Start a business in Ontario

Direct answer

Incorporating in Ontario means filing articles of incorporation in the Ontario Business Registry for $300, supported by an Ontario-biased Nuans name search no more than 90 days old unless you take a number name. Ontario has had no Canadian-residency requirement for directors since 5 July 2021, when section 118(3) of the Business Corporations Act was repealed, so a board may be entirely non-resident. Two constraints do not bend: the registered office must be a physical location in Ontario and a post office box alone is not accepted, and the corporation must keep an internal register of individuals with significant control. After incorporation the clock starts on three separate deadlines — the initial return within 60 days, the annual return within six months of each taxation year end, and any notice of change within 15 days. Ontario is an HST province at 13 per cent, and payroll adds Employer Health Tax and WSIB registration within 10 days of the first hire.

Two caveats sit on top of that. Ontario's small-business corporate tax rate changed on 1 July 2026, and CRA's own comparison table had not caught up on the date this page was verified. And Ontario currently has no open entrepreneur immigration stream — a fact that reverses most of what is written about starting a business here from abroad.

The Ontario matrix at a glance

Weighing Ontario against incorporating federally? See federal vs provincial incorporation. Comparing provinces as a non-resident? See Ontario vs British Columbia vs Alberta vs Quebec.

Stage 1: the registry, the fees and the timeline

The Ontario Business Registry replaced the province's older systems on 19 October 2021, carries more than 90 transaction types, and absorbed every entity registered before that date. Access is not granted by possession of a corporate name: every entity has a nine-digit company key, and that key establishes authority to file. The ministry issues it free, by email to the corporation's official email address or by mail to the registered office, and an intermediary you share it with claims delegated authority. [6] For a new corporation it arrives in the same email as the certificate. [10] Losing it is the most common reason a founder cannot file their own annual return a year later.

Published fees

These are the ministry's fees only; intermediaries and licensed service providers add their own, which the province neither publishes nor controls. [8]

A cheque returned unpaid costs an additional $35. [8]

What "immediate" does and does not mean

The registry's service standard for an online incorporation is immediate [8], and the certificate, endorsed articles, receipt and company key arrive by email. That is the filing, not the business: no government source publishes an end-to-end timeline covering the Nuans report, CRA program accounts, a municipal licence, WSIB and a bank account, so anyone quoting a total is estimating. You can date the articles up to 30 days ahead for a clean fiscal start, but the Nuans report must still be valid on the day they are endorsed. [10]

Stage 2: choosing the legal form

Ontario's eight business statutes each create a different animal; the registry's service list is the honest inventory. [7]

Two points founders routinely get wrong.

Registering a business name is not incorporating. A sole proprietorship registration gives you a nine-digit Business Identification Number (BIN) from ServiceOntario, and the province states plainly that a BIN "is different than a Business Number (BN) that is provided by the CRA." [9] Confusing the two stalls bank applications.

A corporation may also need a business name registration. No corporation may carry on business or identify itself to the public under a name other than its corporate name unless that name is registered, and the same rule binds individuals trading under anything but their own name, and partnerships; both the registered name and the person's own name must appear on contracts, invoices, negotiable instruments and orders. [4] A numbered Ontario corporation operating as "Griffin Analytics" needs both filings.

These registrations expire after five years [4], renewable from six months before expiry to 60 days after. Past 60 days you cannot renew: you register the same name again and receive a new BIN and a new company key, so every downstream record keyed to the old BIN needs updating. [7]

Stage 3: the name and the Nuans window

Unless you accept a number name, the articles must be supported by an Ontario-biased or weighted Nuans name search report. A Canada (federal) biased Nuans report is explicitly not acceptable — this is the most common rejected filing among founders who incorporated federally first and reused their report. [9] [10]

Three details decide whether your filing goes through:

• The 90-day window. "The Nuans report cannot be dated more than 90 days prior to the filing of the articles." The ministry's own example: articles received on 28 November may rest on a report dated as early as 30 August, but no earlier. If it expires before the articles are endorsed, you buy a new one. [10]
• You do not file the report. You file the name searched, the Nuans reference number and the report date; the ministry retrieves it. You keep the report at the registered office. [10]
• The report is not clearance. The OBCA prohibits a name the same as or similar to that of a known corporation, trust, association, partnership, sole proprietorship or individual where use would be likely to deceive. [1] Reading the report and obtaining any consent is the applicant's responsibility; failing to may lead to a lawsuit or a hearing under the BCA. [10]

