New to Canada: your first tax return

From the day you become a resident of Canada for tax purposes, you report your income from everywhere in the world. Some credits are reduced in your first year to match the days you lived here, and filing every year keeps your benefit payments coming.

When you become a resident

For tax, what counts is your residency status, not your immigration status. A permit or permanent resident card says whether you can live, work or study here; it doesn’t set your tax obligations.

You become a resident for income tax purposes when you have enough residential ties in Canada, which for most newcomers is the first day you live here. The ties that matter most are a home, a spouse or common-law partner, or dependants in Canada. Secondary ties, such as a car, Canadian bank accounts, a driver’s licence or provincial health insurance, can count too.

Without significant ties, staying 183 days or more in a year may make you a deemed resident. If you’re unsure, you can ask for the CRA’s opinion on Form NR74, Determination of Residency Status (Entering Canada).

Get a social insurance number

You need a social insurance number (SIN), from Service Canada, to work, to get benefit and credit payments and to open most bank accounts. If Service Canada can’t issue you one, the CRA may give you a temporary tax number (TTN) to use for benefits and your taxes.

You can’t file online without a SIN. If yours hasn’t arrived and the deadline is close, file a paper return without it, with a note explaining why, to avoid a possible late-filing penalty and interest.

Apply for benefits before your first return

You don’t have to wait until you file. Once you’re a resident, apply for:

• the Canada Groceries and Essentials Benefit (formerly the GST/HST credit), a tax-free quarterly payment for people with low and modest incomes. With no children, apply online with Form RC151; with children under 19, use the paper Form RC151.
• the Canada child benefit, a monthly payment for children under 18. If you qualify, apply with Form RC66 instead, which also covers the groceries benefit.

Depending on where you live, these can bring related provincial or territorial payments too. The CRA may ask for your income from all sources for up to two years before you arrived, to work out your payments. Temporary residents can start getting the Canada child benefit in their 19th month in Canada, if they hold a valid permit and meet the other conditions. See the Canada child benefit.

What income your first return covers

You don’t have to file until the year after you become a resident. For example, if you arrived in 2025, you didn’t have to file your 2025 return until April 30, 2026. On it, you enter the date you became a resident. Then:

• From that date on, report your world income, meaning income from all sources inside and outside Canada, in Canadian dollars.
• Before that date, report only certain Canadian income, such as pay for work in Canada, income from a business carried on in Canada, taxable capital gains on taxable Canadian property, and the taxable part of Canadian scholarships.

Income you earned outside Canada before you became a resident isn’t taxed in Canada.

If foreign income you receive after arriving is also taxed abroad, you may be able to claim a federal foreign tax credit. A tax treaty may exempt some income from Canadian tax; you still report it, then deduct the exempt part. See foreign income and the T1135.

Property you owned when you arrived

If you owned certain property, such as shares, jewellery, paintings or a collection when you became a resident, you’re treated as having sold it and bought it back at its fair market value on that date. Record those values: they become your cost when you sell or give away the property later.

Credits in your first year

Some federal non-refundable credits are claimed for the amounts that apply to the part of the year you were resident, such as CPP or QPP contributions, EI premiums, tuition, student loan interest, medical expenses and donations. Others, including the basic personal amount, are reduced by the number of days you were resident.

For example, if you became a resident on May 6, 2025, you were resident for 240 days, so you’d claim 240/365 of the federal basic personal amount of $16,129. Provincial and territorial credits generally follow the same rules, using the province or territory where you lived on December 31. No credit can be more than a full-year resident could claim.

You generally can’t deduct RRSP contributions on your first Canadian return, because your deduction limit is based on income from earlier years.

Keep filing every year

The CRA uses your return to calculate your benefit and credit payments, even if you owe no tax or have no income, so file every year by April 30 (June 15 if you or your spouse or common-law partner are self-employed). Your spouse or partner should file too. If you live in Quebec, you also file a provincial return with Revenu Québec each year. If you’re on a temporary permit, send the CRA your new permit before the old one expires, or your Canada child benefit payments will stop.