Start a business in Yukon

Direct answer

Yukon incorporates business corporations under its Business Corporations Act for a $300 filing fee, and its distinguishing rule is what the statute leaves out: section 106 disqualifies directors who are under 19, bankrupt, under guardianship or not individuals, and says nothing whatever about residency or citizenship, so a Yukon board may be entirely non-resident. Yukon also lets a body corporate sit as a director. The corporation must nevertheless keep a registered office at a physical Yukon address that cannot be a post office box, and a first-time incorporation requires original wet-ink signatures because copies and electronic signatures are refused. Yukon levies no territorial sales tax, so only the 5% GST applies, and its small-business corporate rate is 0% on the first $500,000. Since 1 June 2025 Yukon corporations must keep a register of individuals with significant control, but that register is held internally and produced on request, never filed with the registrar and never published.

Yukon at a glance

The legal forms Yukon recognizes

Yukon's own "Start a business" page lists six vehicles. [13] Two statutory regimes run in parallel — the Business Corporations Act and the Partnership and Business Names Act [16] — so the same form number can mean two different documents depending which Act you are under.

Corporate fees come from the Business Corporations Act schedule, which prices every filing against its statutory section [4]; the partnership schedule also prices a records search at $10 electronically or $25 on paper. [6]

A sole proprietor trading under their own given name registers nothing: "As a sole proprietor, you can use your given name without needing to register it." [17] Registration becomes mandatory once the trading name differs, and the duty extends to a partnership using a firm name other than the partners' given names and to a corporation trading under another name. A registered business name may carry no legal element — the Naming Regulation "does not allow legal elements", so no Ltd. or Inc. on a sole proprietorship.

Stage 1: the name

Yukon reserves first and files second; the certificate of name reservation is valid 90 days. A corporate name must contain "Limited or Ltd.; Incorporated or Inc.; Corporation or Corp.; or the French language equivalent of the above 3 options." Structural rules are explicit: minimum 5 characters, maximum 120, and "the name must have more letters than the total number of other characters in the name." Names may not be obscene, misleading or duplicate another organization's, and consent is required for names implying government or First Nations affiliation, academic or trade-teaching status, certain professional titles, or a regulated financial business. [3]

Those fees sit under Regulation 22(1). [5] A numbered name needs no Form 1; miss the 90-day expiry on a reserved name and you re-apply and "pay the $60 in-person or $40 online fee again."

Because Yukon operates in both official languages, a bilingual corporate identity is available: "both names must be submitted; both names must be approved; and you must pay the fee for each name search." Two certificates issue and both may go on one bilingual registration form. The French name then belongs to the corporation permanently — the annual return requires that "if the corporation has a French name, then the French name must be included on the annual return." [7]

Stage 2: the board

Read section 106 precisely rather than through a summary. What follows from its closed list is a set of checkable statements: there is no resident-Canadian ratio, unlike the federal 25% rule; there is no citizenship or immigration-status condition, so a work permit, a study permit or no Canadian status at all is not a disqualification; the minimum age is 19, not 18, and a founder who assumed 18 from another province will file a defective Form 8; a director need not own shares, since section 106(2) provides that unless the articles say otherwise a director "is not required to hold shares issued by the corporation"; and an undischarged bankrupt is disqualified outright. [1]

Two cautions. The absence of a residency rule settles a corporate-law question and nothing else: it does not decide tax residence, Canadian-controlled private corporation status, entitlement to the 0% rate, whether a bank will open an account, or sector ownership limits — those analyses live in the from-abroad track. And CanLII's consolidation calls itself "current to 2021-06-18" while also describing the current version as in force since 1 June 2026, so check the Yukon legislation site before relying on a section.

Stage 3: the registered office and records office

Section 22(1) is unconditional: "A corporation shall at all times have a registered office in the Yukon and may, if it is a public corporation, have a separate records office at a different place in or out of the Yukon." A separate records office is a privilege of public corporations only. Section 22(4) closes the shortcut: "A post office box may not be designated as the corporation's registered office or separate records office." [1]

Form 2 turns that into separate address decisions: the "delivery address" is a physical location identifying "a person's home or place of business" and "must not include a post office box"; the "mailing address" may be a post office box; and a separate Yukon mailing address may be designated as the address for service by mail, which "must be a Yukon address". [3] Changes to any of them carry no fee, but section 22(5) requires notice to reach the registrar "within 15 days of any change" — exactly the obligation that gets missed.