The ministry does not sell Nuans reports — they come from private search houses, and no official page publishes a price. [10] Taking a name identical to one already registered is possible but requires a lawyer's legal opinion retained at the registered office. [10] Search the registry free first. [9]

Stage 4: directors, and the residency rule Ontario repealed

This is where Ontario diverges from the federal regime, and where stale advice does the most damage. Ontario imposes no Canadian-residency requirement on directors. Section 118(3) of the Business Corporations Act, which had required that at least 25 per cent of directors be resident Canadians, reads in the current consolidation: "(3) Repealed: 2020, c. 34, Sched. 1, s. 5", with the amendment table recording that repeal as in force on 5 July 2021. [1] A wholly non-resident board is lawful here. Compare a federal CBCA corporation, which still has a resident-Canadian director ratio, and the choice of jurisdiction becomes concrete rather than cosmetic — see federal vs provincial incorporation.

What the OBCA still requires:

• A non-offering corporation needs at least one director; an offering corporation at least three. [1]
• Four disqualifications: anyone under 18; anyone found incapable of managing property under the Substitute Decisions Act, 1992 or the Mental Health Act or by a court in Canada or elsewhere; anyone who is not an individual; anyone with the status of bankrupt. [1] A holding company cannot sit on the board.
• Unless the articles say otherwise, a director need not hold shares. [1]
• An election or appointment is not effective without the person's written consent, given before or within 10 days after it. [1] A consent to act as first director is required for any first director who is not an incorporator, and is retained rather than filed. [10]

One residual trap: the ministry's Corporations Information Act form still collects each director's "resident Canadian status, if applicable". [13] A field on a form is not a qualification requirement; the OBCA is the authority, and it no longer imposes one.

Residency is not the same question as tax. A Canadian-controlled private corporation must not be controlled directly or indirectly by non-residents, so a non-resident-controlled Ontario corporation pays the general rate rather than the small-business rate. A non-resident board is a corporate-law freedom with a tax consequence.

Stage 5: registered office, records and address roles

The OBCA requires a registered office in Ontario at all times, at the location specified in the articles or a resolution changing it [1], and the ministry adds the operational rule: it "must be a physical location in Ontario. A P.O. Box alone is not acceptable." [10] Where there is no street number, give the lot and concession or lot and plan. [12] Moving it within a municipality is a directors' resolution; moving it to another needs a special resolution of shareholders. [1]

Records follow the office. Section 140 requires the corporation to keep, at the registered office or another place in Ontario designated by the directors: articles and by-laws with amendments and any unanimous shareholder agreement known to the directors; shareholder minutes and resolutions; a register of directors with names and residence addresses; a securities register; a land register; and the ISC register. Accounting records and directors' minutes are also required, the former retained six years from the end of the last fiscal period they relate to unless a tax authority requires longer, and records may be kept in any form. [1] A corporation holding Ontario land keeps its land register at the registered office, with deeds showing the municipal address, property identifier number, legal description and assessment roll number. [1]

Address roles are distinct and should never be collapsed onto one line. The registered office and the records location must both be in Ontario, and neither can be a mail-only address — the second only qualifies if the records genuinely sit there. A director's address for service, given in the articles, works only where documents can actually be accepted; the internal register of directors takes their residence address, meaning where that person lives. A CRA mailing address is set with CRA, separately from the registry, and can often be a mail service.

Most filed information — registered office and other addresses — goes on the public record; administrative information, including the filing contact and official email address, does not. [6] That email is how the ministry reaches you, company key included, so a dead mailbox is a real failure mode. [6]

No registry can tell you which field a bank is asking about, and institutions accept different documents. Work from institution-specific research rather than assumption — RBC, TD, BMO, Scotiabank, CIBC, Desjardins — alongside business address roles, opening from abroad and, if you incorporated federally instead, the federal corporation scenario.

