Every spring, the same thing happens to someone. They gather their T4, file their return in March, feel great about it, and then a T5 for $340 of bank interest shows up in the mail in April. Now there’s an adjustment to file, a reassessment to wait for, and sometimes a small interest charge on top.
Most tax headaches we see at Taxwala don’t come from complicated tax law. They come from missing paperwork. So before you open any tax software or send anything to an accountant, it’s worth taking twenty minutes to pull everything together properly.
This checklist covers the documents you need to file your personal taxes in Canada for the 2026 tax year, which you’ll file in spring 2027. Not every item will apply to you. Skim the headings, grab what’s relevant, and skip the rest.
First, know when your slips actually arrive
Filing too early is one of the easiest ways to miss something. Employers, banks and government agencies have deadlines for sending out tax slips, and they don’t all land at once.
Most slips, including T4s, T4As, T5s and RRSP contribution receipts, have to be issued by the end of February. Some take longer. T3 slips from mutual funds and trusts, and T5013 slips from partnerships, are often not issued until the end of March. If you hold investments in a non-registered account, it’s usually smart to wait until early April before filing.
One useful shortcut: if you have a CRA My Account, you can see copies of many of the slips issued to you under your SIN. It’s not a perfect list, since paper slips and late-filed slips may not show up right away, but it’s a good way to double-check you haven’t forgotten an account or an old employer.
The basics everyone needs
Before you get into income and deductions, have these on hand:
- Your Social Insurance Number (and your spouse’s or common-law partner’s, if you’re married or living common-law)
- Last year’s Notice of Assessment, which shows your RRSP deduction limit, any unused tuition amounts and carry-forward balances
- Your current mailing address and any change of address during the year
- Your marital status on December 31, plus the date it changed if it changed during the year
- Banking details for direct deposit, if you haven’t already set it up with the CRA
- Dates of birth for any dependants
Marital status deserves a quick note. It affects your GST/HST credit, the Canada Child Benefit and several other credits, and the CRA expects you to report changes. If you moved in with a partner in 2026 and lived together for twelve continuous months, or you have a child together, you’re likely common-law for tax purposes. People miss this more often than you’d think.
If you’re new to Canada, add your date of arrival and a summary of the income you earned worldwide before you arrived. You don’t pay Canadian tax on income from before you became a resident, but the CRA uses that number to work out your eligibility for certain benefits.
Employment income
For most people, this is the simplest part.
- T4 – Statement of Remuneration Paid, from every employer you worked for during 2026. If you changed jobs, you’ll have more than one.
- T4A – Covers a mix of things: contract or commission income, scholarships and bursaries, some pension income, and certain payments from your employer that aren’t on a T4.
- T4E – If you received Employment Insurance, including parental or sickness benefits.
- T4PS – If you’re part of an employee profit-sharing plan.
Got tips that weren’t run through payroll? Those are taxable too, and they won’t be on a slip. Keep your own record of the total.
If you worked from home and plan to claim home office expenses, you’ll also need a Form T2200 (Declaration of Conditions of Employment) signed by your employer. The temporary flat-rate method used during the pandemic years is gone. Employees now claim using the detailed method, which means the T2200, plus receipts for the costs you’re claiming such as a portion of rent, utilities and internet.
Investment income
This is where returns most often go wrong, simply because investment slips arrive late and from places you forgot about.
- T5 – Interest and dividends from bank accounts, GICs and Canadian stocks held outside an RRSP or TFSA.
- T3 – Income from mutual funds, ETFs, income trusts and some estates. These are often issued at the end of March.
- T5008 – Shows sales of securities. It usually doesn’t show your original purchase cost correctly, so you’ll want your own records or a realized gains report from your brokerage.
- T5013 – Your share of income from a partnership.
A few things won’t come on a slip at all, and these are the ones that cause trouble later.
Cryptocurrency. If you sold, swapped or spent crypto in 2026, you likely have a capital gain or loss to report. Most exchanges let you download a transaction history. Pull it for the full year, including trades between different coins, because a crypto-to-crypto trade is still a disposition for tax purposes.
Foreign income and assets. Interest, dividends or rental income from outside Canada must be reported in Canadian dollars. If the total cost of your foreign property was more than $100,000 at any time in the year, you also need to file Form T1135. The late-filing penalty on that form is steep, even if you owe no tax at all, so it’s worth checking.