Stage 4: filing the incorporation

Three documents go in together after the name is reserved: Form 1 articles of incorporation, Form 2 notice of address, Form 8 notice of directors. Form 1 asks for the authorized share classes and their maximums, par value and the rights attached to each class — the registry points to section 8(1) of the Act — plus restrictions on share transfers, the number of directors, and restrictions on the business. Blank sections are not tolerated; where there is nothing to say, write "NA". Form 8 must list exactly as many directors as Form 1 declared, and a corporate director's Yukon registry number goes on the form. Corporate Affairs takes delivery at 307 Black Street, a secure lobby drop box or the mail, and accepts cheque, credit card, cash or debit. Processing "can take up to 10 business days" and the corporation "comes into existence on the date shown on the certificate". [3]

Expedition is priced: $100 during the registrar's regular office hours, $500 outside them including same-day, each on top of the ordinary fee. [4] Do not expect help interpreting any of it — Corporate Affairs states that staff "cannot provide any interpretation of legislation or operational advice of any sort", and publishes a Law Line number instead.

What YCOR can and cannot do. Without an account you get free searches of an entity's existence, registry number, location and "compliance with reporting requirements" — useful for diligence on a Yukon counterparty — and, for a fee, a name reservation, a certificate of status or a business-name renewal. With an account you get advanced searches and online filings including annual returns and notices of change of address or directors. But online filing is gated: the private filing key "will be mailed to the account holder and to the entity that you want to submit online filings for". [12]

Stage 5: the register of individuals with significant control

Yukon's regime began 1 June 2025, with every affected corporation required to have built its register by 1 June 2026. An ISC is "anyone who owns or controls 25 per cent or more of the corporation's shares or otherwise has control of the corporation" — a threshold test plus a control-in-fact test, so a person holding no shares can still be an ISC. Every Yukon corporation keeps one "unless they are wholly owned by one or more Yukon First Nation governments, a municipal government or the Government of Yukon". The register records, per individual: full name; date of birth; country of citizenship; country of tax residence; residential address and any address for service; the dates control began and ended; a description of how control is held; and the steps taken to keep it current. The corporation must tell each person they have been added. [10]

Two features distinguish it from the federal scheme. Nothing is filed or published — the register goes only "to law enforcement, tax, and regulatory authorities upon request", and the fee schedule has no corresponding line, so a founder expecting Corporations Canada's public filing will look for something that does not exist while one concluding there is no obligation is wrong more expensively. And bearer shares are over: all bearer-form certificates must be replaced with certificates in registered form naming the shareholder. Yukon publishes a five-page guidance document, last updated 30 June 2025. [11]

Stage 6: business number, income tax and sales tax

Yukon collects no corporate tax of its own. The CRA administers Yukon territorial corporation tax, so there is no separate territorial return — Yukon tax is computed on Schedule 443 and reported on line 245 of Schedule 5 of the federal T2, a simplification next to Alberta and Quebec. Yukon's credits arrive the same way: the CRA lists research and development, manufacturing and processing profits, business carbon price rebate, foreign tax and political contribution credits. [22]

The CRA publishes no effective dates for those rates, so this guide does not state when they took effect. [21] Note what the 0% rate is not: it applies to income eligible for the small business deduction, which requires Canadian-controlled private corporation status, and non-resident control is what removes it — a Whitehorse registered office decides nothing here. The federal-versus-provincial comparison covers where the incorporating jurisdiction does and does not change tax outcomes.

Yukon's own taxation index is the useful negative evidence: everything it lists is fuel tax, tobacco tax, the carbon rebate, insurance premium tax, property tax and "Yukon-specific income tax measures". There is no territorial sales-tax line because there is no territorial sales tax. [14] Where you sell into other provinces the place-of-supply rules decide the rate you charge, not your Yukon address; see the sales-tax regime comparison.

The business number comes from the CRA by one of two routes: a resident route needing a valid social insurance number, or a non-resident route where "your business is incorporated outside Canada", the business is located outside Canada, "your SIN starts with 0", or "you do not have a SIN". [25] A Yukon company owned and directed from abroad is a Canadian corporation whose people may have no SIN at all, so establish the route before starting.

