Before you start

Social Insurance Number
T4 and Relevé 1 slips from employers — you receive both for the same job
Records of foreign income and foreign property
A determination of the date you became a tax resident

Step-by-step

1
Establish the date you became a tax resident
Canadian tax residency turns on residential ties — a home, a spouse, dependants, then secondary ties like bank accounts and a driving licence — rather than a day count. Your first return covers only the part of the year after that date, and getting the date right shapes everything else.
OnlineWho: You
2
File both returns every year, federal and Quebec
A federal return to the Canada Revenue Agency and a separate provincial return to Revenu Québec, on different forms with different credits. Certified software carries the data across from one set of inputs. Both are due 30 April for most people.
OnlineWho: YouBy 30 April
3
Expect two slips for every source of income
Quebec employers issue a federal T4 and a provincial Relevé 1 for the same employment. Banks and universities issue matching pairs too. The Quebec return cannot be completed without the RL slips, and they often arrive separately and later.
Via employerWho: YouFebruary–March
4
Report foreign property above the threshold on form T1135
Residents holding specified foreign property costing more than CAD 100,000 in total must file this federally each year. Penalties for non-filing are severe and applied per year, and they are not waived for not knowing.
OnlineWho: You
5
Claim the Quebec-only credits, starting with the solidarity credit
The solidarity tax credit, the work premium and childcare credits are all handled on the Quebec return and have no federal equivalent. The solidarity credit's housing component requires the RL-31 slip your landlord is obliged to issue — ask for it in February.
OnlineWho: You
6
Understand that you have no RRSP room in year one
RRSP contribution room is based on the previous year's Canadian earned income, so a newcomer has none in the first year. TFSA room starts from the year you became a resident. Plan the first year's saving around that rather than around a Canadian colleague's advice.
OnlineWho: You

Documents you’ll need

Social Insurance Number
T4 and Relevé 1 slips
Records of foreign income, accounts and property
RL-31 slip from your landlord, for the solidarity credit
Receipts for medical expenses, childcare and tuition

Things most newcomers don’t know

Quebec is the only province where you file two income tax returns.

Everywhere else, provincial tax is calculated on the federal return and collected by the Canada Revenue Agency. Quebec administers its own, so residents file separately with Revenu Québec using different forms and a different credit set. Software carries the data across, so it is not double the work — but it is double the slips, deadlines and correspondence, and every general piece of Canadian tax writing quietly assumes one return.

Source: Revenu Québec

The solidarity tax credit needs an RL-31 from your landlord, and tenants routinely miss it.

Quebec's solidarity credit has a housing component, and claiming it requires the RL-31 slip landlords must issue to tenants each year. Many tenants never receive one, never ask, and quietly forgo money they are entitled to. The obligation is the landlord's; a February email usually produces it.

Source: Revenu Québec

The high rates buy things that materially change a family budget here.

Quebec's combined income tax is among the heaviest in Canada. It also funds reduced-contribution childcare, parental leave through its own provincial plan, and university tuition for residents that is the lowest in the country by a wide margin. Comparing Quebec's marginal rate against Alberta's without pricing childcare and tuition produces a badly wrong answer for anyone with children.

Source: Revenu Québec

Canadian tax residency is decided by ties, not by counting days.

People arrive expecting a 183-day rule. There is one, but it is a secondary test. The primary test is residential ties — where your home is, where your spouse and dependants are, then bank accounts and a driving licence. You can become a Canadian tax resident well before day 183, and worldwide income is taxable from that date.

Source: Canada Revenue Agency

Common mistakes to avoid

Filing only the federal return and not realising Quebec requires its own.
Missing Relevé slips and being unable to complete the provincial return.
Never asking the landlord for an RL-31 and forgoing the solidarity credit.
Assuming a 183-day rule determines when you became a tax resident.
Planning an RRSP contribution in your first year, when you have no room.
Comparing Quebec's tax rate against another province's without pricing childcare and tuition.

Some of this may be out of date. Spotted something inaccurate? Help us keep it right for the next newcomer.

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