The Complete Guide to CRA Accounts on a Dormant Corporation
A business number carries separate accounts, and each one keeps its own obligations until it is closed. What a dormant corporation still owes, and how to end it. Nil T2 filing is $300.00 plus HST per tax year.
Written and reviewed by Sharad Gondaliya, CPA (Ontario), CPA Ontario Membership 61040184.
Last reviewed: October 29, 2026 · All nil T2 filing guides
On this page
- A Business Number Is Not One Account
- The Obligation Follows the Account, Not the Activity
- The GST/HST Account: Nil Returns Until It Is Closed
- The Payroll Account: Remittances and an Annual T4
- Form RC145 Closes Both of Them
- Why These Two Accounts Reach the Directors
- The Corporate Income Tax Account Is Different
- The Order to Deal With Them In
- What Has to Be Closed Before a Dissolution
- What Sits Outside the Fee, Said Plainly
- The Four Mistakes Worth Avoiding
- What the Fee Covers
Gondaliya CPA Professional Corporation is a registered EFILE electronic filer. Returns are prepared and transmitted in Canada. Credentials are never shared and never used offshore.
A Business Number Is Not One Account
A corporation has one business number, and that number carries separate program accounts. The corporate income tax account is the one everybody knows about, because it is the one the T2 is filed against. It is rarely the one that causes trouble.
A corporation that ever had staff has a payroll account. One that ever registered for GST/HST has a GST/HST account. Each was opened for a reason, and each stays open until somebody closes it, whatever happened to the reason.
| Account | Opened because | What it expects | How it ends |
|---|---|---|---|
| Corporate income tax | The corporation exists | A T2 return for every tax year | It ends with the corporation |
| Payroll | Someone was going to be paid | Remittances through the year and an annual T4 information return | Form RC145 |
| GST/HST | The corporation registered | A GST/HST return for every reporting period | Form RC145 |
The business number status checker works through which of them a given corporation is likely to have open.
The Obligation Follows the Account, Not the Activity
This is the sentence that explains almost every unpleasant surprise a dormant corporation gets. The Canada Revenue Agency expects a return on an open account because the account is open. It does not wait to see whether anything happened first.
So a corporation that stopped trading four years ago, paid nobody and sold nothing, still has returns falling due on every account nobody closed. Each one is a separate filing with its own deadline, and none of them is the T2.
Being dormant is not a status you register. There is no form that tells the Agency a corporation has gone quiet and no notification that pauses an account. Nothing happens until an account is closed, and until then the dates keep arriving.
The guide to dormant and inactive corporations covers what being dormant does and does not change.
The GST/HST Account: Nil Returns Until It Is Closed
An open GST/HST account expects a return for every reporting period, and a period with no sales and no tax collected is reported as a nil return rather than skipped. The return is what the account expects; having nothing to report changes the figures on it, not whether it is filed.
That catches people out twice. Once because they assume no activity means no return, and again because the reporting period is often quarterly or monthly, so a single forgotten account generates four or twelve outstanding returns a year rather than one.
The GST/HST nil filing checker tests whether an account is in that position, and the GST/HST account closure checker covers ending it.
The Payroll Account: Remittances and an Annual T4
An open payroll account expects two separate things, which is why it is the account most often underestimated. Through the year it expects remittances, including nil ones where nobody was paid. After the calendar year it expects a T4 information return.
The T4 deadline is the one that surprises accountants as well as owners, because it does not derive from the fiscal year-end at all. It reports a calendar year and is due at the end of the following February, whatever year-end the corporation uses.
| What the payroll account expects | Measured from | Due |
|---|---|---|
| Remittances, including nil ones | Each remittance period | For as long as the account is open |
| The T4 information return | The calendar year | The end of the following February |
So a corporation with a June 30 year-end has a T2 date in December and a T4 date at the end of February, four months apart, neither derived from the other. The T4 nil filing requirement checker gives the date, and the payroll nil remittance checker covers the remittances.
Nil T2 Filing, $300.00 plus HST per tax year
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Form RC145 Closes Both of Them
One form closes a payroll account and the same form closes a GST/HST account. It is the only thing that ends the obligations on either: not inactivity, not telling an accountant, not letting the returns lapse.