Stage 6: transparency and the ISC register

Since 1 January 2023, Ontario corporations must maintain a register of individuals with significant control at the registered office or another place in Ontario designated by the directors. [1] The government restates the duty plainly: keep beneficial ownership information on file, provide it on request to law enforcement and regulatory and tax authorities, take reasonable steps to determine your beneficial owners, and review the document at least once a year. [14] [7]

For each such individual the register records name, date of birth and latest known address; jurisdiction of residence for tax purposes; the days they became and ceased to qualify; how they qualify, including interests and rights in the corporation's shares; and every step taken to keep the register accurate. [1]

Three mechanics matter operationally: at least once each financial year the corporation must take reasonable steps to identify all individuals with significant control and confirm the register is accurate, complete and up to date; new information must be recorded within 15 days of the corporation becoming aware of it; and a shareholder asked for this information must reply promptly, accurately and completely. [1]

Ontario's register is not public and is not filed with the registry. Disclosure runs on request from a defined list: police services and the RCMP investigating an offence; officials administering a tax, royalty or duty; and named regulators — the Ontario Securities Commission, the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario, FINTRAC and prescribed public bodies. The corporation must respond within the time the request specifies. [1]

Offering corporations, corporations offering securities to the public, those listed on a designated stock exchange and their wholly-owned subsidiaries are outside the duty — almost no start-up qualifies. One obligation has a long fuse: within a year after the sixth anniversary of someone ceasing to be an individual with significant control, their personal information must be disposed of unless a law or court order requires longer retention. [1]

Stage 7: annual filings, and the return that left the T2

If you retain one operational fact from this page, retain this one. Ontario's annual return is filed under the Corporations Information Act, in the Ontario Business Registry, and it is not part of your T2. Until 2021 it travelled with the tax return; the Canada Revenue Agency then stopped accepting it on the ministry's behalf and it moved to the registry. [14] [7] For most corporations the accountant no longer files it automatically — it is a separate step, taken by whoever holds the company key.

A small artefact: the registry dates that change to 5 May 2021 and the Ministry of Finance to 15 May 2021. [7] [14] Nothing turns on it, but official pages drift.

The three deadlines

The initial return runs from incorporation, amalgamation or continuation [2] [13]; the notice of change covers directors, officers, the registered or head office address and administrative information. [6] The annual return binds corporations under the Business Corporations Act, the Corporations Act and the Not-for-Profit Corporations Act, 2010, plus foreign corporations licensed under the Extra-Provincial Corporations Act, and must be verified by an officer, a director, or an authorised individual with knowledge of the corporation's affairs. The temporary filing exemption under the former Regulation 182 has ended, so a corporation that stopped filing during that window and never resumed is in default now. [11]

What default costs

• A late filing fee is prescribed for any return or notice filed late, and contravening the Act is an offence carrying a fine of up to $2,000, or $25,000 for a corporation. A false or misleading statement carries the same corporate maximum plus up to a year's imprisonment for an individual, and directors and officers who authorised, permitted or acquiesced are personally liable up to $2,000. [2]
• The one that ends arguments: a corporation in default of a filing requirement, or with unpaid fees or penalties, is not capable of maintaining a proceeding in an Ontario court in respect of its business except with leave. [2] The ministry repeats the warning in the annual-return notice. [11] You discover it the week you need to sue a customer who has not paid.

Stage 8: business number, corporate tax and HST

Ontario corporate income tax is administered by the CRA through the T2; there is no separate Ontario corporate return. It is owed by incorporated businesses with a permanent establishment in Ontario — a fixed place of business such as an office, factory, branch or warehouse — while unincorporated businesses pay personal income tax instead. [14]

The rates, and a live discrepancy. Ontario's general rate is 11.5%. The lower rate on the first $500,000 of active business income of a Canadian-controlled private corporation was 3.2% from 1 January 2020 and was reduced to 2.2% effective 1 July 2026. [15] On the verification date, CRA's provincial table still showed 3.2%. [19] Where a federal summary and the province that legislates the rate disagree, take the province's page. Federally the net rate is 15% and the CCPC rate 9%. [19]

Two Ontario wrinkles in the small-business deduction: Ontario parallels the federal grind where a CCPC's taxable capital, with associated corporations, is between $10 million and $50 million, removing the lower rate at $50 million, but does not parallel the federal phase-out for corporations earning $50,000 to $150,000 of passive investment income — so a corporation can lose the federal small-business rate on passive income and keep Ontario's. Manufacturing, processing, fishing, farming, mining and logging corporations may qualify for a credit reducing the Ontario rate to 10%. [15]

Filing and payment. The T2 is due no later than six months after the tax year end; the balance generally three months after year end for a CCPC and two for a non-CCPC. [14] Note the coincidence without relying on it: the T2 and the Ontario annual return share a six-month deadline but are different filings to different governments.

