Tax Payment Extensions

If you are confused about when to file and pay your taxes you aren’t alone. And taxes don’t get easier to pay when they are delayed and allowed to accumulate.

The Federal Government provided extensions for many of the tax filing and payment deadlines applicable to individuals and corporations, and if you are confused about when to file and pay your taxes you aren’t alone.

Our firm has summarized the new filing and payment deadlines for corporations and individuals, as follows:

Individuals

1. The 2019 personal income tax filing deadline has been extended to June 1, 2020.
2. The 2019 tax filing deadline for self-employed individuals remains June 15, 2020.
3. The 2019 tax payment deadline has been extended to September 1, 2020.

Corporations

1. The corporate tax filing deadline for corporations with prior filing deadlines between March 18, 2020 and June 1, 2020 is now June 1, 2020.
2. The corporate tax payment deadline for corporations with prior payment deadlines between March 18, 2020 and September 1, 2020 is now September 1, 2020.

Payroll

1. No changes have been announced for monthly or quarterly payroll remittances.

Federal Goods and Services Tax (GST) Remittances

1. No changes have been announced to GST filing deadlines – corporations, proprietorships, and partnerships are still expected to file their GST returns on time.
2. GST remittances that were due on or after March 27, 2020 and before June 1, 2020 are now due on June 30, 2020.

Manitoba Retail Sales Tax (RST) Remittances

1. Retail sales tax (RST) returns for small and medium-sized businesses with monthly RST remittances of no more than $10,000 per month that would normally be due on April 20th and May 20th will now be due on June 20, 2020.
2. Businesses that file on a quarterly basis that have a due date of April 20, 2020 will now have the due date extended to June 22, 2020.

Manitoba Health and Post-Secondary Education Tax Levy

1. Health and Post-SecondaryEducation Tax Levy (also known as HE Levy) returns for small and medium businesses with monthly HE Levy remittances of no more than $10,000 per month that would normally be due on April 15th and May 15th will now be due on June 15, 2020.

Should you defer your tax payments to preserve cash?

Taxes don’t get easier to pay when they are delayed and allowed to accumulate.

Individuals and corporations that defer tax payments until June 30 or September 1 need to prepare themselves for a potentially large, lump sum payment after taking a "payment vacation".

Don’t put yourself in a position where three months from now you’re completely unprepared to pay your tax liabilities.

What we recommend you do instead

If you are financially able, we recommend that you make your tax payments according to your pre-existing payment deadlines. By doing this you will avoid a large lump-sum tax liability at a future date down the road.

If you choose, you can opt to make payments according to the extended deadlines listed above. We recommend setting aside the money for these tax payments (perhaps in a bank account separate from where you pay your operating expenses) to ensure the money is available when its time to remit.

Use your tax money for working capital or personal expenses only as a last resort.