Stage 7: payroll and workers' safety

Yukon's employer-responsibilities page covers minimum wage and statutory holidays, not workers' compensation. [18] The substantive duty sits with the Yukon Workers' Safety and Compensation Board, which requires registration from "businesses with workers and/or contractors and subcontractors", "corporations with directors and/or workers", "proprietors or partners who hire workers" and "societies with workers". Read the second category again: a corporation with directors and no employees is named, so a corporation whose only human being is its sole director is not obviously outside it — a question for the board rather than an assumption. [26]

The deadline is short: notify the board "within 10 calendar days of starting" operations in Yukon, and again within 10 days of stopping. Registration asks for the federal business number among other details, which fixes the sequence because the CRA number must exist first. Directors are covered under the corporation's registration where they "report employment income on a Canada Revenue Agency T4 income tax slip", so a director paid only by dividend is in a different position, and self-employed contractors without workers "may apply for Optional Coverage". Premiums are assessed on payroll by industry with a stated minimum, but no rate figure is published — ask the board for your classification rather than budgeting an assumed one.

Stage 8: the municipal layer

Yukon has no territorial general business licence; the registry sends licensing straight to the municipality. Whitehorse casts its net wide: "Persons conducting any kind of endeavour for profit or gain within Whitehorse require a business license," expressly including non-local businesses, seasonal operations, street vendors and home-based businesses. Exemptions are narrow — temporary fundraising, registered charities, property management of three or fewer rental units, garage sales, and non-profits with no business activity. [27]

Further charges apply for liquor premises, accommodation, mobile-home parks, retail outlets and outdoor storage. The application is a dependency graph rather than a form: it needs the licence application, a development or Home-Based Business permit, a certificate of trade name where the business uses a name other than the owner's, Workers' Safety and Compensation Board approval where the applicant is incorporated or employs staff, Environmental Health approval for food and personal-service businesses, and liability insurance for work on public property. Home-based businesses must comply with sections 6.8, 6.9 and 6.10 of the Zoning Bylaw. The WSCB prerequisite fixes the order: CRA, then WSCB, then the city.

Annual obligations and the maintenance calendar

The annual return is a registry filing under section 267(1), not a tax return. It is due "by the last day of the month after its incorporation anniversary" — an anniversary of 1 June gives a deadline of 31 July — on Form 25 for $100, immediate online and up to 10 business days on paper. It also acts as a catch-up: if the address changed in the period Form 3 accompanies it, and if directors or their addresses changed "and notice has not been submitted within 30 days of the change", Form 9 does. [7]

Revival, the $25 certificate of status and the $20 electronic registry printout all come from the corporate fee schedule; the status certificate is what a bank or counterparty usually wants as proof of good standing. [4]

Operating across borders: extra-territorial registration

Yukon calls an outside corporation operating in the territory an extra-territorial corporation, governed by Part 21 of the Act. [8]

The trigger is broad. Section 275 sets out eight branches of carrying on business in Yukon, several met without a single employee there: a Yukon telephone listing or advertisement giving a Yukon address or number; having "a resident agent, warehouse, office or place of business in the Yukon"; acting as a director of a corporation; owning Yukon real property; needing a Yukon licence; or otherwise transacting business there. Section 277(1) then requires written notice of the home-jurisdiction registered office "immediately on commencing carrying on business in the Yukon", and section 277(2) requires registration "before or within 30 days after it begins carrying on business in the Yukon". Registration is a prescribed statement that section 278(2) requires to be "accompanied by the appointment of its attorney for service", who must be an individual under section 286(1); where a document is not in English, section 278(3) lets the registrar require a verified translation first. [1]

Registration costs $300 and the annual return $100, while appointing an attorney is free; registering without a name reservation adds $100 and is paper-only. [5] The extra-territorial annual return is Form 36, due "by the last day of the month immediately following the month of the registration anniversary in Yukon" — the Yukon registration date, not the home incorporation date — and it re-confirms the attorney every year. An assumed name must also be registered under section 87 of the Partnership and Business Names Act. [9]

Incorporating in Yukon gives a Yukon corporation, not national rights: operating in another province means meeting that province's rules on its own terms, and this page makes no mutual-recognition claim for Yukon because no official source establishing its position was verified. In the other direction, Corporations Canada states that "provincial and territorial legislation requires you to register your federal corporation in each province and territory in which it will conduct business", treating "having an address, a post office box or a phone number in a province or territory" as conducting business. [28] Whether a federal corporation must itself register in Yukon is genuinely unsettled, and this guide states both positions rather than picking one. The registry's own extra-territorial registration page describes the duty as applying unless the corporation is federally incorporated. The statute reads the other way: section 277(2) imposes registration on "every extra-territorial body corporate" with no federal carve-out; section 276(2) is a saving clause about a Canada corporation's right to carry on business, not an exemption from registering; and the only express federal exclusion in Part 21 is section 280(4) — "This section does not apply to a Canada corporation" — which lifts one section on names, not the registration duty. [1] Confirm with Corporate Affairs before relying on either reading, and note that the Corporations Canada page still points Yukon traffic at a dead host and was last modified in June 2022.