Business number. CRA offers two routes — residents with a Social Insurance Number, and non-residents doing business in Canada — set out under If you are outside Canada below. [22]

HST. Ontario is a participating province at 13%, applied by place of supply — CRA's own example has a Vancouver store charging 13% because the mattress is delivered to a customer in Toronto. [21] One tax, one registration, one return, rather than the separate provincial filing a GST+PST or GST+QST province requires — see HST vs GST+PST vs QST. Registration follows the end of small-supplier status at the $30,000 threshold: exceed it in one calendar quarter and you charge HST on the supply that took you over; exceed it across four or fewer quarters and small-supplier status ends at the end of the month following that quarter. Either way, register within 29 days of the effective date. [20] Voluntary registration below the threshold is permitted and usually right where input tax credits are substantial, and collected HST is held in trust until remitted. [21]

Stage 9: payroll, EHT and WSIB

Hiring in Ontario turns on three separate registrations, only one of which is federal.

Payroll deductions run through a CRA payroll program account on your business number. [22]

Employer Health Tax is Ontario's payroll tax on remuneration paid to employees who physically report to a permanent establishment in Ontario, are attached to one, or are paid from or through one. The exemption is $1 million, made permanent in 2021 and scheduled for inflation adjustment on 1 January 2029, and there is no exemption at all where you or your associated group has more than $5 million of annual Ontario payroll. [16]

Two mechanics catch people out. The rate is set on Ontario payroll before the exemption is deducted — an employer at $1.3 million uses 1.95%, deducts the $1 million exemption, and pays 1.95% on $300,000, which is $5,850. And if any associated employer is missing from the allocation form, or the form is not submitted, every employer in the group loses the exemption. [16]

WSIB is the third registration and has the shortest fuse. Most Ontario businesses with employees — including family members and sub-contractors — must register within 10 calendar days of hiring the first employee [23], and the operational policy adds a second date: registration completed by the last day of the month following the month that worker began. [25]

Registration is free, and failing to register when you should "may result in penalties, investigation and provincial offences charges or having to repay retroactive premiums." [24] Coverage is not universal — construction, restaurants, sales and services, agriculture, manufacturing and trucking are mandatory, while banks, trade unions, private day cares, travel agencies and most hair salons may elect coverage, and owners outside construction may buy optional insurance. [23] Geography is no exemption: WSIB reaches employers with a "substantial connection" to Ontario, including businesses based elsewhere that hire people to work here. [24] [25]

Employment standards bind from the first employee — hours, overtime, public holidays, vacation, leaves and termination — and the province's guide is explicit that it is not a legal document and that a contract, collective agreement or the common law may give greater rights. [26] The general minimum wage is $17.60 per hour to 30 September 2026 and $17.95 from 1 October 2026, indexed to the Ontario Consumer Price Index. [27]

Stage 10: municipal licensing

There is no province-wide business licence in Ontario. Licensing is municipal, it varies by city, and it is the layer most often discovered late.

Toronto requires the proper licences, permits and inspections before opening, and layers zoning review, sign permits, building permits, food-premises requirements and, wherever music is performed publicly, a SOCAN licence. Since 1 November 2018 a Criminal Record and Judicial Matters Check is mandatory for applications and renewals — a plain criminal record check is not accepted. Toronto also publishes what needs no municipal operating licence: accounting and law offices, consulting firms, medical and dental offices, import/export businesses, tutoring and wholesale businesses, among others. [33] A software or consulting company in Toronto typically needs zoning compliance and a sign permit, not an operating licence.

Ottawa licenses a different list, and where you apply depends on the category: amusement places, auctioneers, food premises, pet shops, public garages, salvage yards, second-hand shops, snow plow contractors and tobacco retailers at a Client Service Centre or the Business Licensing Centre; adult entertainment, driving schools, kennels, limousines, payday lenders, private transportation companies, rooming houses, short-term rentals and taxis only at the Business Licensing Centre on Industrial Avenue. [34]

The lesson generalises: two cities in one province license different activities. Check the city you will actually operate in, before you sign a lease, because zoning is assessed against the specific address.

