# File your first tax return in Canada as a newcomer

The first year is the one that trips people up: the residency date, world income, and applying for benefits before you've ever filed. File even if you earned nothing here; it's how the benefits keep coming.

- Kind: Money & tax
- Applies to: Canada
- Your time: about 2½ hr
- Steps: 7
- Written by: @helg
- Version 1, updated 2026-10-24
- Source: https://helg.app/community/file-your-first-tax-return-in-canada-as-a-newcomer

## Steps

1. **Work out your residency date** (15 min)
   For most people it's the day you started living here, with a home, partner or kids in Canada. It goes on the return as month and day. Before that date you report Canadian income only; from that date on, everything you earned anywhere, in Canadian dollars.
   - [Completing your return as a newcomer](https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/international-non-residents/individuals-leaving-entering-canada-non-residents/newcomers-canada-immigrants/completing-return-newcomers.html)
2. **Apply for benefits now, before your first return** (30 min)
   You don't have to wait a year. Apply for the Canada Groceries and Essentials Benefit \(it used to be the GST/HST credit\) with RC151. No kids: there's a web form. Kids under 19: mail RC151 with RC66 and RC66SCH for the Canada child benefit.
   - [Apply as a newcomer](https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/child-family-benefits/canada-groceries-essentials-benefit/get-benefit.html)
   - [Canada child benefit](https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/child-family-benefits/canada-child-benefit-overview/canada-child-benefit-apply.html)
3. **Note what your things were worth the day you arrived** (15 min)
   Shares, jewellery, art, collections: the CRA treats them as if you bought them at market value on your residency date. Write those values down now; they're your cost if you ever sell.
4. **Collect your T4s and other slips** (20 min)
   Employers send T4s by the end of February. In Ontario, also jot down what you paid in rent or property tax for the Ontario Trillium Benefit; you keep the receipts rather than sending them.
5. **File with free certified software, or at a free tax clinic** (1 hr)
   NETFILE needs your SIN, and several certified programs are free. If your income is modest, a volunteer clinic will do it with you, but they can't take foreign income, self-employment or rentals, so check before you book.
   - [Certified tax software](https://www.canada.ca/en/services/taxes/income-tax/personal-income-tax/how-file/tax-software/find-software.html)
   - [Free tax clinics](https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/community-volunteer-income-tax-program/need-a-hand-complete-your-tax-return.html)
6. **File by April 30, and every year after** (5 min)
   The first return is due April 30 of the year after you arrive. Self-employed: June 15, but anything you owe is still due April 30. Skip a year and the benefits stop.
7. **Sign up for your CRA account after the first assessment** (15 min)
   You need numbers from an assessed return to register, so this comes once your first notice of assessment arrives.
   - [Register for a CRA account](https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/e-services/cra-login-services/register-cra-sign-in-services.html)

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Written by people who have done it, not by Helg or any government. Check the official sites before paying for anything.
Add it to Helg as a checklist: https://helg.app/community/file-your-first-tax-return-in-canada-as-a-newcomer