephone Legal Registries to put one on file, and the guide says so in capitals, "DO NOT INCLUDE CREDIT CARD INFORMATION IN ANY EMAIL CORRESPONDENCE." You then e-mail the PDFs with the subject line "Territorial Incorporation – [Name of Company]". Mailed submissions may pay by cheque or money order to the Government of Nunavut. [5]

A deficient package is returned with an explanation and no fee charged — forgiving, but it still costs a round trip, and no Nunavut source publishes a processing time, so ask when you submit.

The registered office rule

Section 19(1) requires a registered office at all times at the place within Nunavut specified in the articles. The articles name a broad municipal place such as "Iqaluit, Nunavut" rather than a street — deliberately, because moving within the same community then avoids articles of amendment and their $100 fee. The address itself goes on Form 2, where the instruction is unambiguous: "The Corporation's registered office address must be a specific civic address within the place specified in Form 1. Please note that a post office box number is not sufficient." [2]

The statute reinforces this. A PO box designated for service by mail may not double as the registered or records office. Both offices must be accessible to the public during normal business hours and readily identifiable from the filed address. Unless a separate records office is designated the registered office is also the records office — where the articles, by-laws, shareholder minutes, securities register, financial statements and section 121 disclosure register must be kept. Changes must be notified within 15 days. [10] Read together, the test is clear: a Nunavut registered office is a real, findable door in a Nunavut community, open during business hours — not a mail drop and not a southern address.

Two licence layers

Nunavut is one of the few jurisdictions with a territorial business licence above the municipal layer, and their interaction is the most-missed compliance point on this page.

The Business Licence Act is itself inherited — R.S.N.W.T. 1988, c.B-4, consolidated only to 12 January 2011. Section 3 is flat: "No person shall carry on a business unless he or she is registered or holds a licence issued under this Act and the regulations." It applies to all businesses carried on in Nunavut, carving out businesses licensed under another Act, farmers and trappers, taxis and vehicle rental within a municipality, federal Crown-land permit holders and newspaper publishing. A licence runs from issue to the following 31 March, the fee is payable per establishment, and operating without one costs up to $25 a day for an individual and $100 a day for a corporation. The application must also state the arrangements made to comply with the Workers' Compensation Act, and the Minister may refuse or cancel a licence where an employer required to carry coverage has not complied. [11] The fee is set by regulation at $50, fixed by R-016-2023 registered on 9 June 2023. [12]

Now the displacement rule. The Municipal Business Exemption Regulations provide that "a business that is carried on within any municipality having by-laws governing the issuance of business licences is exempt from the Business Licence Act." [13] The layers do not stack: in a community that licenses by by-law you take the municipal licence, and in one that does not you take the $50 territorial licence. Which applies is a question about your specific community, and no consolidated official list of which Nunavut municipalities license by by-law was located for this guide.

Iqaluit does license. The City states that "anyone conducting business within Iqaluit, either wholly or partially, is required to hold a valid business license," that licences "must be renewed annually," and — the sequencing point — that you must obtain your WSCC certificate of compliance because "this a requirement for all businesses and your license cannot be processed without it." The City does not publish the fee on its application page, so confirm the amount rather than budgeting a guess. [24] So the order is: incorporate, register with the WSCC, obtain the clearance, then apply for the licence.

Tax accounts

Start with the federal business number. The CRA issues the BN and its program accounts, and publishes two registration routes: one for Canadian residents with a valid Social Insurance Number, and one for non-residents doing business in Canada, including businesses incorporated or located outside Canada. Which you use depends on your own status, not the corporation's jurisdiction. [21]

Sales tax here is the simplest arrangement in Canada. The CRA's rate table shows Nunavut at 5% GST and 0% PST — no territorial sales tax, so no second registration, no second return and no place-of-supply complexity within the territory. [19] Registration becomes mandatory once you stop being a small supplier: $30,000 in taxable supplies over four consecutive calendar quarters, or $50,000 for charities and public service bodies, with registration due within 29 days. [20] If you also sell into other provinces, see the sales-tax comparison.