Stage 11: operating across provincial lines

The Extra-Provincial Corporations Act sorts outside corporations into three classes: Class 1, incorporated under a provincial statute; Class 2, federal or territorial; Class 3, incorporated outside Canada. [3]

The rule most guides get backwards: a Class 1 or Class 2 corporation "may carry on any of its business in Ontario without obtaining a licence under this Act." Only Class 3 corporations need one, and no person may act as agent for an unlicensed Class 3 corporation. [3] A CBCA federal corporation or a BC corporation buys no Ontario licence. What it does file is a Corporations Information Act initial return within 60 days of beginning to carry on business here [2] — the registry lists exactly that transaction. [7]

"Carrying on business in Ontario" is defined positively — a resident agent, representative, warehouse, office or place of business here, or an interest other than by way of security in Ontario real property — and negatively: a corporation does not carry on business here by reason only that it takes orders for or buys or sells goods, or offers services, "by use of travellers or through advertising or correspondence." [3] That negative limb genuinely helps a company selling into Ontario remotely, and it is narrower than it looks: put a person, an office or a warehouse here and it stops applying.

Going the other way, an Ontario corporation may carry on business outside Ontario to the extent that jurisdiction's laws permit [1] — but capacity is not registration. Each province applies its own extra-provincial rules, and Ontario is not a party to the western mutual-recognition arrangement that lets British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba corporations register in one another's registries on simplified terms. Your baseline is the Canadian Free Trade Agreement, in force since 1 July 2017, covering almost all economic activity with identified exceptions. [35] It reduces friction; it registers your corporation nowhere. Read the target province's guide — Quebec, British Columbia, Alberta — before assuming a filing is unnecessary.

If you are outside Canada

Ontario is unusually open at the corporate-law layer and unusually closed at the immigration layer right now. Confusing the two is the expensive mistake.

What Ontario does not require of you. There is no residency requirement for directors, because OBCA section 118(3) was repealed with effect from 5 July 2021, and the remaining disqualifications — under 18, incapable, not an individual, bankrupt — say nothing about citizenship, residence or immigration status. [1] No incorporation material fetched for this page imposes a residency, presence or status condition on an incorporator or shareholder; the articles form even anticipates a director with an international address, telling you to put "Parish", "County" or the local equivalent in the Region field. [10] [12]

What Ontario does require. The registered office must be a physical location in Ontario, a post office box alone is not accepted, and records must be kept there or at another place in Ontario. [1] [10] The register of directors takes residence addresses — for a non-resident director, their real address abroad — and the ISC register records each individual's jurisdiction of residence for tax purposes, exactly the field a tax authority or FINTRAC asks about. [1]

So the practical constraint on a non-resident founder is not a person but an Ontario address that can hold a legal office and records — real premises, or a properly contracted Ontario registered-office service. An address outside Ontario cannot fill the role, however good the mail handling.

If your company already exists abroad. Incorporate a new Ontario subsidiary under the OBCA, or bring the foreign company itself in as a Class 3 extra-provincial corporation with a licence costing $330. [3] [8] The licence route carries a standing obligation the incorporation route does not: a Class 3 corporation must ensure the continuing appointment, at all times, of an agent for service in Ontario — an individual 18 or older resident in Ontario, or a corporation with its head or registered office in Ontario — on whom process may be served, service on the agent being service on the corporation. Any change must be filed forthwith, failing section 19 is express grounds to cancel the licence alongside unpaid fees and filing default, and two consecutive years without carrying on business here obliges the corporation to apply to terminate the licence or risk cancellation. [3]

Tax and banking are where remoteness bites. A non-resident, a business incorporated or located outside Canada, an applicant whose SIN starts with 0 and an applicant with no SIN all use CRA's separate non-resident route for a business number rather than the resident online service. [22] Holders of a temporary SIN beginning with 9 — most work and study permit holders — have been able to use Business Registration Online since 17 June 2024. [20] Control matters too: a non-resident-controlled corporation is not a CCPC, so the general 11.5% applies rather than the small-business rate. [15]

Banking is the step no registry controls, and nothing on any page reviewed here promises a non-resident an account, remote onboarding or a fixed timeline. Read opening a business account from abroad and the non-residents guide before planning travel, and the from-abroad Ontario guide for the full non-resident sequence.

