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. The registry publishes the Act and a separate consolidated set of Business Corporations Regulations from its own Business Corporations Act page, which is also where it lists the filings the Act compels after incorporation: annual returns, amendments, revivals, dissolutions, name changes, amalgamations, continuances and liquidations. [30]

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. [33] [5] That programme has now stood at Phase 1 for eighteen years. 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. [31] [32] 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. [35]

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]

Some businesses cannot use the Business Corporations Act at all. The registry's own FAQ lists the excluded classes, which are incorporated under different statutes: railway, steamship, air transport, canal, telegraph, telephone, irrigation, mortgage, banking, insurance, loan and trust companies and other financial institutions, co-operatives, Chambers of Commerce, and not-for-profit corporations. Everything else may incorporate, and the registry states there is no minimum company size. One or more individuals may form a corporation, and so may one or more companies or "bodies corporate" — a corporate incorporator is permitted even though, as below, a corporate director is not. [29]

The complete fee table

Nunavut publishes three separate fee schedules, one per statute. Together they are the entire cost of dealing with the registry; there is no service charge, no expedite option and no online-filing discount, because there is no online filing.

Two structural points follow from this table. First, the cheap filings are the compliance filings — notices of directors and of registered office cost nothing, so there is never a financial reason to let the registry's picture of your corporation go stale. Second, corrections are expensive relative to the original: articles of amendment cost $100 against a $300 incorporation, which is why the drafting choices in Form 1 below repay care.

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] The registry publishes Forms 1 to 27 with separate instruction sheets, each in an English and a French version, so the forms themselves are bilingual even though the guides are not. [34]

You do not need a lawyer. The registry says so directly — "a lawyer is not necessary to incorporate," though one may help where the incorporator is inexperienced or the structure is complicated — and pairs it with the limit that matters: "Registry staff cannot provide legal advice concerning your incorporation." You also do not need a corporate seal; a corporation under the Act is not required to have one. [29]

Form 1, Articles of Incorporation

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]

Item 2 of Form 1 is the one that quietly costs money later. It names the place within Nunavut where the registered office sits, and the guide wants a broad municipal description — "Iqaluit, Nunavut" — rather than a street. That is deliberate: the directors may move the office anywhere within the named place without touching the articles, whereas a street address written into Item 2 turns an ordinary move across town into articles of amendment at $100. [2] [3]

Form 2, Notice of Registered Office — and the registered-office rule

Section 19(1) requires a registered office at all times at the place within Nunavut specified in the articles. 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 registry explains why, and in doing so supplies the accommodation that matters most in Nunavut. The purpose of the registered office is "to have a location for service of a notice or document required to be sent or served on a corporation," and the corporation's records are usually kept there. So the office "must include a street address as well as the postal address if different." But the registry then addresses the reality of a territory where most communities have no street grid: "Where it is impossible for a corporation to have a street address (certain remote communities within the Territories do not have street addresses) then a detailed description of the Registered Office location is required. This may be a lot, block and plan or a house number." [29]

That is a genuine accommodation, and it is not a loophole. A lot-block-and-plan description is a more precise identification of a physical place than a street address, not a weaker one. What remains prohibited is the mail drop: a post office box alone, wherever it is.

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, and that notice is free. [10] [3] Read together, the test is clear: a Nunavut registered office is a real, findable place in a Nunavut community, open during business hours, where a process server can hand someone a document — not a mail drop and not a southern address.

Form 4, Notice of Directors

Form 4 lists the directors. Two constraints bind it. Section 106(1) disqualifies anyone who is not an individual, anyone under 19, anyone under an involuntary-admission certificate or trusteeship order or found of unsound mind, and an undischarged bankrupt; residency and citizenship appear nowhere. [10] The registry states the first of those as a flat rule in its FAQ: "Can a corporation act as a director on the Board of Directors? No, directors must be individuals." [29]

Section 106(3) adds a trap that catches founders who paper a board optimistically: an elected or appointed individual is not a director unless they were present and did not refuse, or consented in writing before the appointment or within 10 days after it. Naming someone on Form 4 does not make them a director; their consent does. [10]

The submission mechanics

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. Substitute forms are accepted if identical in format on 8½ × 11 paper, and "N/A" must be written wherever an item does not apply. [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 for any corporate filing, so ask when you submit. This is worth stating precisely rather than guessing: across the registry index, all eight guides, the modernization page and the fee schedules, no service standard for incorporation, extra-territorial registration or a name reservation appears anywhere. The only published turnaround found in this entire research pass belongs to a different agency — the WSCC's three business days to open an employer account. [22]

A worked example: incorporating a two-person consultancy in Iqaluit

The following is a composite illustration. The founder is invented; every fee, deadline and rule in it is the registry's own and carries its citation. It exists because Nunavut's sequence has dependencies that a checklist hides — in particular, the workers' compensation registration that gates the municipal business licence.