If you are outside Canada

Yukon is unusually accommodating in law and unusually old-fashioned in practice, and a founder abroad meets both halves.

Director residency is not an obstacle. Section 106(1) disqualifies only those under 19, persons under guardianship or judicially found incapable, persons subject to an operative enduring power of attorney, non-individuals subject to section 106(1.1), and undischarged bankrupts. A board composed entirely of people who have never been to Canada satisfies that list, and no exemption, application or Yukon-resident nominee is needed to achieve it. Yukon also permits a corporate director under section 106(1.1), which lets a foreign group's Yukon or extra-territorial subsidiary sit on the board — subject to the joint and several liability section 106(1.2) imposes on that body corporate's own directors. [1]

The registered office is the real constraint. Section 22(1) requires a registered office in Yukon at all times and section 22(4) forbids a post office box for it; Form 2 requires the delivery address to be a physical location and the address for service by mail to be "a Yukon address". A non-resident founder therefore needs a real Yukon address held by someone willing to accept legal service — in practice a Yukon lawyer, accountant or corporate-services provider. The Act anticipates the arrangement: section 22(5.1) contemplates "a person retained by a corporation to maintain its registered office or its separate records office at the person's place of business in the Yukon", and it lets that person file the address change directly if their own business address moves. An address outside the territory, Montreal included, cannot fill this role, and neither can a post-office box in Whitehorse. [3]

What you can and cannot file remotely. The name reservation is genuinely remote — online through YCOR for $40 by credit card. [5] The incorporation is not: original signatures only, copies and electronic signatures refused, which means physical documents signed by the incorporator reaching Whitehorse by mail, courier or hand. [3] Afterwards, filings can move online — but only once you hold a private filing key, and that key "will be mailed to the account holder and to the entity", which is two postal deliveries, one of them to the corporation's own Yukon address. [12] Build the Yukon address arrangement before you need the key, not after. Neither the transit time international mail adds to the 10-business-day paper timeline nor whether the registrar accepts a courier-delivered signature package from abroad is published; confirm both with Corporate Affairs before committing to a date. An extra-territorial registration adds a further remote-filing constraint, because section 278(3) lets the registrar demand a verified translation of any document not in English.

Tax status does not follow the certificate. The 0% rate applies to income eligible for the small business deduction, which depends on Canadian-controlled private corporation status, and non-resident control is what removes it. A Yukon certificate and a Whitehorse office prove neither CCPC status nor where the corporation is centrally managed and controlled. [21]

The business number may need the non-resident route, where the business is located outside Canada or the applicant has no SIN or a SIN starting with 0. [25] Because the Workers' Safety and Compensation Board asks for that number at registration, and Whitehorse asks an incorporated applicant for WSCB approval, a delay at the business-number stage delays everything downstream. [26] [27]

Banking and address consequences. Nothing here establishes that any bank will open an account for a Yukon corporation with an all-non-resident board; no institution's requirements were tested for this guide. Start with the non-resident research and the open-from-abroad guide, then the individual bank pages such as RBC, TD and BMO. Expect to be asked separately about the registered office, an operating address, each director's true residence, the ownership chart down to natural persons and the source of funds. The full decision tree, including immigration status and corporate tax residence, is the from-abroad track.