Corporate income tax follows the CRA's territorial table: a 3% lower rate and a 12% higher rate, separated by a $500,000 business limit. Unlike several provinces the table carries no footnote dating a change, so treat the rates as current rather than newly legislated. [18] There is no separate territorial corporate return, a real saving against Alberta or Quebec, where a second return goes to the province.

Then the levy that surprises everyone. Nunavut charges a payroll tax of 2% of the taxable remuneration of each employee who normally works in Nunavut — and it falls on the employee, not the employer, with the employer withholding at source. Employers must register with the Government of Nunavut within 21 days of the first remuneration paid to an employee. An employee who does not normally work in Nunavut is exempt on Nunavut remuneration of $5,000 or less a year and taxed on the full amount above it; "normally works" means working there more than half the days worked for that employer in the year. It is governed by the Payroll Tax Act and its regulations. [16] Hire one person in Iqaluit and this registration is due in three weeks — and it is not administered by the CRA.

Workers' safety and compensation

The Workers' Safety and Compensation Commission serves the Northwest Territories and Nunavut as a single commission, so rules, forms and portal are shared. Registration is compulsory: "all employers who operate or establish a business in the Northwest Territories and/or Nunavut must register with the WSCC," unless they meet the Temporary Employer criteria in Policy 00.05.01, and employers who fail to register must pay a penalty. Accounts are registered within three business days — the only published service standard found anywhere in this research. [22]

Rates are collective rather than experience-rated, set by industry subclass with independent actuaries and reviewed annually. In 2026 the average provisional assessment rate is $2.40 per $100 of assessable payroll — a commission-wide starting point, not any particular employer's rate. The earnings ceiling is territory-specific: the 2026 Year's Maximum Insurable Remuneration is $117,300 for Nunavut and $116,000 for the Northwest Territories, figures separate only since 2025. [23]

Two points matter for an owner-managed corporation: the WSCC clearance is a prerequisite for the Iqaluit business licence, so this registration sits early in the sequence [24], and coverage is not automatic for the people running the company — a director, an owner with workers and a self-employed person with no workers all fall outside it, and must apply for Personal Optional Coverage.

Inuktut: the language duty every business carries

Nunavut has three official languages. Section 3(1) of the Official Languages Act provides that "Inuktut, English and French are the Official Languages of Nunavut," with equality of status and equal rights and privileges in territorial institutions, and the preamble affirms an inherent Inuit right to use Inuktut in full equality with the others. [15]

The private-sector duty sits in a separate statute: the Inuktut Protection Act, C.S.Nu., c.I-140, consolidated to 18 September 2025 and amended by S.Nu. 2025, c.22 — formerly the Inuit Language Protection Act. Its definition of "private sector body" is deliberately wide: "a corporation, partnership, sole-proprietorship, society, association, cooperative, union or other non-government entity operating in Nunavut." Section 3(1) requires every organization, private bodies included, to display its public signs — including emergency and exit signs — in Inuktut together with any other language used; to display and issue posters and commercial advertising in Inuktut; to keep the Inuktut text at least equally prominent with any other language used; and to provide, in Inuktut, its reception services and any customer or client services available to the general public. [14]

Some sectors carry more. Section 3(2) requires particular services to be delivered in Inuktut — essential services including emergency, rescue, health, medical and pharmaceutical, and household, residential or hospitality services including restaurants, hotels, lodging, housing and the supply of electricity, fuel, water and telecommunications. For those, sections 3(3) and 3(4) extend the duty to notices, warnings, instructions and monthly bills and invoices, orally and in writing. Relief is adjudicated, not self-assessed: under section 3(5) the Languages Commissioner or the Nunavut Court of Justice may substitute a less onerous requirement, either where the body exists mainly to promote a non-Inuit linguistic or cultural community or on undue-hardship grounds. [14]

If you know Quebec's Charter of the French Language, the analogy is close, and the planning conclusion is the same: budget for translation and Inuktut-capable staffing from the start, not as a remediation project.