The immigration position, as at 6 September 2026. This is the part that has changed and that most published advice has not caught up with.

Ontario's own program says: "The OINP is changing. The new Ontario Workforce Priority stream has now launched, and all other streams are now closed." [28] The archived stream directory repeats it. [30] The one open stream is employer-driven — a skilled foreign worker with a qualifying job offer whose employer initiates through the employer portal, or a self-employed physician — with no entrepreneur or investor route. [29]

The entrepreneur category still exists in the regulation, with its two-stage structure of an expression of interest, a letter of confirmation supporting a work permit, then a certificate of nomination. [5] A regulation is not an intake. On the verification date the program was not accepting entrepreneur applications, and Ontario had published no criteria or launch date for a replacement.

Federally, the usual fallback is shut too. IRCC states that applicants need a valid 2025 commitment certificate and had to apply by 30 June 2026, and that "the program is closed to all other applications"; the eligibility page carries the banner "Paused … The Start-Up Visa Program was paused on June 30, 2026." [31] [32] The associated work permit stopped accepting new applicants on 19 December 2025. [31]

Read plainly: owning an Ontario corporation gives you no immigration status, and on this date neither Ontario nor the federal Start-up Visa is accepting new entrepreneur applications. You can incorporate, own and direct an Ontario company from abroad; you cannot currently convert that into permanent residence through either route. Anyone telling you otherwise is quoting a superseded page. Verify the position on the OINP and IRCC pages before committing money, and take advice from a licensed immigration practitioner — this page is research, not immigration advice.

Stage 12: Ontario incentives worth modelling

Ontario runs two research and development credits, both administered by the CRA through the T2 and both requiring an Ontario permanent establishment, SR&ED performed in Ontario, and a federal Form T661.

Ontario Innovation Tax Credit (OITC). Refundable at 8% for taxation years commencing after 31 May 2016, on a $3 million expenditure limit, so a maximum of $240,000. The limit shrinks where prior-year federal taxable income exceeds $500,000 (gone at $800,000) or prior-year taxable capital exceeds $25 million (gone at $50 million), and associated corporations share it. Claimed on Schedule 566. [17]

Ontario Research and Development Tax Credit (ORDTC). Non-refundable at 3.5%, usable only against Ontario corporate income tax payable, carrying back three years and forward 20. Claimed on Schedule 508. [18]

The interaction is easy to model wrongly: the OITC counts as government assistance that reduces the expenditures eligible for the ORDTC, so the rates do not simply add. [18] For a pre-revenue company only the refundable OITC produces cash. Note the shape of both: they reward work performed in Ontario by a corporation with a permanent establishment here, not the registration of an address.

Failure modes

The recurring ways an Ontario file goes wrong, each traceable to a rule above.

1. A federal-biased Nuans report — Ontario rejects it. [9]
2. A Nuans report that ages out — 90 days runs to the filing, not to the day you start drafting. [10]
3. A PO box as the registered office — rejected; it must be a physical Ontario location. [10]
4. Assuming the accountant files the annual return with the T2 — separate registry filing since 2021. [14]
5. Losing the company key, or letting the official email die — nobody can then file for the entity, and the key is reissued only to that address. [6]
6. Missing the 15-day notice of change after a director resigns or the office moves. [2]
7. Discovering the court bar mid-dispute — a corporation in filing default cannot maintain an Ontario proceeding without leave. [2]
8. Never opening the ISC register — required since 1 January 2023, reviewed annually, updated within 15 days. [1]
9. Letting a business name lapse past 60 days — you re-register and get a new BIN. [7]
10. Hiring before registering with WSIB, or missing the EHT allocation form so the whole associated group loses the exemption. [23] [16]
11. Buying an extra-provincial licence you do not need — only foreign corporations need one. [3]
12. Signing a lease before checking zoning — it is assessed against the specific address. [33]
13. Planning around a closed immigration stream — verify OINP and Start-up Visa status on the day you plan. [28] [32]