Interest earned inside a TFSA, RRSP or FHSA doesn’t get reported, so you won’t get a T5 for it. If you hold the same investments in both registered and non-registered accounts, make sure you’re only looking at the non-registered slips.
Retirement and pension income
If you’re retired, or drew from registered savings during the year, look out for:
- T4A(P) – Canada Pension Plan benefits
- T4A(OAS) – Old Age Security
- T4A – Employer pension income
- T4RSP – Withdrawals from an RRSP, including withdrawals under the Home Buyers’ Plan or Lifelong Learning Plan
- T4RIF – Payments from a RRIF
- T4FHSA – Contributions to and withdrawals from a First Home Savings Account
Seniors with a spouse should also have both partners’ pension figures handy. Pension income splitting can make a real difference to the household tax bill, but it has to be elected on both returns, so you need both sets of numbers in front of you.
Receipts for deductions
Deductions reduce your taxable income. These are the receipts that come up most often:
RRSP contributions. Contributions made from January 1, 2026 to the first 60 days of 2027 can be deducted on your 2026 return. That means a contribution made in February 2027 will have its own receipt, separate from the ones you got for 2026 contributions. Don’t lose track of it.
FHSA contributions. These are deductible too, but only contributions made within the calendar year count for that year.
Childcare expenses. Daycare, before- and after-school programs, day camps and some babysitting. Receipts should show the provider’s name and, for individuals, their SIN. Generally the lower-income spouse claims these.
Union and professional dues. Union dues are usually already on your T4 in box 44. Professional membership dues you paid yourself need a receipt.
Moving expenses. If you moved at least 40 kilometres closer to a new job, business or school, keep receipts for movers, travel, temporary lodging and some of the costs of selling your old home.
Support payments. Spousal support paid under a written agreement or court order may be deductible. Child support isn’t. Have the agreement and a record of what you paid.
Carrying charges. Interest on money borrowed to earn investment income, and certain investment management fees.
Receipts for tax credits
Credits reduce the tax you owe directly. A lot of people have these receipts sitting in a drawer and never claim them.
Medical expenses. Prescriptions, dental work, glasses and contacts, physiotherapy, private health insurance premiums you paid yourself, and more. You can claim medical expenses for any 12-month period that ends in 2026, so you don’t have to stick to the calendar year. You only get a credit for the amount above a threshold, which is the lower of 3% of your net income or a fixed dollar amount that’s adjusted each year. For couples, claiming everything on the lower-income spouse’s return usually gets more back.
Charitable donations. Official receipts from registered charities. Donations can be carried forward for up to five years, and spouses can pool them on one return. Once you go over $200 in a year, the credit rate jumps significantly, so combining and timing them can help.
Tuition. Your T2202 from your college or university, usually available through the student portal in late February or March. More on this in the student section below.
Disability tax credit. If you or a dependant has been approved, have the approval letter. If you think you might qualify but haven’t applied, that starts with Form T2201, completed partly by a medical practitioner.
Rent or property tax (Ontario). Ontario residents can apply for the Ontario Trillium Benefit, which includes the Ontario Energy and Property Tax Credit, through their tax return. You’ll need the total rent or property tax you paid for your principal residence and the address. Keep your rent receipts or lease even though you don’t send them in. Students living in a designated residence have their own rules.
Home accessibility expenses for renovations that make a home safer or more accessible for a senior or someone eligible for the disability tax credit.
Canada caregiver amount if you support a spouse or dependant with a physical or mental impairment. Have their details and income ready.
If you’re self-employed or earn gig income
Self-employed returns need the most paperwork, and they’re also where good records save the most money. You’ll need:
- A summary of all business income for the year, including income that wasn’t reported on a T4A
- Annual earnings summaries from every app or platform you used, such as Uber, DoorDash, Instacart, Etsy or Upwork
- Receipts or a categorized expense summary: supplies, software, phone and internet, advertising, professional fees, insurance and so on
- A vehicle logbook showing business kilometres versus total kilometres, plus fuel, insurance, repairs, licence fees, and lease payments or loan interest
- Business-use-of-home figures: square footage of your workspace versus the whole home, and the home’s rent, utilities, insurance and property tax
- Your GST/HST number, the returns you filed and payments you made, if you’re registered
- Records of any tax instalments paid to the CRA during the year
- Details of any equipment over a few hundred dollars that you bought, since these are usually depreciated rather than written off all at once
Since 2024, many digital platforms have to report seller and driver income directly to the CRA. In other words, the CRA probably already knows roughly what you earned. Your job is to make sure your return matches, and that your expenses are documented well enough to hold up if they ask.