Coming in from another jurisdiction

If your corporation exists elsewhere and will operate in Nunavut, you register extra-territorially rather than incorporating again. With the sole exception of licensed insurance companies, all extra-territorial corporations carrying on business in Nunavut must be registered, and section 281(1) sets the deadline at before or within 30 days after commencing to carry on business. [6]

Section 279 defines "carrying on business" broadly, and the triggers are lower than most founders assume: a name listed in a Nunavut telephone directory; a name in any advertisement giving a Nunavut address; a resident agent or representative, warehouse, office or place of business there; soliciting business in Nunavut; owning any estate or interest in Nunavut land; being or needing to be licensed under a Nunavut Act; or otherwise carrying on business or operations there. [10]

The filing package is heavier than an incorporation: a name search — unless you are a numbered or federal company — plus Form 18 Statement of Registration, Form 21 Notice of Registered Office in duplicate, certified true copies of the charter and every amendment, and a certificate of status or good standing dated no more than 30 days before submission. The charter copy must be certified by the home registry or notarially; Form 18 must be originally signed by a director or officer and list all directors with postal and physical addresses. Where the charter is not in English or French, section 282(2) lets the Registrar require a verified translation. [6]

The fee splits by purpose: $300 if the corporation carries on business for gain, $100 if it does not. [3] And if your existing name fails Nunavut's test you need not rename the company: you register under your own name and carry on business under an approved assumed name, itself searched and reserved for a fee. [6]

A registered extra-territorial corporation must at all times have a registered office in Nunavut, and section 287(5) applies the same accessibility and identifiability tests. Nunavut requires no attorney for service and no resident agent as a separate appointment — the Nunavut registered office is the whole address obligation, a meaningful contrast with jurisdictions requiring a named resident agent and one discussed in the federal-versus-provincial comparison. [10]

Article 24, the NNI and Inuit firm status

In most of Canada public procurement is policy. In Nunavut it is treaty. Article 24 of the Nunavut Agreement governs government contracts, defining a "government contract" to include the supply of goods, construction, services and leases. Section 24.2.1 obliges both governments directly: "The Government of Canada and the Territorial Government shall provide reasonable support and assistance to Inuit firms in accordance with this Article to enable them to compete for government contracts." Sections 24.3.1 and 24.3.4 then require Canada to maintain procurement policies respecting Inuit firms for federal contracts in the Nunavut Settlement Area, and the Territorial Government to maintain preferential procurement policies. [28]

The Government of Nunavut implements its half through the NNI — Nunavummi Nangminiqaqtunik Ikajuuti. An Inuit Firm complies with the legal requirements to carry on business in the Nunavut Settlement Area and is either a limited company with at least 51% of voting shares beneficially owned by Inuit, a co-operative controlled by Inuit, or an Inuk sole proprietorship or partnership — and can show inclusion on the Inuit Firms Registry. Bid adjustments are tiered: 5% at the 51% test, an additional 5% at 76% or higher demonstrated Inuit ownership, and a further 5% at 100%. Where Inuit labour is identified the adjustment is 15% for that labour, and cumulative adjustments may never exceed 25%. For goods-only tenders the adjustment applies to the first $125,000 of bid value. Complaints about how the NNI was applied go to an independent five-member NNI Tribunal, two of whose members are nominated by Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated. [26]

Inuit firm status is not self-declared. The Inuit Firm Registry is maintained by Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated, which classifies firms by ownership band — Class 1 at 51–75%, Class 2 at 76–99%, Class 3 at 100% — citing Article 24 as its legal basis. [27]

The parallel Nunavut Business status carries the requirement that decides most southern plans. It must be wholly owned by Nunavut residents, Nunavut businesses, NTI, the Nunavut Trust or Regional Inuit Organizations, must re-demonstrate compliance biennially, and must maintain "a registered office in Nunavut by leasing or owning office, commercial or industrial space or in the case of service oriented businesses, residential space, in Nunavut, on an annual basis for the primary purpose of operating the business" — space subject to inspection by the responsible department. [26] No mailing address anywhere creates that status.

On financing, the verified territorial instrument is the Nunavut Business Credit Corporation, providing loans or guarantees between $150,000 and $5 million. Its mandatory requirements are that the enterprise must be carrying on business in Nunavut, that the applicant either cannot borrow from a financial institution on reasonable terms or operates in a community without a branch, and that security be provided. [17] No Nunavut research-and-development credit or small-business grant was located on a stable official page; the 3% small-business rate is the main standing tax incentive.