The Ontario maintenance calendar

Readiness checklist

• Ontario-biased Nuans report, dated within 90 days of the intended filing, stored at the registered office
• Physical Ontario registered-office address secured, with written authority and a service-of-process protocol
• At least one director aged 18 or over, with written consent to act, and residence addresses collected for the internal register
• Articles filed with the $300 fee; certificate, receipt and company key saved where your accountant can find them, and the official corporate email live and company-controlled
• Initial return diarised for day 60; by-laws, share issuance, officers and banking resolution completed
• ISC analysis traced to natural persons, register opened with tax-residence jurisdictions, annual review diarised
• Business name registered if trading under anything but the corporate name; five-year renewal diarised
• Business number, and only the program accounts your activity requires
• HST position decided: registered, or monitoring the $30,000 threshold with a written trigger
• Payroll, EHT and WSIB assessed before the first hire, not after
• Municipal zoning and licensing checked for the exact operating address
• Extra-provincial position analysed for every province where you will have people, premises or property
• If outside Canada, immigration position confirmed on the OINP and IRCC pages on the day you plan

What 2727 can and cannot support

2727 Coworking is a coworking space in Griffintown, Montreal, Quebec. That geography settles what it can and cannot do for an Ontario company.

A 2727 address cannot be the registered office of an Ontario corporation. The OBCA requires the registered office to be in Ontario, and the ministry requires a physical Ontario location. [1] [10] A Montreal address is out of province, and no service agreement changes that. For the same reason it cannot be the Ontario records location under section 140, nor the Ontario agent for service a Class 3 foreign corporation must maintain under EPCA section 19. [1] [3]

What it can legitimately be is a mailing and correspondence address, and — for a company that actually works here — a real place of business in Quebec. If your plans include a Quebec presence, a 2727 address is a registered-office option for a federal or Quebec corporation, a different question from this page's: see the business address guide and the Quebec province guide.

We do not claim any registry, bank or government body "accepts" a 2727 address. Where we are useful to an Ontario founder: desks and meeting space when you are in Montreal, a mailing address for correspondence you would rather not route to your home, and the research here — the hub, the inside-Canada track and the from-abroad track — written to be checked rather than believed.

Research method and limitations

This page was researched and verified on 6 September 2026. Discovery ran through Exa, and every landed fact was then read from the publisher's own page: four Ontario statutes and O. Reg. 421/17 as consolidated on e-Laws; the Ontario Business Registry, ServiceOntario fee pages, ministry filing notices and form instructions; Ministry of Finance pages on corporations tax, corporate income tax, the Employer Health Tax and the two R&D credits; CRA pages on corporation tax rates, GST/HST and business number registration; WSIB's registration pages and operational policy manual; the Employment Standards Act guide; the OINP and IRCC pages; and the Toronto and Ottawa licensing pages.

One access note for anyone reproducing this: Ontario's e-Laws site is a client-rendered application, so a plain fetch of ontario.ca/laws/statute/90b16 returns only the page shell. The statutes were read through the public JSON endpoint the e-Laws application itself calls, which returns the same consolidated text the site displays, and the CanLII copy of the Extra-Provincial Corporations Act served as an independent check.

Two discrepancies between official sources are stated rather than smoothed over: the Ministry of Finance puts the small-business rate at 2.2% from 1 July 2026 while CRA's table still showed 3.2% on the verification date, and the government's own pages disagree on whether CRA stopped accepting annual returns on 5 or 15 May 2021.

Not verified: no incorporation, tax, WSIB, licensing or immigration application was filed or tested; no Nuans report was purchased; no bank was approached; no municipal licence fee was confirmed, since both cities publish those behind category pages not fetched; and no end-to-end timeline is claimed, because none is published. Ontario is not a party to the New West Partnership Trade Agreement, and no NWPTA source was fetched, so its mechanics are not described here.

This is educational planning material, not legal, tax, accounting, immigration or banking advice. Fees, rates, thresholds and program status change — several on this page changed within the last twelve months — so confirm anything you are about to act on against the source linked beside it, on the day you act.

Frequently asked questions

Do Ontario corporations need a Canadian-resident director?

No. Section 118(3) of the Business Corporations Act, which imposed the resident-Canadian requirement, was repealed by 2020, c. 34, Sched. 1, s. 5, in force 5 July 2021. A wholly non-resident board is lawful. [1]

How long is a Nuans report valid in Ontario?

It cannot be dated more than 90 days before the articles are filed, and must still be valid when they are endorsed. It must also be Ontario-biased or weighted; a federal-biased report is not accepted. [10]

Can I use a mailbox or PO box as my Ontario registered office?