Immigration: the Yukon Business Nominee Program

Yukon runs a dedicated entrepreneur stream with published requirements and an assessment point grid, and its own start-a-business page splits its audience into "Yukon residents" and "Foreign entrepreneurs", pointing the latter here. [19]

Personal requirements are specific and financial: at least 65 points on the assessment grid; a high-school diploma at minimum; at least 3 years of entrepreneurial or business-management experience and 5 years of relevant work experience; not a refugee or holder of an active refugee request; never denied immigration by Canada; no active application to another nominee program; net worth of at least CAD $500,000 and at least CAD $300,000 in liquid assets, both documented with "verification by a Yukon accounting firm that you obtained it through legal means"; intent to live permanently in Yukon with dependants while managing the business; a position at NOC TEER 0 or 1; and a plan to invest at least CAD $300,000 of capital in the first two years. [20]

Two conditions catch people who have already started: capital "does not include any capital investments made before your acceptance into the Yukon Business Nominee Program", and the applicant must "have not yet purchased or started your business in the Yukon at the time of your application" — so incorporating first and applying afterwards is the wrong order. Qualifying capital means property or equipment, not a house, partly-personal vehicles or operating expenses.

The sector rules are equally decisive. The business must be new or a purchase of an existing Yukon business, managed by the applicant, not a passive investment, and in a strategic sector: information technology, manufacturing, value-added processing, forestry, tourism, energy, mining or mineral development, agriculture, cultural industry, or film and video production. Ineligible are passive investments, retail, wholesale and distribution, restaurants, financial services, business/consultation/personal services, most professional services, real estate, holding companies and gas stations — which rules out much of what founders propose. Intake status, processing times and nomination allocation are not published, so confirm them before building a plan. A founder who does not qualify should look at the federal options in the from-abroad track rather than treating YBNP as the only door.

Yukon's language regime

Section 1(1) of the Languages Act states that "the Yukon accepts that English and French are the official languages of Canada and also accepts that measures set out in this Act constitute important steps towards implementation of the equality of status of English and French in the Yukon". Three operative consequences follow. Section 4: "Acts of the Legislature and regulations made thereunder shall be printed and published in English and French and both language versions are equally authoritative" — the French text of the Business Corporations Act is not a convenience translation, it is the law. Section 5: "Either English or French may be used by any person in, or in any pleading in or process issuing from, any court established by the Legislature." Section 6(1): the public may communicate with and receive services from "any head or central office" of a Yukon government institution in either language, and from other offices where "there is significant demand" or the nature of the office makes it reasonable. [2]

This is why bilingual corporate names are a first-class option, why "the French language equivalent" of Limited, Incorporated and Corporation is an accepted name ending, and why a French corporate name must appear on the annual return. Note the boundary: this binds Yukon's own institutions. Unlike Quebec, Yukon imposes no French-language obligation on your private business.

Failure modes

• Assuming online incorporation. YCOR reserves names and handles later filings only.
• Using 18 as the minimum director age. Yukon uses 19. [1]
• Treating "no residency rule" as "no Yukon footprint required". The registered office must be a physical Yukon address, not a PO box.
• Looking for a transparency filing. The ISC register is internal: nothing to file, and nothing excusing not having built it. Bearer certificates must also be replaced. [10]
• Missing the free 15-day and 30-day notices, whose omission the annual return exposes.
• Diarising the annual return on the anniversary rather than the last day of the following month — and, for an extra-territorial corporation, running the clock from the home incorporation date instead of the Yukon registration date. [9]
• Missing the WSCB's 10-day window, or assuming a director-only corporation is outside it.
• Applying to YBNP after incorporating. The program requires that you have not yet started the Yukon business when you apply.
• Confusing the two Form 8s — notice of directors under the Business Corporations Act, declaration of business name under the Partnership and Business Names Act. [17]

Readiness checklist

• Name tested against the Naming Regulation, or a numbered name accepted; bilingual-name decision made; reservation obtained and its 90-day expiry diarised.
• Every proposed director checked against all six branches of section 106(1), including age 19; any corporate director confirmed eligible under section 106(1.1) with the 106(1.2) liability understood.
• Yukon registered-office delivery address secured: physical, not a PO box, with someone able to accept service.
• Forms 1, 2 and 8 completed with matching director counts; wet-ink signatures and delivery to Whitehorse arranged; fees funded.
• ISC analysis completed to natural persons, register built, each ISC notified, bearer certificates replaced.
• Business number obtained by the correct route; GST registration analysed.
• WSCB notified within 10 calendar days of starting; director coverage clarified.
• Whitehorse licence applied for with WSCB approval and development permit as applicable.
• YCOR account created and a private filing key requested, allowing for two postal deliveries.
• Compliance calendar built: 15-day address notices, 30-day director notices, annual return, T2, licence renewal.
• Advice obtained on corporate tax residence and CCPC status before relying on the 0% rate.