Immigration streams tied to Nunavut

There are none, and IRCC says so in one sentence. Eleven of Canada's thirteen provinces and territories operate a Provincial Nominee Program — Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, the Northwest Territories, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Saskatchewan and Yukon. IRCC states plainly: "Quebec and Nunavut don't have programs." [25]

This is a structural gap, not a documentation gap, and it separates Nunavut from both its neighbours: the Northwest Territories and Yukon each run nominee programs with entrepreneur streams. In Nunavut there is no entrepreneur stream, no business nominee category and no territorial endorsement, so a founder needing status must use federal programs judged on their own criteria. The interaction between immigration status, corporate residency and control is set out on the founder-abroad track; the resident-side sequence is on the founder-in-Canada track.

If you are outside Canada

Nunavut is unusually permissive about who may own and direct a corporation and unusually strict about where its office must be. That asymmetry is most of what a non-resident needs to understand.

Director residency: there is no requirement. Section 102(2) says only that "a corporation shall have one or more directors." Section 106(1) then lists exhaustively who is disqualified: a person who is not an individual, an individual under 19, an individual subject to an involuntary-admission certificate or a trusteeship order or found of unsound mind, and an undischarged bankrupt. Residency and citizenship appear nowhere. The Act does define "resident Canadian" — a citizen ordinarily resident in Canada, a prescribed class of non-resident citizen, or a permanent resident under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act — but that definition is operative only in section 26, the optional constrained-share provision a corporation may adopt to limit non-resident shareholding. It imposes nothing on a board. [10] A Nunavut corporation may therefore have a single director who has never entered Canada, placing Nunavut with Alberta and British Columbia rather than with the federal Canada Business Corporations Act and its resident-Canadian quota — a trade-off set out in the federal-versus-provincial comparison.

The registered office is where non-resident plans actually fail. Section 19(1) requires the office to be at the place within Nunavut named in the articles; the registry requires a specific civic address and states a post office box "is not sufficient"; and section 19(6) requires the office to be accessible to the public during normal business hours and readily identifiable. [2] A founder abroad therefore needs a real Nunavut address with someone behind the door — a law office, an accounting firm, a partner's premises or leased space in the community. No address outside Nunavut, in Montreal or anywhere else, can satisfy section 19(1). And because the registered office is also the records office unless you designate a separate one, that address is where your minute book, securities register and financial statements are legally required to sit.

What you can do remotely, precisely. A good deal, because nothing requires attendance. You can file by e-mail: print, sign by hand, scan at 300 dpi, send the PDFs. You cannot pay online — e-mail submissions require a credit card placed on file by telephone, never sent by e-mail. [5] So budget one international call to Legal Registries in Iqaluit during Nunavut business hours. [1] If you are registering an existing foreign corporation extra-territorially instead, document logistics are the constraint rather than travel: certified true copies of the charter certified by your home registry or a notary, a certificate of good standing no more than 30 days old, an original wet signature from a director or officer, and possibly a verified translation. [6]

Immigration gives you nothing territorial. With no nominee program there is no Nunavut endorsement to seek and no territorial entrepreneur stream. [25] Incorporating in Nunavut also confers no immigration status of any kind: forming a corporation and obtaining permission to live and work in Canada are separate processes on separate criteria.

Tax and banking consequences. Non-resident ownership does not change Nunavut's rates — 5% GST with no territorial sales tax, and 3% or 12% corporate income tax on a $500,000 limit. [19] [18] It changes two things at the CRA: you register for a BN through the non-resident route rather than the SIN-based one [21], and GST/HST registration without a permanent establishment generally brings a security requirement of 50% of estimated net tax, minimum $5,000 and maximum $1 million, unless estimated annual taxable sales are $100,000 or less. [20]

Banking is the step no registry controls. A Nunavut certificate of incorporation does not open an account: a Canadian financial institution runs its own identification, beneficial-ownership and address review, and the address it sees must have one truthful role. Work through business addresses and their roles, the non-resident overview and opening from abroad before you apply.