Two consultants intend to trade as an incorporated firm from leased office space in Iqaluit, with one employee joining in month two. Neither has a Nunavut connection beyond the lease.

Step 1 — reserve the name ($25). They complete the Name Search and Reservation form and e-mail it. There is no NUANS to buy; the Registrar searches Nunavut's own database of territorial and extra-territorial corporations, partnerships and business names. Approval reserves the name for 90 days. They note the registry's own warning that the reservation is not absolute — a federal corporation with a similar name could register during the window and the Registrar could not refuse it — so they treat the 90 days as a deadline, not a cushion. [4]

Step 2 — draft Forms 1, 2 and 4. Item 2 of Form 1 reads "Iqaluit, Nunavut", not the street, so a later move within Iqaluit costs nothing instead of $100. Shares are without par value. Restrictions on business are "NONE". Form 2 carries the actual civic address of the leased office. Form 4 names both founders, and each signs a written consent, because section 106(3) means an unconsented appointee is simply not a director. [2] [10]

Step 3 — telephone the registry. Before sending anything they call Legal Registries in Iqaluit to place a credit card on file, because e-mail submissions must be paid by card and card details must never be e-mailed. For a founder in a different time zone this single call, during Nunavut business hours, is the step most likely to add a day. [5]

Step 4 — sign, scan, send ($300). The forms are printed, signed in wet ink by a director, scanned at no less than 300 dpi, and e-mailed with the subject line "Territorial Incorporation – [Name of Company]". If anything is deficient the package comes back with no fee charged. They cannot put a date on the certificate, because the registry publishes no turnaround. [5] [3]

Step 5 — register with the WSCC, before the licence. This is the ordering that catches people. The City of Iqaluit will not process a business licence without a WSCC certificate of compliance, so workers' compensation registration comes first, not last. Registration is compulsory for all employers operating or establishing a business in Nunavut, failure to register carries a penalty, and the WSCC opens the account within three business days. [24] [22]

Step 6 — the municipal business licence (fee not published). Iqaluit licenses by by-law, which under the Municipal Business Exemption Regulations means the firm is exempt from the territorial Business Licence Act entirely — it takes the City licence, not the $50 territorial one. The City states the requirement and the WSCC prerequisite but publishes no fee on its application page, so this line of the budget has to be confirmed by telephone rather than estimated. [13] [24]

Step 7 — federal accounts. A business number, then a GST/HST account once taxable supplies exceed $30,000 over four consecutive calendar quarters, with registration due within 29 days of ceasing to be a small supplier. There is no second sales-tax registration, because Nunavut has no territorial sales tax. [21] [20]

Step 8 — the employee, in month two, starts a 21-day clock. The moment the first remuneration is paid, the firm must register for Nunavut payroll tax with the Government of Nunavut within 21 days. The 2% is withheld from the employee's pay, not paid by the employer on top of it, and it is not administered by the CRA, so it does not appear in any payroll-deduction workflow set up for federal source deductions. [16]

Step 9 — Inuktut, from opening day. Signage, including emergency and exit signs, posters and commercial advertising must appear in Inuktut with the Inuktut text at least equally prominent, and reception and public-facing client services must be available in Inuktut. This is a fit-out and staffing decision, which is why it belongs at step 9 and not in a remediation plan. [14]

Registry and licence cash out of the door in year one: $325 in territorial fees — $25 name reservation plus $300 incorporation — plus the Iqaluit licence fee, which is not published. Forms 2 and 4 are free. Then $70 every year for the annual return, due by the last day of the month following the anniversary month, plus the annual licence renewal and WSCC assessments on actual payroll.

The other registry filings: partnerships, business names and societies

Most guides stop at incorporation. Nunavut's registry publishes eight separate guides, and the non-corporate ones carry rules that catch small operators.

