T1 Filing Compliance 2025 Edition (2023 Tax Year)

T1 Filing Compliance is a Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) publication, which presents data about returns that were filed late or on-time. The data in the tables are derived from information reported on income tax and benefit returns for the 2023 tax year, processed up to February 03, 2025.

Explanatory notes

Confidentiality procedures

To ensure the protection of tax filer information, data have been suppressed where warranted. As well, counts and amounts are rounded to the nearest multiple of 10. For example, 104 would be rounded to 100 and 105 would be rounded to 110. A zero (0) indicates that the information has been suppressed for confidentiality purposes. Suppressed information also includes valid zeroes.

Data source

Income data were taken from the T1 General Income Tax and Benefit Returns and related schedules filed by individuals for the 2023 tax year.

Classification variables

The following variables are used in one or more of the tables in this publication:

On-time or late returns
Refund, balance owing or nil returns
Late-filing penalty
Province or territory
Filing method
Gender

On-time or late returns

A tax return is considered on time when it is filed on or before the deadline for the 2023 tax year. It is late if the return is filed after the deadline. Usually, a return for a specific tax year has to be filed on or before April 30, the following year.

Self-employed persons - If a tax filer or their spouse or common‑law partner carried on a business in 2023 (other than a business whose expenditures are primarily in connection with a tax shelter), the return for 2023 has to be filed on or before June 15, 2024.

Exception to the due date of a return - When the due date falls on a Saturday, a Sunday, or a public holiday recognized by the Canada Revenue Agency, a return is considered on time if the agency receives it or if it is postmarked on or before the next business day.

Deceased persons - If a tax filer is filing for a deceased person, the due date may be different. For more information, see Guide T4011, Preparing Returns for Deceased Persons 2023.

Refund, balance owing, or nil returns

A refund return refers to a return with the amount on line 48400 (Refund) greater than $2.

A balance owing return refers to a return with the amount on line 48500 (Balance owing) greater than $2.

A nil return refers to a return with the amount on line 48400 (Refund) no greater than $2 and the amount on line 48500 (Balance owing) no greater than $2.

Late-filing penalty

If a tax filer has a balance owing for the 2023 tax year and they file their 2023 return after the filing deadline, a late-filing penalty is charged. The penalty is 5% of the 2023 balance owing, plus 1% of the balance owing for each full month the return is late, to a maximum of 12 months.

Note

If a late-filing penalty was charged for a tax filer’s 2020, 2021, or 2022 return, a repeat late-filing penalty for 2023 is charged. The penalty is 10% of the 2023 balance owing, plus 2% of the 2023 balance owing for each full month the return is late, to a maximum of 20 months.

A repeat late-filing penalty is included with the late-filing penalty in the tables of this edition.

Province or territory

Province or territory, as used in the tables below, refers to the province or territory that was the tax filer’s mailing province or territory at the end of the tax year, as reported on their individual income tax and benefit return.

Filing method

The filing method is determined by the information on record at the CRA. Individual tax filers submit tax returns by one of the four available filing methods:

EFILE: A service that lets authorized service providers and discounters send individual income tax return information to the CRA directly from the software used to prepare the tax return. Clients take their documents to a registered tax preparer who, for a fee, will prepare their return and send it to the CRA electronically using EFILE.
NETFILE: An electronic tax-filing service that allows you to send your individual income tax and benefit return directly to the CRA using the internet and a NETFILE-certified software product.
Paper (includes 2D barcode and SimpleFile by Paper): Physical paper copies of individual income tax and benefit returns that are mailed to the CRA. This includes returns with two-dimensional bar codes, which are a unique group of parallel lines that store information that can be scanned electronically.
SimpleFile by Phone: The SimpleFile services are simplified tax filing methods offered by the CRA to eligible individuals with a lower income and a simple tax situation.

Gender

The gender of the tax filer is gathered from information on file with the CRA. Gender is defined to be female, male, gender diverse, or unknown. Individuals whose gender is non-binary are represented in the gender diverse category. Tax filers for whom no gender code is available, for example, non-residents who applied for an Individual Tax Number, are counted in the “Unknown” category.

Description of the tables

Tables 1 and 2 present the number of on-time filing returns and late-filing returns by province or territory with filing method and tax returns by gender. Table 3 presents information on the late-filing penalty by province or territory. In table 3, the columns that pertain to late returns (with nil balance, with refunds, and with balance owing) show a tax filer’s running balance which includes previous years’ balances. On the other hand, the late returns with penalty and total penalty represent a balance owing for 2023 only.

Tables in PDF format

The following tables are available in PDF format. If you have trouble reading PDF files, see this notice.

For information about these tables, see the explanatory notes.

Tables in CSV format

The following tables are available in comma-separated value (CSV) format. The fields are separated by a comma.