Until the account is closed, nil returns and nil remittances remain due on it, and they accumulate exactly as an unfiled T2 does. A closure is also not retroactive in the way people hope. Closing an account today does not file the returns that fell due on it while it was open, and it does not clear what was owed on it.
This is why the order matters, and the order is the outstanding returns first, then the closure. A closure stacked on top of unfiled periods leaves the unfiled periods exactly where they were.
Why These Two Accounts Reach the Directors
The corporate income tax account is the corporation’s own liability. The other two are not, and that distinction is the practical reason an unused payroll or GST/HST account is worth closing rather than ignoring.
Payroll source deductions are money withheld from someone’s pay. Net GST/HST is money collected from customers. Neither was ever the corporation’s to keep, and amounts of that kind can be assessed against a corporation’s directors personally. Corporate income tax, on its own, cannot.
| Amount | Whose money it was | Can be assessed against a director |
|---|---|---|
| Payroll source deductions | Withheld from someone’s pay | Yes |
| Net GST/HST | Collected from customers | Yes |
| Corporate income tax | The corporation’s own liability | No, not on its own |
A dormant corporation rarely owes corporate income tax, because a nil year assesses at $0.00. What it may have is an open account generating exactly the amounts that do reach a director. The director liability exposure checker sorts which is which.
The Corporate Income Tax Account Is Different
There is no form that closes it while the corporation exists, and nothing to close: the account is the corporation’s relationship with the Agency for income tax, and it ends when the corporation does.
So the T2 is not something that can be switched off for a quiet year. Every tax year gets a return until the corporation is dissolved, and a year with no activity gets one reporting $0.00 rather than no return at all.
A true nil return carries no percentage late-filing penalty, because that penalty is a percentage of tax owing and the corporation owes $0.00. The unfiled year still stays open forever, invites a demand to file and an arbitrary assessment, blocks a clearance certificate and dissolution, and costs a non-resident-owned corporation $25.00 per day up to $2,500.00.
The complete guide to the nil T2 return is the pillar for that side of it.
The Order to Deal With Them In
The sequence is not arbitrary, because each step rests on the one before it. Returns first, because a closure does not file anything. Closures next, because they stop the dates recurring. Anything to do with dissolution last, because it rests on a complete filing record.
| Order | Step | Why it sits here |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | File every outstanding T2 return, oldest first | Each year opens from the closing balances of the one before it |
| 2 | File the outstanding GST/HST and payroll returns | A closure does not file what fell due while the account was open |
| 3 | Close the payroll account with Form RC145 | Ends the remittances and the annual T4 |
| 4 | Close the GST/HST account with Form RC145 | Ends the reporting periods |
| 5 | The final T2, clearance and the registry filing | Only where the corporation is being wound up |
The CRA account closure sequencer produces this list for a particular corporation, naming which steps apply and which sit outside the fee.
What Has to Be Closed Before a Dissolution
A corporation cannot be cleanly wound up with accounts still open and returns still outstanding. The clearance certificate is the step that makes this concrete: the request rests on a complete filing record, so an outstanding GST/HST or payroll period blocks it as surely as an unfiled T2.
Dissolving anyway does not solve it. A corporation dissolved with unfiled years leaves those years open behind it, and the registry dissolution settles nothing on the tax side.
The guide to winding up an inactive corporation sets out the whole sequence, and the dissolution readiness checker tests whether a corporation is ready for the last step.
What Sits Outside the Fee, Said Plainly
The fee of $300.00 plus HST per tax year covers one nil T2 return for one corporation for one tax year. It is worth being direct about what that does not include, because the accounts on this page are the commonest place the boundary gets found the hard way.
| Item | Covered by the fee |
|---|---|
| A nil T2 return for a tax year | Yes |
| A GST/HST return, nil or otherwise | No |
| A payroll remittance, nil or otherwise | No |
| The T4 information return | No |
| Closing an account with Form RC145 | No |
| The registry annual return | No |
| A clearance certificate request | No |
Where any of those are needed, they are handled by Gondaliya CPA Professional Corporation at gondaliyacpa.ca rather than priced here. The full boundary is on the nil T2 filing cost page.