Sole proprietors and the business-name test

The Partnership Act declaration is not required of everyone trading alone. The registry draws the line with a worked example of its own: "a person operating a sole proprietorship under their own name 'Jean Doe' need not register, but a person using the name 'Jean Doe & Company' must register." The trigger is a business name other than your own, or your own name with an element added indicating that more than one person is operating the business. Filing is due within 60 days after the business name is first used, and the fee is $50. One formatting rule rejects filings outright: "Initials as first names will not be accepted for registration." [39] [8]

General partnerships

The Declaration of a Partnership "must not be used for the incorporation of a business" — it registers a general partnership, nothing more. Every member of the partnership must sign; a single signature does not suffice as it does on a corporate form. Complete postal and street addresses with postal codes are required, and where no street address exists the registry again accepts "some other form of physical address, such as a house number or legal description (Lot, Block and Plan)". The registry reviews the proposed name for confusing similarity to a name already on record. And note a channel difference from the corporate forms: for partnership filings, "faxed delivery is not accepted". [38] Dissolving a partnership is free, but again every member must sign. [41]

Limited partnerships — the filing with no form

A limited partnership has one or more general and limited partners; limited partners cannot act on behalf of the partnership and usually cannot be held responsible for its liabilities beyond the amount they committed to invest. They are "normally established by a formal agreement between all of the partners." Then the unusual part: "There are no prescribed forms to register a limited partnership or an extra-territorial limited partnership in Nunavut." The registration certificate must instead comply with section 58 of the Partnership Act, so the document is drafted to a statutory specification rather than filled in. An extra-territorial limited partnership additionally needs a certificate complying with section 4 of the Partnership Act Regulations, a certified copy of the home-jurisdiction registration certificate, and a certificate of compliance from the home jurisdiction — or, if none is available, a letter from the partnership's lawyer confirming the registration is still valid. The fee is $200. [40] [8]

Societies

Five or more persons may incorporate a society for "any benevolent, philanthropic, charitable, religious, provident, scientific, artistic, literary, social, educational, sporting or other useful purpose other than the carrying on of a trade or business," for a $50 fee. Incorporation is optional but confers separate legal personality and limits member liability. [36] [37]

The ongoing regime is materially different from a corporation's, and stricter in one respect. A society must hold its annual general meeting in Nunavut (s.17), and within 14 days after the AGM file financial statements — a balance sheet and a statement of receipts and disbursements, signed by the auditor or by two directors if there is none — together with a Notice of Directors giving names, addresses and occupations. There is no fee for these filings. But there is a catch that compounds: "In order to file these documents for the current year the Registrar requires the society to submit all filings that are missing for previous years." A society that skips three years cannot simply resume; it must file the backlog first. [36]

"Good standing" under the Societies Act means every required annual filing since incorporation has been made, and the Registrar issues a Letter of Good Standing on request once that is true. Where records have been lost and the backlog is impossible, the society may file a Statutory Declaration of Lost Records — but only once in its life, and it must be accompanied by a financial statement and Notice of Directors for the most recent fiscal year. Amendments to by-laws or the constitution require an extraordinary resolution, a three-quarters majority of members, and every such resolution must be filed. Society funds may be used only for its objects, and no society may distribute its property among its members during its existence. Finally, and easily forgotten: incorporation as a society "does not relieve anyone from obtaining any necessary licences or permits." [36]

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]

Note the "per establishment" rule compounds with the fixed expiry: a business with three establishments pays three fees, and a licence taken out in February expires on 31 March regardless, so a late-winter start pays twice within two months.

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] That absence is confirmed from Nunavut's own side: the Department of Finance's complete list of the taxes and levies it administers runs to payroll tax, petroleum tax, tobacco tax, income tax, insurance premium tax, liquor tax, the Nunavut carbon credit and property tax — eight items, none of them a sales tax. [43] 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 — the Government of Nunavut confirms that "income taxes are collected by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) on behalf of Nunavut" — a real saving against Alberta or Quebec, where a second return goes to the province. On the personal side, which matters when you decide how to pay yourself, Nunavut states that it "applies the lowest income tax rates in the country" and that residents can claim a refundable cost-of-living tax credit of up to $1,500. [44]

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, so nothing in a standard federal source-deductions setup will prompt you to do it.

