Stress-Free Tax Season for Canadian Freelancers: A Year-End Checklist
A practical year-end checklist that gets Canadian freelancers ready to file — covering receipts, income summaries, GST/HST, CPP, and what to hand off to your accountant.
ST
Sarah Tremblay
CPA, Tax Advisor
5 min read·
January is the best time to prepare for April filing. Here's a structured checklist organized by what you need to gather, calculate, and confirm before handing anything to an accountant or entering data into tax software.
Income Records
- All client invoices issued in the tax year — gross amounts, not net of expenses
- T4A slips received from clients who paid you $500+ (check against your invoices)
- Any other income: interest, dividends, rental income (goes on different T1 schedules)
- Foreign income converted to CAD at the Bank of Canada exchange rate for the date received
Expense Records
- Complete expense report from your tracking app or spreadsheet, categorized by T2125 line
- GST/HST totals paid on business expenses (for ITC calculation)
- Vehicle logbook with total km, business km, and business-use percentage
- Home office calculation: workspace square footage as % of total home area
- Capital purchases: receipts for any equipment or asset purchases
GST/HST Records
- Total GST/HST collected from clients during the year
- Total ITCs claimed on business expenses
- Net amount owing or refund expected
- Confirm your GST/HST return is filed (due April 30 for annual filers, or quarterly)
ReceiptOne's year-end export produces a single PDF or CSV covering all of the above: categorized expenses, GST/HST totals by type, and mileage summary. This is what you hand to your accountant — the T2125 prep is essentially done.
tax seasonchecklistyear-endfreelancerCRAfiling