No. It must be a physical location in Ontario, and the ministry states a P.O. Box alone is not acceptable. Corporate records must also be kept there or at another designated place in Ontario. [10] [1]

Is the Ontario annual return part of my T2 corporate tax return?

Not since 2021. CRA stopped accepting it on the ministry's behalf, and it is now filed directly in the Ontario Business Registry within six months after the taxation year end, with no statutory fee. Most accountants no longer file it automatically. [14] [11]

Is Ontario's beneficial ownership register public?

No. The ISC register is kept internally at the registered office or another designated place in Ontario, not filed with the registry. It is disclosed on request to police, tax officials and listed regulators including the OSC, FSRA and FINTRAC. [1]

Does a federal corporation need an Ontario extra-provincial licence?

No. Class 1 (other provinces) and Class 2 (federal and territorial) corporations may carry on business in Ontario without a licence; only Class 3 corporations incorporated outside Canada need one. A federal corporation does still file a Corporations Information Act initial return within 60 days of beginning to carry on business here. [3] [2]

When must I register for HST, and at what rate?

Ontario's rate is 13%, applied by place of supply. Registration follows the $30,000 small-supplier threshold: exceed it in one calendar quarter and you charge HST on the supply that took you over; exceed it across four or fewer quarters and you cease to be a small supplier at the end of the month after that quarter. Register within 29 days of the effective date. [21] [20]

When do I have to register with the WSIB?

Within 10 calendar days of hiring your first employee, for most Ontario businesses, with registration completed by the last day of the month following that month. It is free; not registering risks penalties, provincial offences charges and retroactive premiums. [23] [25] [24]

Can a foreign entrepreneur immigrate to Ontario by starting a business?

Not through either usual route on the verification date. Ontario says all OINP streams other than the employer-driven Ontario Workforce Priority stream are closed, and IRCC states the federal Start-up Visa was paused on 30 June 2026. You may still incorporate, own and direct an Ontario company from abroad; it simply confers no status. Check both pages on the day you plan, and take licensed immigration advice. [28] [29] [32]

Official references

1. Ontario e-Laws: Business Corporations Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. B.16
2. Ontario e-Laws: Corporations Information Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. C.39
3. Ontario e-Laws: Extra-Provincial Corporations Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. E.27
4. Ontario e-Laws: Business Names Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. B.17
5. Ontario e-Laws: O. Reg. 421/17, approvals under the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program
6. ServiceOntario: Ontario Business Registry
7. ServiceOntario: Ontario Business Registry — all services
8. ServiceOntario: cost and time required to register, change or search for a business name, corporation or not-for-profit
9. Government of Ontario: register your business online
10. Ministry of Public and Business Service Delivery and Procurement: Notice — Business Corporations Act — incorporating a business corporation
11. Ministry of Public and Business Service Delivery and Procurement: Notice — Corporations Information Act — filing an annual return
12. Ministry of Public and Business Service Delivery: instructions for completing the BCA articles of incorporation
13. Ministry of Public and Business Service Delivery: instructions for completing an initial return, notice of change or annual return
14. Ontario Ministry of Finance: corporations tax
15. Ontario Ministry of Finance: corporate income tax rates
16. Ontario Ministry of Finance: Employer Health Tax
17. Ontario Ministry of Finance: Ontario innovation tax credit
18. Ontario Ministry of Finance: Ontario research and development tax credit
19. Canada Revenue Agency: corporation tax rates
20. Canada Revenue Agency: when to register for and start charging the GST/HST
21. Canada Revenue Agency: charge and collect the GST/HST
22. Canada Revenue Agency: how to register for a business number
23. WSIB: how to register your business
24. WSIB: questions and answers — registration
25. WSIB: operational policy manual — registration
26. Government of Ontario: your guide to the Employment Standards Act
27. Government of Ontario: minimum wage
28. Government of Ontario: Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program
29. Government of Ontario: Ontario Workforce Priority stream
30. Government of Ontario: archived Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program streams
31. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada: Start-up Visa Program
32. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada: Start-up Visa — who can apply
33. City of Toronto: business regulations, licences and permits
34. City of Ottawa: businesses that require a municipal licence
35. Canadian Free Trade Agreement Secretariat: the Canadian Free Trade Agreement