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 in consultation with independent actuaries through a review of target funding levels, anticipated operating expenses and past trend analysis, and updated 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. Those figures have been separate only since 2025, when Nunavut was $113,900 and the NWT $112,600; for 2024 a single figure of $110,600 covered both. [23]

The reporting cycle has its own dated deadline and its own penalty. Assessments are calculated from employer payroll estimates, and the Annual Payroll Report is due 28 February each year. Estimates are revisable during the year, and there is a reason to keep them honest: "A penalty is applied when employers underestimate their actual payroll by 25% or more." [45]

Two points matter for an owner-managed corporation. First, the WSCC clearance is a prerequisite for the Iqaluit business licence, so this registration sits early in the sequence. [24] Second, coverage is not automatic for the people running the company: a director of a corporation, a business owner with workers, and a self-employed person with no workers all fall outside it. They may apply for Personal Optional Coverage for a period from one month to one calendar year, with a minimum of 37% of the YMIR and a maximum of the YMIR itself — on the 2026 Nunavut figure of $117,300, a floor of $43,401. POC is denied if the account is not in good standing. [45] A working owner who assumes they are insured because their corporation is registered is, in fact, uninsured.

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]

Note how little turns on size or sector in section 3(1). There is no employee-count threshold, no revenue floor and no exemption for a business serving mainly English speakers. A single-person consultancy with a sign on a door is an "organization" for this purpose.

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. Section 4(1) then reaches through government contracts: Government of Nunavut contracts must require third-party Inuktut communications and services, so a supplier to the territorial government inherits the duty through the contract as well as the statute. [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. The contrast with the other two territories is sharp, and set out in the comparison section below.

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]

Duration is not a defence, and the registry closes that door explicitly. Asked "I only want to do business in Nunavut for a short time. Do I really have to Extra-Territorially register?", it answers: "Yes, if you carry on business within Nunavut you must register under the Business Corporations Act no matter how long you plan to operate or do business here." The same FAQ closes the mirror-image assumption for Nunavut corporations: incorporating here does not let you trade nationally, because "if you are carrying on business in a Canadian jurisdiction other than Nunavut you must also register with the corporations branch of that jurisdiction." [29]

Federal corporations are in the same position, and Corporations Canada says so from its side: "provincial and territorial legislation requires you to register your federal corporation in each province and territory in which it will conduct business," and conducting business 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." It names Nunavut's registry as Legal Registries. [47] Note the asymmetry worth planning around: a post office box in Nunavut is enough to trigger the registration duty, but is expressly not enough to serve as the registered office you must then maintain.

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 30-day certificate window is the binding logistical constraint for a foreign parent: order the certificate too early and it expires before the package lands.

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]

Leaving is cheap and simple, which is worth knowing before you start. A Notice of Cessation of Extra-Territorial Registration carries no fee: you set out the corporation's full legal name and its home jurisdiction, have a director, officer or solicitor sign, scan and e-mail it, and the registry acknowledges the filing by e-mail. [42]

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]

A further cap applies at the top end of the market. The NNI Secretariat states that "effective February 1st, on Major Construction projects, NNI Bid Adjustments, other than those for Inuit Labour, will be capped at $500,000." The Secretariat also runs the practical machinery: registration and renewal of Nunavut Business status, a public NNI business search, and the territorial tenders and RFP listings. [46]

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.

What remains federally, and its current condition

The obvious federal business route is the Start-up Visa, and its status has to be stated as IRCC states it. The program is marked "Paused." To apply you must "have a valid 2025 commitment certificate" and "apply by June 30, 2026"; IRCC adds that "the program is closed to all other applications," and the designated-organization side is likewise paused. [48] In plain terms, a founder who does not already hold a 2025 commitment certificate cannot enter this program today.

Where it is available, its eligibility rules bear directly on how a Nunavut corporation would have to be structured. Each applicant must hold 10% or more of the total voting rights; the applicants and the designated organization together must hold more than 50%; the business must be incorporated in Canada with "active and ongoing management of your business from inside Canada"; language is Canadian Language Benchmark 5 in listening, reading, writing and speaking; and settlement funds for a single applicant are $15,263, effective 29 July 2025. [49]

Two of those requirements interact with everything above. "Incorporated in Canada" is satisfied by a Nunavut corporation, but so is it by a federal or any provincial one — the program specifies no province or territory, so Nunavut confers no advantage and no disadvantage here. "Active and ongoing management from inside Canada" is the harder test, and it is a presence requirement, which is precisely what Nunavut's permissive director rules do not supply. You may lawfully direct a Nunavut corporation from abroad under the Business Corporations Act; that fact does nothing for an immigration application that asks you to manage from within Canada.