What 2727 can and cannot support

2727 Coworking is in Griffintown, Montreal, and that geography settles most of this page.

A 2727 address cannot be the registered office of a Yukon corporation. Section 22(1) requires the registered office to be in Yukon and section 22(4) rules out a post office box for it. Nor can it be the Yukon address for service by mail, which Form 2 requires to be a Yukon address, nor the records office of a private Yukon corporation. A Yukon incorporation needs a Yukon-based registered-office provider, and this guide does not offer one.

What a 2727 plan can legitimately be is a Montreal mailing and correspondence address, plus workspace — and, for a federal or Quebec corporation, a registered office where the applicable rules and the selected plan permit it. A Yukon corporation will still be asked for several addresses that mean different things, and answering all of them with one address is how files stall: the registered-office delivery address must be a physical Yukon location, the CRA's physical address is where day-to-day activities actually occur while its mailing address is merely where correspondence arrives, and a director's residential address is where that person actually lives. For the correspondence roles a business-address service can be the right tool; for legal presence in Yukon it cannot. If your plan is really a Montreal business, the honest question is whether Yukon is the right jurisdiction at all — the federal-versus-provincial comparison is where that gets decided, and the federal corporation scenario covers the address roles for that route.

2727 does not incorporate companies, act as a Yukon registered-office provider or attorney for service, appoint directors, obtain business numbers, determine corporate tax residence or CCPC status, complete extra-territorial registrations, or represent that any registry, bank or government body accepts its address for any purpose. Ask the receiving body to name the exact field and the document it accepts for it, then choose a plan only if the real service matches that use.

Neighbouring research: the Northwest Territories and Nunavut guides cover the other territories, and British Columbia and Alberta are where Yukon businesses most often expand. Everything starts at the hub; founders already in Canada should use the from-Canada track.

Research method and limitations

This page was researched and verified on 6 September 2026 against the Yukon Business Corporations Act and Languages Act consolidations, the Government of Yukon's Corporate Affairs, taxation and immigration pages, the CRA, the Yukon Workers' Safety and Compensation Board, the City of Whitehorse, and Corporations Canada. Law-firm, accountancy and incorporation-service pages were not cited for any rule.

The access route affects freshness, so it is disclosed. yukon.ca, laws.yukon.ca and canlii.org all served a Cloudflare bot challenge to every fetcher available here, so the Government of Yukon pages were read from dated Internet Archive snapshots of the official pages captured between October 2025 and July 2026, and the statutes were retrieved as full bilingual consolidations through a scraping service. Each Yukon page's own "date modified" ranges from February 2024 to November 2025; the oldest, the name-reservation fee schedule, is dated 2 December 2024. Confirm every fee and processing time against the live registry page before filing. CRA, WSCB and City of Whitehorse pages were fetched directly. Discovery search was unavailable, and a grounded-search helper that proposed Yukon registry URLs was discarded after every URL it produced returned 404; the real URL tree came from the Internet Archive's index. CanLII's consolidation simultaneously calls the current version in force since 1 June 2026 and "current to 2021-06-18"; both are reproduced rather than reconciled, and the Yukon legislation site is authoritative.

The registry's extra-territorial registration page, which reportedly states that the duty does not apply to federally incorporated corporations, had no archived capture and could not be retrieved; its position is therefore reported without a citation and set against the statute text, which was read directly. Items that could not be verified are stated as such: the WSCB publishes no assessment rate or minimum premium; the CRA publishes no effective dates for Yukon's 0% and 12% rates; the Business Nominee Program publishes no intake status, processing times or nomination allocation; and no official source was verified for Yukon's position in interprovincial trade-agreement mutual recognition, so no such claim is made. Two rules — the board-size requirement and the statutory basis for the Limited/Incorporated/Corporation name endings — are stated from the registry's pages rather than attributed to unpinned section numbers. No filing, registration, licence or immigration application was tested, and no bank's requirements were assessed.

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

Frequently asked questions

Does Yukon require any director to live in Canada?

No. Section 106(1) of the Business Corporations Act lists the disqualifications — age under 19, guardianship, judicial findings of incapacity, an operative enduring power of attorney, non-individuals subject to section 106(1.1), and bankrupt status — and none concerns residency, citizenship or immigration status. [1]

Can a company be a director of a Yukon corporation?

