Stub Period Return Checker
A fiscal period that ended early is its own tax year with its own return and its own deadline. This dates it.
Written and reviewed by Sharad Gondaliya, CPA (Ontario), CPA Ontario Membership 61040184.
Last reviewed: November 2, 2026
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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 Short Year Is a Whole Tax Year
A stub period is a fiscal period that ended before the usual year-end came round. It feels like a fragment and it is not: it is a tax year in its own right, with its own return, its own six-month deadline and its own fee.
Which is the fact worth having before the work starts, because a year-end change creates two periods where there was one and both of them are returns.
The Two Things That Create One
| Cause | What the stub period is | Deadline |
|---|---|---|
| Dissolution part-way through a year | The final tax year, and its return is the final T2 | Six months after the dissolution date |
| A fiscal year-end change | The period closing the old year-end, with a new period opening after it | Six months after it ends |
The short tax year deadline calculator dates one of these on its own, and the fiscal period length calculator measures how long it ran.
The Fee Is Per Tax Year, Not Per Twelve Months
$300.00 plus HST per tax year is charged per tax year. A stub period is a tax year, so it carries the fee whether it ran eleven months or three weeks.
That reads as a hard line and it is the honest one: the return is the same return, prepared and reviewed and transmitted the same way, whatever length the period was.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does a stub period need its own T2?
Yes. A fiscal period that ended early is a short tax year with its own return and its own deadline six months after it ends.
Does a short period cost less?
No. $300.00 plus HST per tax year is charged per tax year, and a stub period is a tax year. The return is prepared, reviewed and transmitted the same way whatever length the period ran.
What creates a stub period?
Most often a dissolution part-way through a year, which makes the stub the final tax year, or a fiscal year-end change, which closes one period and opens another.
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.
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