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.

One structural limit still applies to a foreign group: a body corporate cannot sit on the board, because directors must be individuals. A foreign parent may be the incorporator and the sole shareholder, but it must nominate natural persons as directors. [29]

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. In a community without street addresses the registry will accept a lot, block and plan or a house number — but that is a different physical description of a real place, not a relaxation of the requirement that the place be real and in Nunavut. [29]

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] The federal Start-up Visa is currently paused and closed except to holders of a valid 2025 commitment certificate applying by 30 June 2026. [48] 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.

How Nunavut compares with the Northwest Territories and Yukon

The three territories are routinely treated as one market. For company formation they are three different regimes, and Nunavut sits at neither extreme.

Four conclusions follow. First, Nunavut's "no portal" reputation understates how workable it is. Nunavut has no online filing at all, but it does accept signed, scanned PDFs by e-mail — which the Northwest Territories does not, and which Yukon does not for a first incorporation. For a founder outside the territory, Nunavut is in practice the easiest of the three to file into, because nothing has to travel by courier. The constraint is the telephone call for payment, not the paper.

Second, Nunavut is the cheapest of the three to keep. Its $70 annual return is less than half the NWT's $150 and below Yukon's $100, and its extra-territorial registration at $300 is $200 cheaper than the NWT's $500.

Third, the tax comparison runs the other way. Nunavut's 3% small-business rate is the highest of the three, against 2% in the NWT and 0% in Yukon, on an identical $500,000 business limit. A corporation whose profits stay under the limit and whose operations are genuinely mobile pays more tax in Nunavut than in either neighbour. That is a real trade-off, and it is not offset by sales tax, because all three levy GST only.

Fourth, the language duty is Nunavut's alone. Neither neighbour imposes a private-sector language obligation — the NWT recognises eleven official languages but binds only government bodies, and Yukon's regime is public-sector too. The Inuktut Protection Act is the single largest operating difference between running a shop in Iqaluit and running the same shop in Yellowknife or Whitehorse, and it is a recurring cost, not a filing.

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. [2] [3]

Assuming a community without street addresses cannot host a registered office. It can; the registry accepts a lot, block and plan or a house number where no street address exists. Abandoning a Nunavut office for a southern one on this reasoning breaks section 19(1) to solve a problem the registry has already solved. [29]

Naming directors who never consented. Under section 106(3) an appointee is not a director unless present and not refusing, or consenting in writing before or within 10 days. A board that exists only on Form 4 can leave the corporation with no directors, which is an independent ground for dissolution under section 214(1). [10]

Putting a corporation on the board. Directors must be individuals; a corporate director is not merely irregular, it is disqualified under section 106(1)(a). [29] [10]

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. Paying the $50 territorial fee in Iqaluit does not cure the absence of a City licence, and the two do not substitute for each other. [13] [11]

Applying for the Iqaluit licence before registering with the WSCC. The City cannot process the application without the certificate of compliance, so the licence simply stalls. The dependency runs WSCC first, licence second. [24]

Treating the 2% payroll tax as an employer levy, or as a CRA account. It is levied on the employee and withheld at source, and it is administered by the Government of Nunavut, not the CRA. The employer's own exposure is the 21-day registration deadline after first paying remuneration — a deadline nothing in a federal payroll setup will surface. [16]

Assuming the working owner is covered by the WSCC. A director, an owner with workers and a self-employed person with no workers are all outside automatic coverage and must apply for Personal Optional Coverage. [45]

Underestimating payroll to the WSCC. A penalty applies where actual payroll is underestimated by 25% or more, and the Annual Payroll Report is due 28 February. [45]

Operating in Nunavut "briefly" without extra-territorial registration. The registry's answer is that registration is required "no matter how long you plan to operate," and section 281(1) allows only 30 days from commencing business. Soliciting business or listing a Nunavut address in an advertisement is enough to start the clock. [29] [10]

Missing the 60-day business-name declaration. A sole proprietor trading as anything other than their own bare name, or a general partnership, must declare within 60 days of first use. [39] [7]

Letting a society's filings lapse. The Registrar will not accept the current year until every missing prior-year filing is made, and the one-time Statutory Declaration of Lost Records is the only escape. [36]

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]

First-year compliance sequence

Annual maintenance calendar

What it costs to keep, over five years

Registry and territorial licence fees only. Payroll-driven costs (WSCC assessments, the 2% payroll tax) and the Iqaluit municipal licence fee are excluded because they depend on payroll or are not published.