Common failure modes

Filing a PO box as the registered office, or a street address in Form 1. A post office box "is not sufficient" and section 19(4) forbids a mail-service box from doubling as the registered office; Item 2, by contrast, wants the broad municipal place, and naming a street means a later move within the same community triggers articles of amendment and a $100 fee that correct drafting avoids. Sole proprietors and partnerships have a separate trap: the business-name declaration is due within 60 days. [7]

Taking the wrong licence, or none. Businesses in a municipality that licenses by by-law are exempt from the territorial Act; businesses elsewhere are not, and unlicensed operation costs a corporation up to $100 a day. [13] [11]

Letting a filing lapse into dissolution. The Registrar may dissolve where a required document is not received within one year of its due date, where any fee is unpaid, where there is no registered office address, or where there are no directors — after 60 days' notice and publication in the Nunavut Gazette. [10]

Annual maintenance calendar

Readiness checklist

• A specific civic address in a named Nunavut community, open to the public during business hours, with someone able to receive service there, and a decision on whether it is also the records office
• A name cleared through the Registrar's own database, or a numbered company
• Forms 1, 2 and 4 completed, with the broad municipal place in Form 1 Item 2 and the civic address in Form 2
• Wet signatures on every form scanned at a minimum of 300 dpi, and a credit card ready to be read to Legal Registries by telephone
• A determination of whether your community licenses businesses by by-law, and the resulting application — after WSCC registration, since the certificate of compliance gates the municipal licence
• Payroll-tax registration with the Government of Nunavut diarised for 21 days after the first remuneration
• A BN, plus GST registration if you exceed or expect to exceed $30,000, using the non-resident route if that is your status
• Inuktut signage, advertising and public-facing service planned and costed, not deferred
• If bidding on government work: a decision on Inuit Firm or Nunavut Business registration, and the Nunavut space the latter requires

What 2727 can and cannot support

2727 Coworking is in Griffintown, Montreal. Being precise about what that can and cannot do for a Nunavut plan matters more here than in most provinces.

What it cannot be. A 2727 address cannot be the registered office of a Nunavut corporation: section 19(1) requires that office to be at the place within Nunavut specified in the articles, and no Quebec address satisfies it — nor can it serve an extra-territorial corporation registered in Nunavut, since section 287(1) requires that office to be in Nunavut too. [10] It cannot create Nunavut Business status, which requires leased or owned space in Nunavut held for the primary purpose of operating the business and subject to inspection [26], and it has nothing to do with Inuit Firm status, which turns on Inuit beneficial ownership and inclusion on NTI's registry. [27] No registry, bank, department, the WSCC, the NNI Secretariat or NTI has told us they accept any 2727 document, and we make no such claim.

What it can be. A 2727 address is a legitimate registered office for a federal or a Quebec corporation, and a mailing or correspondence address for anyone. If your plan is really a Canadian business selling into Nunavut from a southern base rather than one operating in a Nunavut community, a federal corporation with a Quebec registered office, extra-territorially registered in Nunavut once the section 279 triggers are met, may fit better than a Nunavut corporation — a genuinely different structure, described in the federal-corporation scenario and the banking pages. Start from the business-address overview for address roles, and the start-a-business hub to compare jurisdictions.

Research method and limitations

Verified 6 September 2026. Every fee, rate, threshold, deadline and section number on this page was read in an official artefact fetched on that date and recorded in this page's research pack, never recalled from memory. Sources were limited to Nunavut's legislation site, Nunavut Legal Registries, the Government of Nunavut, the WSCC, the City of Iqaluit, the CRA, IRCC, the Nunavut Agreement itself, the NNI Secretariat and Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated.

Constraints, stated plainly. Semantic search and web search were both unavailable, so discovery was done by walking official sites' link structures directly; CanLII returned HTTP 403, so Nunavut's own legislation site was used for every statute — the higher-tier source in any event. The Business Corporations Act consolidation is current only to 1 February 2015 and its landing page lists five later amending provisions; those amending Acts were not opened, so verify any section quoted here before relying on it.

Not verified, and stated as unverified rather than estimated: any registry processing time for incorporation, extra-territorial registration or a name reservation, none of which Nunavut publishes; the City of Iqaluit licence fee, absent from its application page; which Nunavut municipalities license by by-law, and therefore where the $50 territorial licence is operative; the effective dates of the 3% and 12% corporate rates; and any Nunavut research-and-development credit or small-business grant. No banking outcome was tested and no address was submitted to any registry.