Yes, unusually. Section 106(1.1) permits a body corporate holding voting shares to serve as a director if it is a Yukon or extra-territorial corporation not in default with the registrar — and section 106(1.2) then makes that body corporate's own directors jointly and severally liable for obligations arising from the role.

Can I incorporate in Yukon entirely online?

No. The name reservation can be completed online through YCOR for $40, but the incorporation itself requires original signatures: "We only accept originals. Copies or electronic signatures are not accepted." [3] [12]

What does it cost and how long does it take?

$300, with paper processing up to 10 business days, after a name reservation of $40 online or $60 on paper taking up to 5 business days. Expediting in office hours adds $100; out-of-hours or same-day adds $500. [4] [5]

Can my registered office be a PO box or an address outside Yukon?

Neither. Section 22(1) requires a registered office in Yukon at all times and section 22(4) prohibits a post office box for it. Only the registered-office mailing address may be a PO box, and only a public corporation may keep a separate records office outside Yukon.

Does Yukon have a public beneficial-ownership registry?

No. Yukon corporations have kept an internal register of individuals with significant control since 1 June 2025, with a build deadline of 1 June 2026, but it is neither filed nor published — it goes "to law enforcement, tax, and regulatory authorities upon request". [10] [11]

When is the annual return due, and is it my tax return?

By the last day of the month after the incorporation anniversary — an anniversary of 1 June means 31 July — on Form 25 for $100. It is a registry filing, separate from the federal T2 on which Yukon tax is reported via Schedule 443 and line 245 of Schedule 5. [7] [22]

Is there a sales tax in Yukon, and will my corporation really pay 0% income tax?

No territorial sales tax: only the 5% GST applies, and Yukon is not a participating HST province. [23] [24] [14] The 0% rate applies only to income eligible for the small business deduction up to $500,000, which depends on Canadian-controlled private corporation status — removed by non-resident control. [21]

Do I need to register with the Workers' Safety and Compensation Board if I have no employees?

Possibly. The board lists "corporations with directors and/or workers" among those required to register, within 10 calendar days of starting, and directors are covered where they report T4 employment income. A corporation whose only person is its director should ask the board rather than assume exemption. [26] [18]

When does an outside corporation have to register in Yukon, and what does a sole proprietor do?

Before or within 30 days after it begins carrying on business there, under section 277(2) — and the section 275 test is met by a Yukon listing, a resident agent, Yukon real property or acting as a director. Registration costs $300 and needs an individual as attorney for service. [8] [28] A sole proprietor registers a business name only if trading under something other than their own given name, for $25. [17] [6] [16]

Can I use the Yukon Business Nominee Program if I have already incorporated?

No. Applicants must "have not yet purchased or started your business in the Yukon at the time of your application", and capital invested before acceptance does not count toward the CAD $300,000 requirement. [20] [19] [13] [15] [2]

Official references

1. CanLII: Business Corporations Act, RSY 2002, c 20 (Yukon)
2. CanLII: Languages Act, RSY 2002, c 133 (Yukon)
3. Government of Yukon: incorporate a Yukon business corporation
4. Government of Yukon: find fees for business corporations
5. Government of Yukon: find fees to reserve a business or non-profit name
6. Government of Yukon: find fees for partnership and business names
7. Government of Yukon: file annual return for a Yukon corporation
8. Government of Yukon: extra-territorial corporations
9. Government of Yukon: file annual return for an extra-territorial corporation
10. Government of Yukon: how to maintain a register of individuals with significant control
11. Government of Yukon: Guidance on Beneficial Ownership Transparency under the Business Corporations Act
12. Government of Yukon: how to use the Yukon Corporate Online Registry
13. Government of Yukon: start a business
14. Government of Yukon: taxation
15. Government of Yukon: corporations
16. Government of Yukon: partnerships
17. Government of Yukon: file a declaration of a business name
18. Government of Yukon: employer responsibilities
19. Government of Yukon: Yukon Business Nominee Program
20. Government of Yukon: YBNP eligibility requirements for foreign entrepreneurs
21. CRA: corporation tax rates
22. CRA: Yukon territorial corporation tax
23. CRA: GST/HST rates by province and territory
24. CRA: GST/HST place-of-supply rules and participating provinces
25. CRA: register for a business number and CRA program accounts
26. Yukon Workers' Safety and Compensation Board: registration overview
27. City of Whitehorse: business license
28. Corporations Canada: register a federal corporation in a province or territory