Two notes on reading this. A numbered company removes the $25, since the Registry assigns the number and charges no name fee. [2] And in Iqaluit the $50 line is replaced by the City licence, whose fee the City does not publish — so an Iqaluit five-year total cannot be stated, only the $605 of registry fees plus five unpublished municipal renewals. [24]

A glossary of Nunavut's own terms

Anniversary month — the month of incorporation or amalgamation. The annual return is due by the last day of the following month, so a June incorporation files by 31 July each year. [10]

Territorial corporation — a corporation incorporated in Nunavut under the Business Corporations Act. The equivalent of a "provincial corporation" elsewhere. [31]

Extra-territorial corporation — a corporation formed anywhere else, federal or foreign included, registered because it carries on business in Nunavut. [32]

Assumed name — the approved name an extra-territorial corporation trades under in Nunavut where its own name fails the Act's name test. It does not change the corporation's legal name. [6]

Records office — where the minute book, securities register, financial statements and section 121 disclosure register must be kept. It is the registered office unless a separate one is designated, and it must also be in Nunavut. [10]

Society — the non-profit form under the Societies Act, requiring five or more incorporators and an annual general meeting held in Nunavut. [36]

Extraordinary resolution — for a society, a resolution passed by at least a three-quarters majority of members; required to amend the constitution, to amend by-laws otherwise than at the AGM, and to dissolve voluntarily. [36]

Inuktut — the Inuit language, an official language of Nunavut alongside English and French, and the language in which the Inuktut Protection Act requires private businesses to sign, advertise and serve. [15] [14]

Nunavut Settlement Area — the territory covered by the Nunavut Agreement, and the geography in which Article 24's procurement obligations apply. [28]

NNI (Nunavummi Nangminiqaqtunik Ikajuuti) — the Government of Nunavut's procurement policy implementing Article 24, operating bid adjustments for Inuit firms and Nunavut businesses. [26]

Inuit Firm — an entity meeting Article 24's ownership test (51% or more of voting shares beneficially owned by Inuit, an Inuit-controlled co-operative, or an Inuk proprietorship or partnership) and listed on NTI's Inuit Firm Registry. [27]

Nunavut Business — a separate NNI status requiring 100% ownership by Nunavut residents or Nunavut entities, biennial re-demonstration, and leased or owned Nunavut premises subject to inspection. [26]

YMIR (Year's Maximum Insurable Remuneration) — the per-worker earnings ceiling on which WSCC assessments and benefits are calculated; $117,300 for Nunavut in 2026. [23]

Certificate of compliance — the WSCC document confirming an employer's account is in good standing; the City of Iqaluit will not process a business licence without it. [24]

Readiness checklist

• A specific civic address in a named Nunavut community — or, where the community has no street addresses, a lot, block and plan or house number — 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
• Written consents from every person named as a director, signed before or within 10 days of appointment
• 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
• Personal Optional Coverage considered for every working director or owner, who is otherwise uninsured
• 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
• The 28 February WSCC Annual Payroll Report and the anniversary-month annual return both in a calendar

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. Be aware of the interaction, though: a Nunavut post office box or telephone number is itself enough to make a federal corporation "conduct business" in Nunavut for registration purposes. [47] 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 and all eight of its published guides, the Government of Nunavut, the WSCC, the City of Iqaluit, the CRA, IRCC, Corporations Canada, 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.

