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Tax season officially launches on Monday, which is the first day you will be able to file your 2025 tax return online.

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Last tax-filing season, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) received more than 33 million tax returns, 93 per cent of which were filed online. The agency issued over 19 million refunds, for an average amount of $2,000, 79 per cent of which were issued by direct deposit. Currently, there are more than 28 million individuals signed up for direct deposit.

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So, to get you all set to file your 2025 returns, here are some handy tips to get you started.

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Important dates

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Filing opens on Monday, but it’s best to make sure you have all your tax slips, some of which may not be mailed out until March, before submitting your return. If you have a CRA account, you can also get copies of your tax slips there once the CRA processes them.

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If you file online, the CRA’s published service standard is to issue your notice of assessment within two weeks of receiving your return. If you choose to file on paper, the CRA’s service standard is to issue your notice of assessment within 12 weeks of receiving your return.

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To file online, you’ll need your NETFILE access code. If you’ve misplaced it, you can find it more easily in your CRA account this year. Once you sign in, select “tax returns” to view your eight-character access code (letters and numbers). You’ll need this code when filing your return electronically with tax software.

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The next important date is the registered retirement savings plan (RRSP) contribution deadline, which falls on March 2 this year. This means you have just over a week left to make an RRSP contribution that would entitle you to claim a deduction on your 2025 tax return.

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The filing deadline for most individuals to file their tax return is April 30. This is also the deadline to pay any taxes owing for 2025 to avoid non-deductible arrears interest, which is compounded daily at the current prescribed rate of seven per cent for overdue taxes.

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If you, your spouse or your common-law partner earned self-employment income in 2025, you have until June 15 to file. But be forewarned that if you owe money, you will still need to pay by April 30 to avoid being charged arrears interest.

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What’s new on the 2025 return?

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Not much, but a few things have changed for 2025.

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First, as of July 1, 2025, the lowest marginal individual income tax rate was reduced to 14 per cent from 15 per cent. But because this change took effect halfway through the year, the full-year lowest marginal individual income tax rate for 2025 was 14.5 per cent. You’ll notice this is also the 2025 rate that applies to most non-refundable tax credits.

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Because the value of the non-refundable tax credits is now worth less than it was previously, the government also introduced a new top-up tax credit to effectively maintain a 15 per cent rate for certain non-refundable tax credits claimed on amounts over the first income tax bracket threshold of $57,375 for 2025. This will only affect taxpayers with extraordinarily high credits, such as medical expenses or tuition.