Fiscal year-end

Your fiscal year is the tax year or financial year of your business. You will usually use a calendar year (January 1st to December 31st) if you are in one of these groups:

• individuals and certain trusts;
• professional corporations that are members of a partnership (accountants, lawyers, or doctors); or
• partnerships where at least one member is an individual.

However, some people use non-calendar tax years:

• if you are an individual or a trust that uses a non-calendar tax year, you may want to use that same year for your GST/HST fiscal year; or
• if you are a member of a partnership, you may want to use the same fiscal year for GST/HST as your partnership's tax year.

A corporation has two options. You can use a calendar year for your GST/HST account or you can use the same year-end as your corporation income tax account.

For information on changing your fiscal year, see Guide RC4022, General Information for GST/HST Registrants. To change your fiscal year, use Form GST70, Election or Revocation of an Election to Change a GST/HST Fiscal Year.

Forms and publications

• Guide RC4022, General Information for GST/HST Registrants
• Booklet RC2, The Business Number and Your Canada Revenue Agency Program Accounts
• Form RC1, Request for a Business Number (BN)

Related topics

• Business Registration On-line
• Business Gateway.ca
• Related provincial and territorial government sites
• Canada's Business and Consumer Site