The cross-territory comparison table carries a weaker warrant than the rest of the page and is marked as such. Its Nunavut column, and every corporate-tax, sales-tax, workers'-compensation and nominee-program cell in all three columns, comes from sources fetched directly for this page — the CRA rate tables, the WSCC rates page and the IRCC nominee page. The Northwest Territories and Yukon registry-mechanics cells (fees, signature rules, portals, licence regimes, registered-office scope) were verified by this cluster's own Northwest Territories and Yukon guides against the URLs cited, and were not independently re-fetched here; yukon.ca and laws.yukon.ca refuse automated requests. Treat those cells as orientation and confirm against the linked sibling guide before acting on them.

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; any Nunavut research-and-development credit or small-business grant; and whether Yukon levies any payroll tax, which could not be checked because yukon.ca refused automated requests. 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.

How long does a Nunavut incorporation take?

Nunavut does not publish a processing time for any corporate filing, so no honest figure can be given here. The only published service standard found in this research belongs to the WSCC, which opens an employer account within three business days. Ask Legal Registries when you submit.

Can I use a post office box as the registered office, and what if my community has no street addresses?

A post office box, no. The registry states expressly that one "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. But where a street address is genuinely impossible — the registry notes that certain remote communities have none — it requires a detailed description of the location instead, such as a lot, block and plan, or a house number. The office must still be a real place in Nunavut, accessible to the public during normal business hours; the accommodation is about how you describe it, not whether you need one.

Can a holding company be a director of my Nunavut corporation?

No. The registry is explicit that directors must be individuals, and section 106(1)(a) disqualifies a person who is not an individual. A corporation may, however, be an incorporator and a shareholder, so a foreign parent can own the company outright while nominating natural persons to the board.

Does Nunavut have a sales tax?

No. The CRA's rate table shows Nunavut at 5% GST and 0% PST, and the Nunavut Department of Finance's own list of the taxes it administers contains eight items, none of them a sales tax. 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, and it is administered territorially rather than by the CRA.

As a director, am I covered by workers' compensation?

Not automatically. A director of a corporation, a business owner with workers, and a self-employed person with no workers are all outside automatic WSCC coverage. They may buy Personal Optional Coverage for one month to one calendar year, with a minimum of 37% of the Year's Maximum Insurable Remuneration and a maximum of the YMIR itself.

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 the federal Start-up Visa is itself currently paused and closed except to holders of a valid 2025 commitment certificate applying by 30 June 2026.

I only want to sell into Nunavut for a few months. Must I register?

Yes. The registry's own answer is that you must register "no matter how long you plan to operate or do business here," and section 281(1) gives you only 30 days from commencing business. The triggers in section 279 are broad — soliciting business or putting a Nunavut address in an advertisement is enough.

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. There is no size threshold. 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
29. Nunavut Legal Registries: Business Corporations — Frequently Asked Questions
30. Nunavut Legal Registries: Business Corporations Act
31. Nunavut Legal Registries: Territorial Corporations
32. Nunavut Legal Registries: Extra-Territorial Corporations
33. Nunavut Legal Registries: Legal Registries Modernization
34. Nunavut Legal Registries: Forms and Instructions
35. Nunavut Legal Registries: Societies
36. Nunavut Legal Registries: Guide — Societies
37. Nunavut Legal Registries: Societies Act Fee Schedule
38. Nunavut Legal Registries: Guide — Declaration of a Partnership
39. Nunavut Legal Registries: Guide — Declaration of Use of a Business Name
40. Nunavut Legal Registries: Guide — Declaration of Limited or Extra-Territorial Limited Partnership
41. Nunavut Legal Registries: Guide — Dissolution of a Partnership
42. Nunavut Legal Registries: Guide — Notice of Cessation of Extra-Territorial Registration
43. Government of Nunavut: Taxation and Insurance
44. Government of Nunavut: Income Tax
45. Workers' Safety and Compensation Commission: Report Payroll
46. Government of Nunavut: NNI Secretariat — Nunavummi Nangminiqaqtunik Ikajuuti
47. Corporations Canada: Register your federal corporation in a province or territory
48. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada: Start-up Visa
49. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada: Start-up Visa eligibility
50. Government of the Northwest Territories: Business Corporations Act, consolidation
51. Government of the Northwest Territories: Business Corporations Regulations, fee Schedule B
52. Government of the Northwest Territories: NWT Corporations — filing requirements
53. Government of the Northwest Territories, Department of Finance: Payroll Tax — Employees
54. Yukon Workers' Compensation Health and Safety Board: Assessment rates
55. Government of Yukon: Incorporate a Yukon business corporation