The Four Mistakes Worth Avoiding
Each of these is common enough to be worth naming, and each one costs more to undo than to avoid.
| The mistake | What it actually does |
|---|---|
| Assuming no activity means no return | The obligation follows the open account, so the returns fall due anyway and accumulate |
| Closing an account to deal with the outstanding returns | A closure files nothing. The outstanding periods stay outstanding |
| Reading the T4 deadline off the fiscal year-end | The T4 reports a calendar year and is due at the end of the following February, which can be months away from the T2 date |
| Dissolving with accounts still open | The tax years stay open behind the dissolution, and a clearance certificate is blocked until they are filed |
The thread running through all four is the same: an account is a standing obligation, and only a closure ends it. The guide to the corporate compliance calendar sets out the dates each open account generates.
What the Fee Covers
The fee is $300.00 plus HST per tax year, covering one nil T2 return for one corporation for one tax year:
| Included | Detail |
|---|---|
| The T2 return | Including the T2 Short where the corporation qualifies |
| GIFI Schedules 100, 125 and 141 | Where they are required |
| Schedule 24 | On a first return |
| Schedule 50 | For every shareholder at 10% or more |
| Schedule 8 and loss continuity | Recorded |
| Form T183CORP package | With single-use secure e-signing |
| CPA review | Before transmission |
| Electronic transmission | By a registered EFILE electronic filer |
| One corrected transmission | If the Agency rejects the first one |
| CRA confirmation | Emailed within 3 business days |
See the full nil T2 filing cost.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does a dormant corporation still have to file GST/HST returns?
While the account is open, yes. A period with no sales is reported as a nil return rather than skipped, because the obligation follows the open account rather than the activity.
Do I have to make payroll remittances if nobody was paid?
While the payroll account is open the Agency expects the remittances, including nil ones, and a T4 information return after each calendar year. Form RC145 closes the account and ends both.
How do I close a GST/HST or payroll account?
With Form RC145, which closes either one. Closing it does not file the returns that fell due while it was open, so the outstanding returns come first.
Which of these can be assessed against me personally?
Payroll source deductions and net GST/HST can be assessed against directors personally, because neither was ever the corporation’s money. Corporate income tax, on its own, cannot.
Is any of this covered by the nil T2 fee?
The nil T2 return is. The GST/HST returns, the payroll remittances, the T4 return and the account closures all sit outside the fee of $300.00 plus HST per tax year.
Can I dissolve the corporation instead of dealing with these?
Not cleanly. A clearance certificate request rests on a complete filing record, so an outstanding period blocks it, and dissolving anyway leaves the tax years open behind the corporation.
Questions Answered in Full
- Do I Need a Business Number to File a Nil T2?
- How Do I Close My Corporate Tax Account After Dissolution?
- Do I Need to File a Nil T2 if My Corporation Has No Bank Account?
- What Happens if I Don’t Report a Dormant Corporation to the CRA?
- How Do I Know if My Corporation Counts as Dormant?
- Do I Need to File a T2 Every Year if My Corporation Is Inactive?
The Other Nil T2 Filing Guides
- The Complete Guide to Choosing and Changing a Fiscal Year-End
- The Complete Guide to Quebec CO-17 and Alberta AT1
- The Complete Guide to the Nil T2 Return
- The Complete Guide to Dormant and Inactive Corporations
- The Complete Guide to Catching Up on Unfiled Corporate Tax Returns
- The Complete Guide to the Final T2 and Dissolution
- The Complete Guide to T2 Short Eligibility
- The Complete Guide to Provincial and Federal Annual Returns
- The Complete Guide to Form T183CORP Signing and Transmission
- How to File a Nil T2 Return
- The Complete Guide to GIFI Schedules 100, 125 and 141
- The Complete Guide to Schedule 8 and Loss Continuity
Nil T2 Filing, $300.00 plus HST per tax year
Type your corporation name, pick your unfiled years, pay, and sign Form T183CORP on a secure screen. Your CRA confirmation is emailed within 3 business days.