Understanding fiscal deadlines
Where the dates ComptaFlow shows come from: the CRA and Revenu Québec rules behind each service, the difference between filing and paying, and the holiday adjustment.
One calculation engine
Every deadline displayed in ComptaFlow (task board, Suivi, calendar, reports) comes out of the same calculation engine. For each service it applies the rule the relevant administration publishes: so many months after year end, a fixed date of the year, or a fixed day of the following month. Dates are never typed by hand, so they are never miscopied; if a rule changes, it changes in one place for the whole firm.
Filing is not paying
Several obligations carry two dates: the return's and the payment's. When they differ, ComptaFlow generates two distinct tasks, so the payment date (often the earlier one, and the costlier one to miss) never hides behind the filing date:
- Self-employed (T1/TP1): filing by June 15, but any balance payable April 30. ComptaFlow creates the filing task at June 15 AND the payment task at April 30. The classic trap (believing you can pay in June) is neutralized by the calendar itself.
- Corporate year end (T2 + CO-17): filing 6 months after year end, but the balance payable 2 months after (both administrations' general rule). ComptaFlow dates the payment at 2 months for every corporation. Federal law grants 3 months to certain CCPCs eligible for the small business deduction; ComptaFlow deliberately keeps the more prudent date, never a late one.
The rules by service
All dates below are then adjusted to business days (next section).
| Service | Deadline rule |
|---|---|
| Corporate year end (T2 + CO-17) | Filing: 6 months after fiscal year end. Balance due: distinct task, 2 months after year end |
| Corporate income tax instalments | Last day of each complete month of the tax year (general rule); quarterly for eligible small CCPCs: last day of each quarter of the year |
| GST/QST monthly or quarterly | Filing AND payment: 1 month after the period ends |
| GST/QST annual (corporation) | 3 months after fiscal year end |
| GST/QST annual (individual in business, Dec 31 year end) | Filing: June 15. Payment: distinct task, April 30 |
| GST/QST instalments (annual filer, net tax $3,000 and up) | Quarterly, 1 month after each fiscal quarter |
| Federal and Quebec source deductions (regular remitter) | The 15th of the month following the pay, each administration separately |
| Quarterly source deductions (eligible small employer) | April 15, July 15, October 15, January 15 |
| T4 + Summary (CRA), RL-1 + Summary (RQ) | Last day of February of the following year (February 29 in leap years) |
| CNESST wage declaration | March 15 |
| Personal tax (T1/TP1) | Filing and payment: April 30. Self-employed: filing June 15, payment April 30 (two tasks) |
| Personal instalments | March 15, June 15, September 15, December 15 |
Two conventions of the calculation are worth knowing:
- Month-end convention: a fiscal year ending on the last day of a month yields a deadline on the last day of the target month (December 31 + 6 months = June 30, not July 1). A mid-month year end keeps its day of month (September 23 + 6 months = March 23).
- Per-client-type rules: some rules vary with the client's profile; the central example is the self-employed June 15 filing extension, applied automatically from the client type on the file.
The holiday adjustment
The CRA and Revenu Québec apply the same base rule: a deadline that falls on a Saturday, a Sunday, or a recognized holiday is met on the next business day. But the two agencies do not recognize exactly the same list, and ComptaFlow applies each agency's own calendar:
- a federal deadline follows the CRA's list (which includes September 30 and November 11, but not January 2);
- a Quebec deadline follows Revenu Québec's list (which includes January 2, but not September 30 or November 11);
- a deadline shared by both (T2+CO-17 year end, GST/QST) moves only when BOTH agencies are closed, so it is never late at either.
Two deliberate choices in the calculation:
- The administrative closures of December 24 and 31 (RQ offices closed, but not holidays) do not push deadlines later: the calculation stays on the prudent side.
- When the lists diverge on a shared date, ComptaFlow keeps the earlier date; delivering before the displayed date remains the firm's good practice.
Current limit of the calculation
In the interest of transparency, one regime is not yet fully computed by ComptaFlow; for that case, validate the schedule directly against the administrations' notices:
- accelerated source-deduction frequencies (employers remitting twice monthly or weekly, the $25,000 and $100,000 average-monthly-withholding thresholds) and Revenu Québec's annual remitter.
This gap is tracked internally and will be closed by a product update.
To act on this
- Generate a client's compliance tasks: enable the services that produce these dates.
- Follow a service's deadlines in Suivi: see where every client stands.
- Understanding services and task generation: how these dates become assigned tasks.