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

Frequently asked questions

Can all the directors of a Nunavut corporation live outside Canada?

Yes. Section 102(2) requires one or more directors and section 106(1) lists the disqualifications — not an individual, under 19, subject to a mental-health or trusteeship order, or an undischarged bankrupt. Residency and citizenship appear nowhere in the qualification provisions.

Can I incorporate in Nunavut online?

No. The registry's modernization programme is still at the phase permitting signed, scanned PDFs by e-mail, which began in 2008. You print, sign by hand, scan at 300 dpi and e-mail, or use fax, mail or hand delivery. There is no transactional online portal.

Can I use a post office box as the registered office?

No. The registry states expressly that a post office box "is not sufficient" and requires a specific civic address, and the Act forbids a mail-service box from doubling as the registered or records office. The office must also be accessible to the public during normal business hours.

Does Nunavut have a sales tax?

No. The CRA's rate table shows Nunavut at 5% GST and 0% PST. You register for GST once you exceed $30,000 in taxable supplies over four consecutive calendar quarters, and there is no second territorial registration or return.

Is the 2% payroll tax paid by the employer?

No — it falls on the employee, on the taxable remuneration of each employee who normally works in Nunavut, and the employer withholds it at source. The employer's own obligation is to register with the Government of Nunavut within 21 days of the first remuneration paid.

Does Nunavut have a nominee program for entrepreneurs?

No. IRCC states that Quebec and Nunavut are the two jurisdictions without a Provincial Nominee Program, so there is no Nunavut entrepreneur stream and no territorial endorsement. A founder needing status must use federal programs, and incorporating confers no immigration status by itself.

Do I really have to put up Inuktut signage?

Yes, if you operate in Nunavut. The Inuktut Protection Act binds every "private sector body" — corporations, partnerships and sole proprietorships included — to Inuktut public signs, posters and commercial advertising at least equally prominent with any other language, plus Inuktut reception and public-facing customer service. Relief requires a decision by the Languages Commissioner or the court.

Does being a Nunavut corporation make me an Inuit firm?

No. Inuit Firm status requires at least 51% of voting shares beneficially owned by Inuit, an Inuit-controlled co-operative, or an Inuk sole proprietorship or partnership, plus inclusion on Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated's Inuit Firm Registry. Incorporating in Nunavut is a precondition of doing business there, not a route to that status.

Official references

1. Nunavut Legal Registries: Corporate Registries
2. Nunavut Legal Registries: Guide — Territorial Incorporation
3. Nunavut Legal Registries: Business Corporations Act Fee Schedule
4. Nunavut Legal Registries: Guide — Name Search and Reservation
5. Nunavut Legal Registries: Guide — Corporate Registries Submissions
6. Nunavut Legal Registries: Guide — Extra-Territorial Registration
7. Nunavut Legal Registries: Partnerships and Business Names
8. Nunavut Legal Registries: Partnership Act Fee Schedule
9. Nunavut Legislation: Business Corporations Act, Consolidation of
10. Nunavut Legislation: Business Corporations Act, consolidated text
11. Nunavut Legislation: Business Licence Act, Consolidation of
12. Nunavut Legislation: Business Licence and Registration Fee Regulations, R-016-2023
13. Nunavut Legislation: Municipal Business Exemption Regulations
14. Nunavut Legislation: Inuktut Protection Act, Official Consolidation of
15. Nunavut Legislation: Official Languages Act, Official Consolidation of
16. Government of Nunavut: Payroll Tax
17. Nunavut Business Credit Corporation: Mandatory Requirements
18. Canada Revenue Agency: Corporation tax rates
19. Canada Revenue Agency: GST/HST rates by province and territory
20. Canada Revenue Agency: When to register for and start charging the GST/HST
21. Canada Revenue Agency: Register for a business number
22. Workers' Safety and Compensation Commission: Register a Business
23. Workers' Safety and Compensation Commission: Employer Rates
24. City of Iqaluit: Apply for a Business Licence
25. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada: Provincial Nominee Program
26. Government of Nunavut: Plain Language Guide to the NNI
27. Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated: Inuit Firm Registry
28. Nunavut Agreement: Article 24, Government Contracts