If this is your situation, our self-employed tax filing service covers the T2125 business statement in detail. Rideshare and delivery drivers have a few extra GST/HST rules to watch, which we explain on our gig workers tax page.
If you own a rental property
Rental income goes on Form T776. Gather:
- Total rent collected, by property
- Mortgage interest paid (interest only, not principal)
- Property tax, insurance, utilities you paid, and condo fees
- Repair and maintenance receipts
- Receipts for any major improvements
- Advertising, legal or property management fees
The line between a repair and an improvement trips people up. Replacing a broken window with a similar one is usually a repair you can deduct right away. Replacing all the windows with better ones is usually a capital improvement that gets depreciated over time. Keep the receipts either way and let whoever prepares your return sort it out.
If you rent out part of your own home, or rented a property short-term on Airbnb, the rules shift again. Note how many days it was rented and which portion of the home was used.
A few situation-specific extras
Students. Your T2202, any T4A for scholarships or bursaries, and T4s from part-time work. If you have unused tuition amounts from previous years, they’ll be on your last Notice of Assessment. Even with little or no income, filing matters, because it builds tuition carry-forwards and qualifies you for the GST/HST credit. Our student tax returns page goes into how the tuition transfer to a parent works.
Families. Both spouses need to file every year to keep the Canada Child Benefit coming, even if one of you had no income. If you had a baby, adopted, or had a child move in or out during 2026, have the dates ready.
Newcomers. Your date of arrival, immigration documents showing your status, and your world income for the part of the year before you arrived. If you left another country during the year, you may also have a tax filing in that country.
Anyone who sold their home. Even when the principal residence exemption means there’s no tax, the sale has to be reported. Have the purchase date, sale date and sale price.
How long should you keep tax records?
The CRA generally expects you to keep your records and supporting documents for six years from the end of the tax year they relate to. So your 2026 records should be kept until at least the end of 2032.
You don’t send receipts with your return when you file electronically. But if the CRA picks your return for a review, which happens to plenty of people who did nothing wrong, they’ll ask to see them. If you can’t produce a receipt, the claim usually gets denied. That’s the whole reason to hold on to them.
Digital copies are fine. A clear photo or scan is acceptable as long as it’s readable and complete.
A simple way to stay organized
You don’t need a fancy system. What works for most of our clients is pretty low-tech:
Make one folder, physical or on your phone, labelled with the tax year. Every time a slip or receipt arrives, drop it in. Snap a photo of medical and donation receipts as soon as you get them, because those are the ones that tend to disappear.
Then, in February, pull up last year’s return and make a list of every slip you received. Tick each one off as this year’s version arrives. If something’s missing by early April, chase it. If an employer or bank goes quiet, you can usually download the slip from their online portal or ask the CRA to confirm what was filed under your SIN.
That one habit catches most missing-slip problems before they turn into reassessments. If you’d like a second set of eyes, our guide to common tax mistakes Canadians make covers the other errors we see most often.
Quick answers to common questions
What if I lost a tax slip?
Ask the issuer for a copy first. Most employers and banks can resend it or make it available online. You can also check CRA My Account, which shows many slips filed under your SIN. If you truly can’t get it, you can estimate the income using pay stubs or statements, but report it rather than leaving it out.
Can I file before all my slips arrive?
You can, but it’s not a great idea. If a slip shows up later, you’ll need to file an adjustment, and if it’s income you forgot to report, the CRA will usually catch it through their matching program and reassess you anyway. Waiting a couple of weeks is almost always easier.
Do I need to send my receipts to the CRA?
Not when you file electronically. Keep them, though. The CRA can ask for supporting documents any time during the review period, and claims without proof are typically disallowed.
What if I haven’t filed in a few years?
Gather what you can for each year, starting with the oldest. CRA My Account will show many of the slips for prior years. Filing late is still far better than not filing, especially if you’re owed benefits or refunds.
Ready to hand it off?
Once you have your documents together, the hard part’s honestly done. If you’d rather have a professional prepare the return, you can upload everything through our secure Tax Intake Form and we’ll review it, flag anything that looks missing, and prepare your return for your approval before it’s filed. You can also read more about how our personal tax filing service works, or get in touch with any questions.
This article is general information about Canadian tax for the 2026 tax year and isn’t advice for your specific situation. Rules and amounts change, so confirm the details with a tax professional or the CRA before you file.