Public Accounts of Canada 2025

The tabling of the Public Accounts ends the Government of Canada’s expenditure cycle by presenting the government’s financial information for the previous fiscal year ending March 31.

The information provided in the Public Accounts is organized in 3 volumes and explains how government revenues were generated and how these funds were spent.

• Volume I contains the audited consolidated financial statements of the government, and the Independent Auditor’s Report from the Auditor General of Canada.
• Volume II presents the financial operations of the government, by departments, agencies, and organizations that report to a minister.
• Volume III includes other supplementary information on expenditures for the acquisition of land, buildings and works, transfer payments to organizations and individuals, as well as other operational areas such as professional and special services and Ministers’ Office Expenditures.

Under the Financial Administration Act, the President of the Treasury Board is required to table the Public Accounts on behalf of government organizations by December 31. The production of the Public Accounts is a joint responsibility between the Receiver General for Canada, the Office of the Comptroller General and the Department of Finance. Each department and agency is responsible for their own expenses reported in Public Accounts.

The consolidated financial statements found in Volume 1 are audited by the Auditor General of Canada each year to validate the integrity of the government’s accounting and reporting as per Canadian public sector accounting standards. For the 27th year in a row, the Government of Canada received a clean audit opinion on its financial statements. This demonstrates the high quality of Canada's financial reporting.

Highlights of Public Accounts 2025

Revenues
Revenues totalled $511.0 billion in 2025, up $51.4 billion, or 11.2%, from the previous year.

Federal revenues can be broken down into five main categories: income tax revenues, other taxes and duties, Employment insurance (EI) premium revenues, pollution pricing proceeds, and other revenues.

Within the income tax category, personal income tax revenues, at $234.3 billion, are the largest source of federal revenues and accounted for 45.9% of total revenues in 2025 (down from 47.4% in 2024). Corporate income tax revenues, at $97.0 billion, are the second largest source of revenues and accounted for 19.0% of total revenues in 2025 (up from 17.9% in 2024). Non-resident income tax revenues, at $13.5 billion, are a comparatively smaller source of revenues, accounting for only 2.6% of total revenues in 2025 (down from 2.7% in 2024).

Other taxes and duties consist of revenues from the GST, energy taxes, customs import duties, and other excise taxes and duties. The largest component of this category—GST revenues—stood at $52.5 billion, or 10.3% of all federal revenues in 2025 (down from 11.2% in 2024).  The remaining components of other taxes and duties collected in 2025 represented approximately $19.4 billion, or 3.8% of total federal revenues (down from 3.9% in 2024).

EI premium revenues, at $31.5 billion, accounted for 6.2% of total federal revenues in 2025 (down from 6.4% in 2024).

Other revenues include items such as net income from enterprise Crown corporations and other government business enterprises, revenues from the sales of goods and services and foreign exchange revenues and return on investments. These revenues accounted for $49.2 billion or 9.6% of total federal revenues in 2025 (up from 8.1% in 2024).

Expenses
In 2025, federal spending totalled $547.3 billion. Transfer payments, totalling $359.4 billon, comprise approximately 66% of this amount. These include grants, contributions, or other payments made by the federal government which support individuals, other levels of government, organizations and international entities.

Major transfers to individuals, at $131.6 billion, or 24% of total expenses, included elderly benefits, EI benefits and support measures and children’s benefits. Major transfers to other levels of government totalled $105.1 billion, or 19.2%, of all expenses in 2025. This includes payments for the Canada Health Transfer, the Canada Social Transfer, Canada-wide early learning and childcare transfers, and the Canada Community Building Fund.

Other transfer payments, which include transfers to Indigenous Peoples, assistance to farmers, students and businesses, support for research and development, and international assistance, made up $107.1 billion, or 19.6%, of expenses.

Operating expenses, which are the costs of running government departments and programs, represented approximately 23.8% or $130.5 billion of total expenses across 137 federal organizations. These expenses include personnel costs, office space and buildings, equipment, and professional and special services.

The balance of expenses is attributed to other costs, including net actuarial losses, and public debt charges, which totaled $57.4 billion, made up 10.5% of expenses.

Professional Services Expenditures
Compared to the previous year, professional and special services expenditures in 2025 increased from $20.8 billion to $23.1 billion, an increase of approximately $2.3 billion. Professional and special services is a broad category that includes a wide range of services such as engineering and architectural services, legal services, and health and welfare services, among others. It represented less than 5% of the total government expenditures in 2025.

This increase is largely attributable to increases in engineering and architectural services such as shipbuilding, health services to support refugee claimants and resettled refugees as part of the Interim Federal Health Program, and other services for specialized air force pilot and aircrew personnel training.

Conversely, the combined spending of management consulting and informatics services, which represents approximately 14% of total professional and special services, decreased by $354 million or 10%, from $3,591 million in 2024 to $3,237 million in 2025.

The Government of Canada’s key priority is the delivery of programs and services that Canadians expect and depend on.  The Public Accounts of Canada provides details on the revenues collected from Canadians and well as the expenses the government has made on their behalf.